>> we want to wish youal a very merry christmas and to all of our country.at have gone in thanks for joining us tonight. merry christmas. >> and merry christmas to all of you dogs out there too. this hour, when he talks, washington listens. charles krauthammer, his uniquely american story. his journey from m.d. to the pulitzer prize and how he overcame a devastating accident and a life that matters. hello, i'm bret baier and i hope you'll enjoy watching this fox news reporting special as much as we enjoyed making it. fox viewers know where charles krauthammer sits on the panel and probably know his position on most issues but we bet there is a lot you don't know about the all-star panelist, syndicated columnist, harvard trained psychiatrist and even occasional baseball analyst.

we think you should. even if the doctor has a different opinion. >> you were a little reticent when we started this project. what is your thought about all of this? >> i don't like it. >> full disclosure. i've been trying to convince charles krauth to sit for an interview for sometime. >> secretary kerry on the hill today. >> not one where he shares his thoughts optd news of the day. >> i suspect there will be another twist here. >> but one where he pulls back the curtain and reveals beyond the extraordinary writer and influential thinker, the life of an intensely private. >> when i say i don't like it. i won't pretend somebody on the television doesn't enjoy. but when it comes to interior life, it is not interesting to me. >> more disclosure. charles krauthammer is a colleague and friend.

but he only agreed to a fox profile, reluctantly. for a new book. things that matter. it is a collection of newspaper and magazine pieces from the pulitzer prize winning columnist. or maybe it is more than that. >> are you decoding my book? >> it is about me but written in hieroglyphic. >> it is not as impenity rabble -- impenitierable as you. >> the first column say moving piece about your brother. >> marcel krauthammer died of cancer 7 years ago. he was 59. charles writes this about his older brother. quote, he taught me most everything i ever learned about every sport i ever played. he taught me how to throw a football, hit a back hand.

>> grip a nine iron, hit a grounder, dock a sailboat in the wind. and how we played, it was paradise. >> tell me about that. >> it was a paradise childhood. we were inseparable and he was four years older. he always insist that i be included so i got used to being around the big boys and take the slings and arrows and that is how you get roughened up. my brother was american. and he made me an american. >> that long story short, krauther's mother is from belgium and his father was a real estate developer from what is now a province of ukraine. both juers who left world war ii europe and met in havana, moved to rio, and eventually new york city where charles was born in 1950.

when he was five, they moved to montreal, but they spent summers at the family cottage in long beach, new york. charles recalls spending every day with his brother on the field, on the court, or in the water. >> i don't think i owned a shirt until i was 21. all of the pictures, the family movies, my father is shirtless, my brother is shirtless, i am. we're outside in the sun. i read on the beach. that is where i got all of my knowledge was reading. >> of course there was reading and studying. shull em krauthammer who spoke nine languages carried their stellar 2nd grade report card in his pocket. >> he said i want you to do everything and learn everything. you just have to know part of everything. that was part of his life. >> that didn't include a tv. >> my father wouldn't allow it. once a week on sunday night we would go to the neighbors and

watch the ed sullivan show. >> inspired by uncles who were doctors, marcel went to medical school. it was assumed charles would follow. but as a 19-year-old senior at mcgill, the canadian university, he was bit ep by a different bug. political journalism. >> when i was at campus, the editorship of the newspaper at mcgill was controlled by the student council. and i was elected and the paper was becoming unreadable it. was run by maxist -- markist. and so we tried to fire the editor and we realized what do we do now. so we had to find an editor. and they said it will be me. i've said i never worked on a paper. a small detail. >> a poly-sci major, he applied

to medical school to please his family and got accepted to harvard. but he got into oxford as well to study political theory, and would he choose a life of science or of letters. the brilliant graduate had enviable options but he didn't figure out what matters most to him so he figured the difference. he put off harvard, enrolled at oxford. and while studying history's great political philosophers, he met a student from australia, robin tlej away. attractic and -- attractive and i chief justice to her home court clerk, but so much would change between when they met and married. beginning with his sudden decision to leave england. >> i started in political theory, was getting more and more abstract. i learned a lot but i began to feel that i was sort of spinning

out into a universe that didn't have anything to do with the real world. i called the registrar at harvard medical school and said i would like to come in the coming class. and i remember her saying, well one guy dropped out, we have a spot, if you are here on monday, it is yours. so i grabbed a toothbrush and i didn't pack, i got on a plane and i left and that is how i decided to become a doctor. now when i woke up in boston the next day, i thought to myself, oh, my god, what have i done. but there was no going back. >> why did you choose psychiatry? >> was -- i was looking for something halfway between the reality of medicine and the relevance of philosophy. so psychiatry was the option and i was lucky because it was probably the easiest branch of medicine for me to do once i was hurt. >> hurt -- that doesn't begin to describe it.

