she's with the highest ever popular vote in american history. and with the vice president elect come a lot higher this becoming the 1st woman, and indeed 1st woman of color to ever hold that office job either success and president trumps departure was widely welcomed across the world. however, our guest today had a very special reason for interest in the change of tenure in the white house today . alex interviews allegedly photographer, heidi babysitter, who is a portrait, studied every sitting american president since dwight eisenhower. today. we look at presidential politics, but with a difference, susan lens of how debates but 1st i'm now alex started last picture with a very personal tribute to a special friend of his. and i'm just says a very moving powerful and personal tribute to so sean connery, but alec summoned a light to stand in our universe, but it will shine or not memories and hopes for the future. magnificent portie.

thank you, alex says, and caroline said simply to the rest of the show which covered coverage. i really fascinating discussion. let's talk decision makers are taking note of the learning . i look forward to hearing about the different approaches adopted in ireland and northern ireland. early evidence suggests the island's 5 levels are making a positive impact, lesley says alex, thank you for your program. so informative policy regarding public health should never have been difficult. it should have been pursued the way dr. bought it and professor burns are discussing. martin says bullies sure this is the way it should have been done from the start of the pandemic. many lives could have been seed. disses being negative, or isolating symptom free is a waste of time if you can still catch or be carrying it. and finally, john, it says the mixed messages and lack of sensible destructions have been terrible. the simple solution is copy the new zealand approach it as a short and sharp looked and everything is nearly back to normal. of course, this week has brought news of exciting progress towards vaccination. however,

in the months before it can be generally deployed public health measures will store to meet our only view protection. i get this fire this stacy and i to today's interview. how did benson c.p.e. is glasgow's most famous photographer and his long illustrious career? his lens has captured everyone from her majesty the queen to jackie kennedy to listen particular. however, one of his most notable achievements has been to photograph the last 12 american presidents in office until that is donald trump group, the run. alex takes up the story with heidi benson. but i don't like to be joined from florida by legendary photographer harvey benson holly. welcome to the alex salmond, show the pleasure of waiting it all, all my life to be on its just the 12 american presidents photographed by you,

but the outgoing plays the new donald trump, who didn't have a, an all together. even relationship. are you hoping to go on much better with and coming joe biden? that's why i'm not mad joe biden is a nice guy. you know, is not event agreeable. but donald trump brought the romney. it wouldn't let you into the white house or you taken his photograph before that? oh, i'm for the graft. maybe for to you and me. so i said this to him when i ran into him some reception and i said to him, don, i'd like to come on one photograph you in the white house needs to know. i said, well, you know, don't load up no need for a font he use and you have saying no, because it didn't like the picture you were from of all the money on the stock and he was be too happy without picture only did shawn greed and he often did it,

i said, because i need taken on when i can't see nights and it's wonderful doll, not all that money. he said, i can go in there and i can get a $1000000.00 right now and that by and then told us, and i've never photographed $1000000.00 and don't think i've ever seen it. michel and you have got it. all. we spend about half an hour piling $1000000.00 and he wanted it to be actually a 1000000 dollars dollar and it was. so i didn't want any faith creature at the gym managed to slip any of the bundles away, hardly of the day. cut them all back into the safe. i got him and got them straight on the chin this fellow i know in glasgow. he is it going to look just on the but you know, i don't, i don't think the daughter told inherited much of his mother said safire may think

i have is a stranger to dawdle club and also has sent me a note sent to him. so that it's good to make fun of them because he doesn't, it doesn't understand how they are going to take you right back to the picture of a fison home, which was your 1st president. yeah, yeah. don't ye start me. i was just thinking about, i'd been photographed him for some all in london. it was small own mouth, and i thought it was and a memory a ride and clara engine is in need a limousine. he didn't want to be seen in a limousine showing, get out and basically walk towards the photographer and to show that you with faith and and that what i think

and it's true tall and he was a gentleman and i'd forward to grap them afterwards as well. i also photographed him playing a round of golf in unbury and states that off of course, somebody is no in the hands of donald trump. president eisenhower would feel about that, but you also photographed john f. kennedy in london, testified about the kennedy visit to london. it wasn't just john f. kennedy, and we did jackie german and these wives 2 can buy sked on because she was greatly came to this guillaume. and then after they have finished weights, london, the now go to paris and the french, a lot of their loved clones. and that was a big deal of that. how do the french think hoshi

dress because they thought every american dressed all so you have the photographer, who accompanied the john f. kennedy to london and potus. is that correct? x., and i mean, there were me in a few of them, you know, and all of them were, you took a photograph of jackie kennedy in london and a car which is almost a luminosity about it took a photograph of princess diana with a code which showed the some of the empathy which she had these people the how to have the ability to communicate visually impaired. there must be a photographers dream yakked on jackie wall. and jackie, once she had taken london by storm, really imbrie moment in the day she was enjoying it. but she to paris my whole

paris to who and rule of law over there they loved. and the french were, you know, so critical, especially on women of the druggist, but not really jag care work that she wipes the floor with them. i want to ask you about your portrait of richard nixon because you for to go after him in the final days of his presidency. yes, i did them when bill last me, who is my favorite president and i was sitting next to because the one thing about nixon was there was no small talk. he ash and he would ask you for a dinner break 1st. and if you're on the plane in the press plane, or you yeah, are your own, you are near him. he was chained to a drink. find out where mr. benson wants to drink. i've found that a pleasant being with. but nixon and his family, you probably have joined

a glaswegian holiday when they sent you the drank. i think it will live made of what the opposite from me. i have found them can be very easy to want. that must mean a very dramatic moments. you know, in these last hours as president, when you photographed him as he was a boat to demetri office under the, under the threat of impeachment, that must have been extraordinary time for a photographic study of someone. it was very nice and it was terribly sad because there was also his family room with them. he went into, you know, they were just devastated by it and, and it absolutely was all over the nation go, it's is elevator to go back to a room. i need just such a town to is wife show and girl down, you know, it would be a day,

sad moment. a photograph doesn't lie. and nixon felt safe with this. i'm sure i'm with for history. you know, you want recall to tell how he was that day. if i could take you to happier moments in a presidential town the the famous picture you took with the reagans. astonishing picture of, of them dancing on a picture, i understand which i used to say of the very famous magazine. you know, far, vanity fair and new. i'm going to close the magazine for, i'm about to say to you, is it complete itself so big? because that picture saved vanity fair. i mean, this is documented, shine, you have, you know, known, was going to close a magazine and chain and drown me. i just tell went to him and same woman got

this thing coming out of the reagans, and i'm sure it's going to sell a lot of copies. and it did. and i got the reagan to dance. and the magazine was sold out. that was a picture of a presidential couple very much in love. of course, yet another famous picture of a presidential couple. the picture of the clintons kiss, though i have to ask you, was that put on for the camera or was that how you felt the, at the pictures of their relationship he was relaxing on the hammock, and hellery would be a bit 10 yards away. stretched out and she says, i'm not, i'm going to lie ahead of where perth this goes. she runs over basically gadson top and it's 2 kids. and then

the, this, then it was over never happened again. it's a moment you really being a photographer or a spontaneous moment that can't be repeated and will not be repeated in case because it was spontaneous. so high up, we're all looking forward to getting the call from them coming, press that by and to take his picture of the white house that i've been doing. so if you have a few, any thoughts of how you might pick them up? is that something that could only happen when you see the sucking stances of the day? circumstantially dull the day, but what i hear is a good guy. i hear that a photograph from before that in a different setting. and it all depends who you are. you're representing a family, the band, e.q. fair, and i'm westlife. i'm going to get much better attention than if i was with

the hamilton advertiser. stay with us for more, from how to benton. i'm here for 2 graphic exclusives with e after the break. yes. there was will soup wolf, there's your, what do you love? a ball was short order doesn't actually matter. vegetable would have been murdered by you. going to go with us because all of this going to be game we will see in the movie is with the we've seen the news, but it's the most severe some of what is in your speech. come off the news,

the of the 20th century was thing in a revolution. the great depression and world war, the 21st is the century of mental illness. those aren't my words. that's what surfaced some psychiatry's to tell us. the only question is, should we accept it as a fact? yes or no. during the vietnam war, us forces are also bombs, neighbor, unless there was a secret war. and for years, the american people did not know our mouth country per capita, all human history, millions of unexploded bombs still in danger. lives in this small agricultural country, jordyn. we don't know how it's happening. even today, kids in laos full victims of bombs dropped decades ago. is the us making amends for