when did you realize that the accident was life-altering? >> the second it happened. >> after the break. ♪ [ chicken caws ] [ male announcer ] when your favorite food starts a fight, fight back fast with tums. eartburn relief that neutralizes acid on contact and goes to work in seconds. ♪ tum, tum tum tum tums! would you like apple or cherry? cherry. oil...or cream? definitely cream. [ male announcer ] never made wi hydrogenated oil. oh, yeah. [ male announcer ] always made with real cream. the sound of reddi wip is the sound of joy. [ male announcer ] wt kind of energy is so abundant, it can help provide the power for all th natural gas.

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welcome back to fox news reporting. so far, you've met the young charles krauthammer, harvard medicine, class of '75. his life seemed to be going according to plan. but then no life ever really does. >> the snapshot was taken in may, 1972. it shows a strapping, 6'1" charles krauthammer standing on the beach. it is the confident smile of avenue young manuel on his way to making it. smart, athletic, handsome, driven. the future -- all his. >> it was spring break on my first year in medical school and i went with my friends to

bermuda. that was the last picture taken of me walker, and i didn't realize it. when i got to the top of the dune, i just stlood and thought nothing of it until i discovered it years later in a box and remembering it was a fateful picture. >> fateful because of what would happen back at harvard that summer. >> you were 22 years old. tell me about that day. >> i went out, it was the end of my first year of medical school, we're doing neurology, we're studying the smile cord, of all things. my classmate and i decided to spip the morning session. beautiful julie day and we played tennis instead. >> after their game they head back to class for the afternoon session. but along the way they stop at a pool on campus, set down their

books and pull off their sneakers. >> we are very sweaty and it is hot and we go for a swim, we take a few dives and i hit my head on the bottom of the pool. >> a freak accident, says krauthammer. >> the amazing thing is there was no -- not even a cut on my head. just hit at precisely the angle where all of the force was transmitted to one spot and that is the cervical verb bray which severed the spinal cord. >> when did you realize that the accident was life-altering. >> the second it happened. >> you knew? >> i knew exactly what happened, i knew why i wasn't able to move and i knew what that meant. >> at the bottom of the pool -- >> i wasn't getting out. i knew, yes. >> he was paralyzed, unable to move his arms or legs. his friend thought he was clowning around and hesitated before diving down to save him. >> was there ever a moment that you thought this is the end?

>> well, when i knew what happened and i knew i was at the bottom of the pool and i knew i won't be able to swim, i was sure that was the end. >> do you think back to that day often? >> not really. it doesn't -- i kind of have a distance from it. i see it like as if it happened in a film. and interestingly enough, for people who talk about a near death experience, there was no panic, there was no great emotion, i didn't feel light, i didn't -- my life did not flash before me. you sort of get to a place where you are ready and then you are suddenly brought back to the world. >> so no cosmic revelation as he was rushed to the hospital. though krauthammer notes the irony of what he left behind. >> there were two books on the side of the pool when they

picked up my effects. one was the anatomy of the spinal cord and the other is man's fate by andre monroe. quite a choice. i didn't know what was coming, but it fit very well. >> coming up, krauthammer's fate lay in the balance. what he did next astounding his professors and classmates. >> i knew that would be fatal. it was not a question.

a skipped class, a fateful dive, a terrible injury. and there charles krauthammer lay in a hospital bed, paralyzed. nothing to do but think.

>> i made one promise to myself on day one, i was not going to allow it to alter my life, expect in ways which are sort of -- having to do with gravity. i'm not going to defy gravity and i'm not going to walk, i'm not going to water ski again so that is fine. so that you know. but on the big things in life, the direction in life and what i would do, that wouldn't change at all. >> he said he never entertained the notion that one day, whether through his own effort or even medical miracle, he would regain full use of his arms and legs. he resigned himself to the cold reality where ever he went in life, he would go in a wheelchair. >> is that hard? >> i think the physical part was hard, getting -- learning to do everything again. i have a great capacity for erasing memories, so it seems very short. it was long but seems very

short. >> his teachers and class thought he was rushing his decision to resume his studies immediately. >> you never thought about taking a year off or a couple of years off? >> no. i knew that would be fatal. it was not a question. >> you just couldn't survive? >> i mean, life would be over. it is a little early for life to be over. >> so while nobody had heard of someone with his injury standing up to the rigors of a med school curriculum, he convinced harvard to let him try. amazingly, mere weeks after his accident, he resumed classes, while still in his hospital bed. >> i was lying on my back and copt move. the professors would come in and repeat their elect yorz and project on the ceiling. because i asked to stay in the class. >> and you read by laying on your back? >> one of the med students hung

a plexiglass plate up and i didn't want them to come and turn the page so i had them put up many books at a time. >> he graduated on time in 1975, and near the top of his class. along the way, he got the girl too. and married robin. but as he began his three-year residency at massachusetts general hospital, there were indications from the beginning that charles and psychiatry might not be the perfect fit. >> part of the residency is you are supposed to go to this weekly group therapy session and you didn't want to go. >> there were 12 of us at mass general, and there was a group therapy once a week, and i

didn't go. i thought it was a pointless exercise. so i was hauled into the chief's office after about seven weeks of nonappearance and he said why aren't you going to therapy? and ip said, sir, i came here to give therapy and not receive it. and he said to me, you're in denial. and i said of course i'm in denial. denial is the greatest of all defense mechanisms. i have be a professor of denial but i was going on and he wasn't amused. >> he kbaf krauthammer -- he gave krauthammer a ultimatum, go to therapy or leave. >> so i went and i didn't say a word. so people would say why aren't you talking? and i said because i'm in denial. i'm not a big therapy guy. >> was it because you didn't want somebody to look around in your head? >> yes. i don't like to talk about

myself, except with you, i guess. i'm not a touchy or a feely guy and that's probably why i quit psychiatry. if you are not into feelings and emotions and all of the back story, then you ought to be doing something else. >> so in 1978 he took a government job in washington, at what would become the national institute of mental health. it wasn't what he really wanted but it put him in the right neighborhood. >> i thought once i'm in washington, isn't that where they do politics? one thing will lead to another. >> his family worried about him tossing away a livelihood. robin urged him to follow his dream. >> she was the one who, 35 years ago, encouraged me to follow my heart and with her wit and humor

and generosity of spirit has coauthored my life. >> in a moment, charles coe author -- co-author helps him answer a higher call. and later he is moving from left to right, after the break. ick with innovation. stick with power. stick with technology. get the new flexcare platinum from philips sonicare and save now. philips sonicare.

charles krauthammer once wrote a column about the most important person of the 20th

century. time magazine had chosen einstein, the great scientist. charles disagreed. he picked churchill, the statesman who led the fight against hitler and sounded the alarm over religion. that might explain why he traded a medical career to a one-way ticket to washington, and while once here his eyes locked on to a wanted ad in the new republic. >> i showed it to my wife and i said why don't you apply. and i said how can i apply, i've never written anything and i don't know anybody. she said you write it and you hand deliver it. that day at my office at the imh i get a call. i'm mike kinsley at the new republic, why do you want to do this? you are a doctor. >> kinsley was looking for a managing editor for the

left-leaning magazine. >> was there something during the phone call that made you want to bring him down. >> he was a psychiatrist and he had no writing samples and we arranged for him to come to lunch and there he was, in his wheelchair. and we hit it off right away. >> well what did you see in him, though? >> i just enjoyed talking to him so much. i had this feeling he must be able to write this down. >> krauthammer gave it a shot. as the saying goes, he wrote about what he knew. his first article, the ex panding shrink, how psycho analysis was creeping into political discourse. for example carter's malaise speech that blames the poor economy on american's confidence of crisis. >> they liked it and they published. and it was republished on the op ed of the post.