their tragedy and help to the people need in that little land of mines. welcome back. alex is in conversation with heidi benson about the icon fears known . his work has taken him to the scene of many historic moments of both tribes. i'm tragedy since the 1960 s. . so how the band saw him that night and sixty's your career took a different time because you traveled to america. but you traveled before a very famous group of people. what happened there? i stayed in america basically, because i'd tell you why american when very interesting then and then one of the civil rights there would just a lot happening in america. your travel there with the beatles and your extraordinary pictures of the ford in a pillow fight. we have a heart attack. yes. we were having

a drink and nice should jested hell of a fight. now i've had them mention that the day before home or all just messing about in a room that like john, my i'm saying that was a telemundo pillow fight. we had nothing. maybe not by me. i'll think i'm bono this . and the way our men in the room with the beatles are following night. and i said how about a pillow fight? and the rest kind of nodded and, and john lennon and sad each had no more lewd childhoods. should you know that when they were miserable because they were breaking records in all of sales and they were becoming very rich in the few days and in way they have agreed not to do it. then john disappears in the room for seconds.

and paul is sitting, sitting, having a drink and the couch. and john comes up behind him with our pillow, and he's a whole course, it splatters all over the place. and then there's a pole of far, i just can't shooting the and it kept going. great. you have to be chair of not telling them what to do. and then you're here for to graph the beatles with muhammad ali, though you must add that the 5 most famous people in the world, in that photograph of that. you know what someone said that to me the other day, they're the most photographed people in the world, muhammad ali and won the title. and the beatles didn't want to meet them because, you know, in the end that's not all martin writing to me when the boxer and when i get in

with alley we go to if training place. and the beatles are such small, at the rate, taught me when glen suggests, i'm not shift with people, they would put them on the place. not waste. she ready for the me know, things like you all think you're beautiful, but you're not more beautiful. goes love me better then they'll love you. you know, you're just a little punks on the heap in their play. it's an east now lie down and never had them line on the ground. now tom, no, but he's treating them like children. and after it was all gone, john lennon, who i was seeing was the leader of the beatles. he said, you know,

that didn't go well. he made it look like monkeys, and it's all your fall, harry reid's. but mohammed al was one time way ahead of them. more of but there again, how you got the photograph of this. these were basically happy, happy moments of the beatles a leave. of course, you also photographed some of the, the great tragedies that were happening in america at that time and particular, you were present and photographing that. assassination of robert kennedy. tell us what happened. mark kennedy, they were, i knew bobby a light bulb. maybe i knew it and i'm still friendly with its family. it's awful to move from a happy situation like in one california. and he says

something and on to chicago and in, in never get in the ball room. he's walking, i would be about 5 yards behind him, and then the screaming. i never saw the guy with the gun because of the crud, but then once there was screaming and the next thing you see is, bobby is down. but i'll never forget, that's the screaming it was like the show can now been dallas because it was so close to dallas and people were just crying and bang and the hand off. and i said to my machine, the mid-south, let me mess up tomorrow. but this is too important, i got to take 14 graphs. i got to do it. you know, there isn't 3 cheers for the photographer and places like that. they see us

and you know as an intruder, as you are. and i kept taking it and shane to myself. this is for history, isn't it? and i think she always photographing everything and around me. then balmy, when i knew it would go on there was, i'm removed, losing a lot of blood from the back of it. and but the, i don't want and no one time was so in a crisis in that crowd, i was only about maybe a foot away from them. and you knew looking up and in ethel with screaming, asking for aaron and sheen, forever before that ambulance. people who got to him a little, i hear it was only about 6 minutes. extraordinary moment, and of course other assassinations in america at the time. you took

a picture of martin luther king on the civil rights campaign trail which reflected some of the, the novice and of g.-o. of the, of the man, the of any reflections on the, on martin luther king and the civil rights movement. very quiet. the mood is no chatting with some that was he allowed you to do your job, but he wasn't. you wasn't talkin about hate the yankees. you were going to beat the yankees. you know, none of that small talk there. how they are going to take you right back to your origins as a photographer, and 2 things, the peter manual story thinks flamed out of the national viewers. he was a serial killer, was the 2nd last person to be behind capital punishment in scotland. this is a late 1950 s. . at the, amazingly, as a very young photographer,