>> he might have joined the staff, except he got an even more intriguing offer, as a speaking writer for mondale. >> i got a call from the republic and they said we think you are unemployed now and would you like to come in. on the first day that reagan was sworn in is when i started. >> he started the world anew. reagan's inauguralig nalled a great clash -- signaled a great clash. >> government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem. >> and the new republic was right in the midst of it. >> it was overwhelmingly liberal aptd writers were the best of that era.

i was a democrat at that time but i was pretty hard on the soviets. and the democratic party had a very powerful wing that was very anti-soviet. >> but those democrats were a dying breed and krauthammer found himself agreeing more with president reagan than with his liberal readers, i supported just about every element of the reagan foreign policy and boy, did we get reaction. i wrote one editorial exposing the nuclear freeze that caused the most number of canceled subscriptions. >> what is his writing like? >> it is always extremely step by step logical. you can read a poem by charles and disagree with him after you are through with it and then you know you have something

important. >> some wondered why krauthammer and the new republic were not supporting reagan's re-election. >> and he said why don't you give up on the democrats. and i wanted to maintain this conservative element of what the paper was. >> he wrote that reagan still had a lot to answer for on foreign policy and his domestic policy was far worse. quote, the catalogue of sins we believe the president has committed is too long to recapitulate here. but he said he wanted reagan to beat his old boss, walter mondale. >> i liked him and had respected him and as a personal matter, as a matt yore of honor, i didn't want to vote against a man whom i respected. >> so you had a vote, reagan or

mondale. >> that is the only presidential election where i left that line blank. >> left it blank? >> but if i were the swing vote, i would have voted for reagan. >> it was a turning point from the political left to the political right. >> and just a few months after the election i wrote something called the reagan doctrine. >> it was a time magazine column. and it was provocative. he had praised reagan and now he was crediting him with a break-through insight that changed the calculus of the cold war. >> i realized that what reagan had done without a grand master plan was to challenge what at the time was called the bresnif doctrine and that is whenever we take over a country, it is ours. and what reagan had done was to challenge that and say, no. you don't get to keep what you got. we are going to challenge your

possessions. where ever they are. and i thought this is a really good idea and i'm going to give it a name. >> he invented the reagan doctrine, not reagan. and now everyone has a doctrine. charles has made it mandatory to come up to -- to come up with a doctrine for every president. >> but even after reagan's 49 state landslide, krauthammer was still not sure what to make of reagan the man would he met at the white house in 1986. >> he invited me to lunch. i tried to engage him on the country like what are you going to do and i'm hearing a story about how when he and nancy were in the guest house of president demarkos of the philippines there was a giant spider on the ceiling and the question was how to get him off without scaring nancy. and i'm thinking, i don't get it. this is the most successful president in my lifetime. he seems to be out to lunch. what is going on? >> he said it was only later that he realized what alluded

him about reagan. >> he had no need to show how smart he was. he knew exactly what i was asking and he didn't want to talk about it. and if he thought he was a dunce, he didn't care because he knew he wasn't. >> it would be sometime for krauthammer embraced a conservative domestic policy, taxes, welfare, small government and soerj reagan-esque sins. >> it took me about a decade. i was exceptal of tax cuts and small development and by the end of the '80s i had begun to change. >> what happened? >> impeer cal evidence. if the treatment is killing your patients, you stop the treatment. and though i began to look and to read and to think about whether the view i had about the democratic society like in europe was right way and i moved gradually to the idea of a more limited society, smaller government. >> by that time, krauthammer's world was really falling into

place. in 1985 his son daniel was born. two years later, he won the biggest honor in print journali journalism, the pulitzer prize. not bad for someone who started in the business less than a decade earlier with not even a writing sample. we went straight from the ceremony to see his father. who worried about his jump from medicine to journalist. his father was 84 and gravely ill. >> i went to the hospital where he was and i said dad, i have something i want to and i gave him the medal. and he beamed and showed it to all of the nurses. it turned out to be his final visit with his dad. >> so the last time i saw him was a time when this whole circle was closed and he could feel that the choice had been redeemed in some way. it was a very comforting thing to remember about the last time you see your parent. >> krauthammer called the 1990s

a holiday from history, the cold war was won and the era of big government declared over. and 9/11 brought a new urgency to his commentary. >> people understand there is a nexus between these weapons, these states and the terrorists and we have to attack them where they are. >> he began appearing on special reports all-star panel and was soon a audience favorite. >> he have been a fixture on "special report" for a long time and even still a lot of people don't know that you are in a wheelchair. they don't know the extent of your paralysis. >> i am sitting behind a table. and it is true, i would say half of the people i meet are absolutely surprised to see me in a whole chair. and one of the most amusing of those incidents happened about eight or nine years ago. i was sitting in madison square

garden square garden in the fox box, and then sean hannity stands up and walks up the stairs and he looks at me and he goes what happened? i told him i was hurt as a medical student it was no big deal. but it told me someone i was on the air with wouldn't know. >> what is apparent is that krauthammer has the attention of people in high places. just one example, krauthammer's opposition to white house counsel harriott myers not only blocked her nomination to the supreme court, a comment on the panel gave president bush a way out. >> i remember thinking, how do i get out of this. and it came to me while on the set of "special report." >> i think what the administration ought to do is say look -- >> his face-saving solution went like this -- because myers legal writings were covered by executive privilege, the senate couldn't vet her so she had to withdraw. >> and three days later, that is what they did.