it managed to get 10 to barlinnie person. and you were the only journalist who was able to photograph and speak to the mass murderer before his execution. that was a, was an extraordinary stock, a lot where you're just in the right place at the right time. but this amazing story. i knew the right people at the right, the right man, the rate man would be boxing promoter calls me daugherty. he knew individuals who knew manual and it was for what sammy daugherty said. when t.v. said to these guy, i'm want you to get big hairy into me man, your own because another criminal should get a chance of knowing another one. i went down to pictures a picture of a very famous picture. you took the children in the gorbals and the early sixty's, i think. and also a picture you took of the black communities in america educating the the civil

rights movement. give us a force, wanted to ask, did you see any similarities between the conditions in your, your homeland and the deprived areas of glasgow? and this situation you found in the, in the put of communities in america during the civil rights movement. listen, if some of the people from glasgow were living in what in california they would be of rioting, really, it would be the region may have been umbrello skis, shelter them from the sun and ing really your condition. i mean, i'd seen much, much wants conditioned in glasgow. i mean, and, and didn't story. remember, there were 14 living in one room. your career holly benson took you from photographing the slums of the law school to the photographing president in the

white house and the start of a writ of, of photographs out good ass of the most difficult question of all. do you have of all that a ray of photographs, do you have an absolute favorite? the one you look at occasionally say, i'm glad that holly benson took that picture. i've always seen the beatles. don't think it's one patron, but it's lucky that i was the me, it was i lucky i got close with the reagans. we've been doing them a favor to that. we keep them are a major life. i keep waiting to take my best picture. i don't think i've taken it along with a canny in the assassination and couldn't know i'm wrong any farther because there were other people shot iran, maybe very close to me. and i'm thinking,

i'm wondering where i could. i'm done better. you know, under the pew, i'm looking to the future holly. what's the picture of you still want to take as that are at every instant still light to capture for history. i would like to see more on the royal family and like to see them have mean break than breakfast, as i could see them having dinner. because a lot of information there of how the table manners, the light mood of the, of the actually in your eye dog, in a coup sion beside them. you know, you won't stick a picture of the jug of ed, but over for a toilet roll coming down and, and edinburgh university veneer. i try to say what about when that was a major for digraph in my life because of the thought in india, leask h.

and we brought me to london because i was doing well up in scotland and one things harder. you've never lost a hearty benson or legendary photographer. thank you so much for joining me on the alex salmond show. no, thank you very much and thank you very much. they say the camera never lies. i discuss 2. then it follows the taliban since presidential stories from behind the lens have a unique ring of authenticity. his poor taste certainly have captured some essential white house truths from the grace of the reagans to the crassness of trump. from the clintons and love to nixon in despair and his final hours as president. how did ben since work has taken him to some of the great moments which history of both triumph and tragedy? how many of us would have wanted to be there when the, because that mohammad ali or dreaded being present when bobby kennedy was

assassinated? how do benson's work is a story of our times, and among the many changes expected, a president biden is to the store, the oath to access by quickly commissioning the benson portrayed. indeed, i think it may even be mentioned somewhere in the constitution. but for now, for myself, alex and all that issue is goodbye stacey. i mean, hope to see all the good next to me there or tactics that can be used to get innocent people to confess,

to crimes. they didn't commit. i don't even think people in the us really get that the police are allowed to lie to you. the person who falsely fast actually came to believe the lie that they were told about their own behavior. once a false confession is taken, the case is closed and nobody really can tell the difference between a good confession and one that isn't what you people look for to see whether what we're saying is actually playing out in the real world. and sort of thing to look at would be the u.s. dollar versus the chinese or other big. ok, that's the main forex there. that's going to tell you what's happening in the global economy. if what this, all this debt is going to trigger all this money printing, the dollar will start to drift lower and it's already, you know, looking very weak. and i think the last 4 years under they've been able to kind of propped up to a large degree. but i think my going to see

a serious decline of the dollar to see the chinese currency start to really outperform the dollar. breaking news on our 2 year. russia's top diplomat suggests that opposition leader unexplainable name who was allegedly poisoned with a nerve agent this summer. could have been just a detox. and in germany on the plane, taking him to a german clinic also this hour pro-democrat media try to eliminate all traces of doubt about the integrity of the 2020 u.s. election, running reports about probes into voter fraud misinformation and clashes and arrests in the armenian capital. and demand, the prime minister resign over a peace deal that they see as a capitulation to as a.