>> are you surprised by the amount of influence you have with your column, with "special report," that you hear or see things that happen as a result of a column or a statement? do you ever think of that? >> i think about it, and i find it worrisome. the reason is that when i was totally unknown, i could say anything i damn well pleased. >> coming up, power players and power hitters, from the all-star panel to the ballpark in eight minutes flat.

test test test test test test test test welcome back to fox news reporting. charles krauthammer set out to write a book about the things that matter most and he didn't mean politics. >> the palm on 19th street, one of washington's legendary power scenes and you know you are

launching with one of d.c.'s power players if his carriicatu is on the wall. and today charles krauthammer is holding force on the new aunss -- nuances of power. he is talking about the washington nationals and whether they can power a late-season playoff run. >> the nats finished 14-2, one game ahead of cincinnati. >> i was wondering where you were going? >> i think charles and i are both people who write about politics to support our baseball habits. >> noted conservative columnist and newly minted fox news contributor, fox will has witten -- written two books on baseball. >> do you remember when you met charles? >> think it was 1992 and he was with the new republic and he

wrote an article about me. i said interesting guy and so i invited him to lunch. >> how long before you were friends? >> five years later, i bought a new house and the first thing i did was to build a wheelchair ramp so he could get in. >> he said when you got together, you talked about baseball and then you deal with politics. >> if there is time left over, yes. >> and they have lunch a couple of times a year to have baseball. >> to say they are fans is an understatement. to say they love the game is an understatement. >> i grew up playing the game and as a kid my brother and i would go around on our schwinns of long island and listening to

the yankee games. >> since the nationals came to washington in 2005, they have had no bigger fan than charles krauthammer. >> when i started to do your show every night, it ends at 7:00 and the game starts at 7:10, the garage at fox is 7 minutes, if the wind is fair in the third street tunnel, from the garage at nat stadium so you get there in the bottom of the 1st, how can i resist. >> he makes that trip in a special vehicle designed just for him, that lets krauthammer accelerate and brake with his left hand and steer with his right. >> everybody who comes in here for the first time is terrified. and i don't blame them. in fact, when i went for my driving test, the tester didn't want to get in. i told him he had to. it is the law. i think he passed me because he survived, he was so happy to be alive when it was over. >> the first time i saw you go

into the parking lot, i waved to you and the next day you said you really shouldn't wave. it is a little dangerous. >> the wave is a little bit hard. when somebody lets me in in traffic i'm tempted to take the one hand and say the thank-you wave but then i wouldn't have a hand on the steering wheel. >> it took us eight minutes to get to the stadium. when we took our seats the nats were beating the braves 1-0. he went into analyst mode right away, as though he was breaking do you know a procedural move harry reid might use for a filibuster. >> on a one-out count, you want to steal on a breaking ball, and is he likely to throw a breaking ball? no. so he is unlikely to try to steal right now. strike one. now he might go for a breaking ball. >> it turns out nine innings with charles krauthammer is not just a day at the park, it is

grad school for baseball. >> okay, this is unfortunate match-up. the only reason solano is in there, he's the back-up catcher that doesn't hit very well. >> no, no, oh. >> you can't -- he's a catcher, he can't run. >> he transcends the sport. take his column about rick ankiel, a pitching phenom who fell apart when he was picked to start a playoff game. with a huge national tv audience watching, he suddenly couldn't throw a strike. he never pitched the same again. but instead of quitting, ankiel went back down to the minors, learned a new position, and returned to the majors as a hitter. the column is reprinted in krauthamm krauthammer's book, the things that matter.

it is just a few pages after the piece about his brother marcel. >> i thought this isn't about you. but the last line, the catastrophe that awaits everyone from a false move, a wrong turn, fatal encounter, every life has such a moment but what distinct wishes us is whether and how we ever come back. >> that is why the rick ankiel story resonated so much with me. i had my fatal encounter, as did rick ankiel. there is an element to everybody's story, their low point. do you want it enough and are you lucky enough. >> while his injury has kept him off the playing fields and courts, he's pursued another competitive outlet -- chess. >> which lights you up more, baseball or chess when you are in the game? >> there is no comparison. it is chess. >> do you still play chess? >> no, i gave it up. it is an addiction. >> completely? >> it is a poison.

i mean, you reach a point when you are on the internet, middle of the night and playing speech or realize you are in a hotel room and drinking aqua valva. >> your book was to be on things other than politics but it didn't turn out that way. why? >> in the end all of the things in life depend on getting politics right. >> you say, politics, baseball, lead to politics. >> furthery what a great physicist who poses a question. there are millions of habitable worlds out there, so there have to be thousands and millions of civilizations. why have we never heard from any of them? and the most plausible explanation is that every time a

civilization achieves consciousness in the signed of science that would allow you to transmit a signal, they destroy themselves. and the question is can we regulate our politics in a way that will species to flourish and produce all a the beautiful stuff and that's a question that only can be answered by politics. >> coming up, pat terring the president and ticking off the tea party. >> you have seen this mail? >> my assistant reads most of my mail and he is now in therapy. [ laughter ] >> fox news reporting continues after the break.

it was january 2009. 30 years after charles

krauthammer began his journalism career here in washington. a new president was about to be sworn in. krauthammer wasn't sure what to make of barack obama. he got the chance to size him up by a small dinner party hosted by his friendhi f george will, it was a weekrati before inauguration day. i >> i remember before the president elect arrived, saying, you know, i haven't been able to figure this guy out. is he a centrist who will occasionally throw a bone to the left or a lefty who will occasionally throw a bone to the right? nobody had any ideas.body >> that was part of of mr. obama's great strength. he was a national rorschach test. >> we spent three hours with this new man. he leaves and we are stayingle b behind a little bit., i say the same question. centrist? is he a lefty, nobody knew. fi >> five years later, you think you have figured himm ou out. >> i figured him out after that first state of the union speech, five weeks later. >> we will invest $15 billion a year to develop technologies like wind power and solar power. li we can no longer afford to c

put healthcare reform on hold. >> it will be the goal of this administration toof ensure. >> i was so astonished thato i wrote five columns in a row on what kind of unusualnusu political animal he was in giving an agenda as radical as any since fdr. he said i'm not here to tinker, i'm come theer trance form america. >> you've been tough on this president. >> what i think he's done just about everything wrong. >> reporter: just as he's willing to offend fellow liberals in 80s he's willing to take on conservatives, he believes are wrong. >> have you seen this mail? from some of the things you've said about ted cruz? i get e mails. >> i've seen the tweets. my assistant reads most of my mail. and he's now in therapy. just kidding. >> krauthammer on fox did not

appreciate what cruz did. >> reporter: if you listened to talk radio that might send his assistant over the edge. >> he was working for walter mond yale. >> there is a deep sense of betrayal by republicans. i think it's a misreading of what happened. it's 100% impossible to repeal something like obama care when you only control the house. i just think it's completely detached from reality. and when in the past i would encounter people detached from reality, first i'd give them a shot of hell no. it's unpopular but it's my job to call a folly a folly. if you're going to leave the medical profession because you think you have something to say, you're betraying your own life. >> do you intend to stop write

something. >> no. i intend to die at my death. boo. ican . ♪ hmm. mm-hmm. [ engine rev] ♪ [ male announcer ] oh what fun it is to ride. gethe mercedes-benz on your wish list at the winter event going on now -- but hurry, the offers end december 31s [ santa ] ho, ho, ho! [ male announcer ] lease the 2014 ml350 for $599 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer.

get get tonight, rush limbaugh goes on 00 "on the record." in a rare interview he tells us he likes scandals. why did president obama call very he real scandals phony. everything from the irs scandal to the obamacare disasters to the benghazi attack. now, our one hour interview with rush limbaugh. >> talking about the scandals. president obama says the scandals are phony. why do you think he says they are phony? because he believes it or is there strategy? >> well, there is a strategy. you know, i have been troubled by something with the obama, you know, i playfully call it the regime as i know it irritates them. it is, it's like a regime. i have been