he ran from a houston coach club tennis court, a man named george h.w. bush. hem off on whole different odyssey that really i think put them in the center of world events. >> and george i'm going to go back and forth because the stories of the books are so rich and, that we could come in so many different directions but i want to read these stories together. george packer, richard holbrooke, i use the word complicated. that doesn't begin to do justice to him but why did you want to write about him and talk about his ambition, what drove him and frankly the fact what, the first quarter of the book is about vietnam. >> so he died in december 2010, he was actually stricken in hillary clinton's office, sector of states office which was a fitting finale and a high drama characteristic of him. a few weeks later his widow offered me his personal papers and i knew holbrooke a bit, not very well at the thought have a chance to explore a flamboyant, mesmerizing, maddening character whose career covered half-century from kennedy to obama from vietnam to afghanistan, throu

and i pointed out to president george h.w. bush when his vice president and his chief of staff were complaining about environmental criticism of our response to exxonmobil, to add the "exxon valdez," environmentalists predicted there's a 1 in 1,000 chance of a major spill of a tanker coming down the anchor sound and this is the 876th trip. so it's not a one-sided story it's been obstruction, inefficiency, excessive paper. there's a lot of that to it. but it's not kept us from doing important things. i think the failure to do big things in the country is much more a lack of ambition and commitment to do big things and political reconciliation by partisanship than it is by environmental production. >> good caution, governor. i want to ask about one of the big i feel unmitigated wins, the use of pesticides in the united states was simply not done into the carter years as well. and now one has to look at the record and say the science is good when it comes to the chemicals that might kill and pollutants that might damage. do you agree

and i pointed out to president george h.w. bush when his vice president and his chief of staff were complaining about environmental criticism of our response to exxonmobil, to the exxon valdees, and that environmentalists had predicted there was a chance of a major tanker spill and this was the 186th trip. so it's not a one-sided story there's been obstruction, inefficiency -- there's a lot of that to it, but it's not kept us from doing important things. i think the failure is much more of a lack of commitment to do big things and political reconciliation in bipartisanship than it is of environmental obstruction. >> good caution, administrator. governor, i wanted you to celebrate if you can one of the big mitigated wins. now i believe one has to look at the american record and say the science is good when it comes to the chemicals that might kill and the pollutants that might damage. do you agree with me on that? >> i do. i think the science is there. the issue i think we have today that i believe we have today is we don't always l

one simple answer is in a picture i was looking at of jim baker pointing to the wall before george h.w. bushup in houston, the singles champion at the houston country club for the past two years. it was james a. baker iii and george w. bush wanted to teamed up with a winner, james baker and his father was an overleaning power over his early years, and is shaped him as a person. he dad beat this kind of competitiveness into him. the joked and called him the warden but jim baker would go and play tennis matches and when he was done as a young boy playing his match his father would make him stay on the court and keep practicing. and i think that's tells you an awfullet. baker and holbrooke both men with overleaning ambition, both had a certain insecurity obsession how they were perceived by others but the difference was jim baker i think was -- had this enormous self-discipline and holbrooke in a way, his sprawling character who emerges in this wonderful and powerful book, and baker just -- the discipline was beaten into him and politics was he rebellion. never could have doesn't it while his d

and, of course, during george h.w. bush'sresidency, he was the leader of the state department as secretary of state. in the year 2000, he became the leader of george w. bush's legal team that prevailed in the landmark case of bush versus gore, so we simply couldn't have a better lawyer leader to be part of this program than secretary baker. secretary baker, thank you for taking time and being with us today as the final mark of this very important conference. sec. baker: thank you, talmage. i'm delighted to be with you. talmage: now, since you've been a leader in so many different arenas and we'll be talking about the lawyer as a leader, i think a logical place to start the conversation is how do you define the word "leadership," secretary baker? sec. baker: well, you know, i think it was the great historian james mcgregor burns who said that leadership is a commitment to values, and the perseverance to fight for those values. i think that's a pretty good description of leadership. the toughest part of that formula is the comm

he advised president george h.w. bushwhat, when it comes to pardons, if you're in for a penny, you're in for a pound. and he advised president bush to pardon six government officials who were criminally involved in the iran/contra affair. five of them had already been convicted at trial. so we know that bill barr is not above being part of that kind of a pardon plaluza. here's the thing. if you are the attorney general and a president at the end of his term begins to issue all of these pardons, your reputation will be forever wedded to whatever pardons the president issues, and i think we all have a sneaking suspicion, lawrence, that it's about to start raining pardons in, perhaps, the ugliest way. >> well, in the justice department has a pardon office that normally processes all the paperwork that leads up to a presidential pardon. so now with bill barr out of there, he won't -- he can claim no contact with any of this, but i actually kind of thought bill barr was going to have to hang around until the last minute to mak

dianeravitch, thank you for being with us, assistant secretary of education under president george h.w. bushe we come back, we first latinx u.s. senator from california. ♪ [music break] amy: "have yourself a merry little christmas" by ala.ni and directed by spanish filmmaker isabel coixet. this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. california governor gavin newsom has appointed california's secretary of state alex padilla to replace vice president-elect kamala harris in the u.s. senate. padilla will make history as the first latinx senator to represent california -- a state with a population that is 40% latinx. he was first elected to public office at 26 years old when he joined the los angeles city council. he went on to serve two terms in the state senate followed by two terms as the state's secretary of state. alex padilla is the son of mexican immigrants. in video posted by governor newsom to twitter, padilla talked about how his family's background has shaped his political work. amy: alex padilla is a close ally of governor gavin newsom. he has not taken a public stance

i happened to have a really good one, george h.w. bush. bob teeter, who was his campaign manager, once said he may have been the only person elected president because he was nice, but he was also modest and courageous. and so, he allowed me to develop what we called america 2000. and when he called me to take the job, i was president of university of tennessee. i said, i have two questions mr. president, may i develop a plan to implement your education program subject to your approval? he said yes. may i recruit a team to implement a plan subject to your approval? he said yes. that way i was able to circumvent the political authorization of the white house and recruit whom i wanted. so i got david kearns, the former head of xerox, to be the deputy education secretary. so president bush was great to work for because he gave me a lot of latitude, he delegated very well and he and barbara both participated in the things that we were doing. >> which role have you liked the best? sen. alexander: governor. >> governor? you answered that quickly.

. >> then there's millie, beloved english springer spaniel of george h.w. bushnd barbara bush. >> in the south lawn with a little red ball, but also the white house in the background. >> dogs were fan favorites in both bush white houses. >> i can see from the look on your face, barney, that you hadn't even thought about the plot. >> barney is one of the most famous white house dogs. >> when it comes to presidential pets, jfk and jackie's collection is the most farfetched. >> the kennedys probably had one of the largest menageries. of any of the inhabitants of the would you say. they had nine dogs, several ponies and horses and hamsters and a variety of different things. the one that probably caught most attention was the welsh terrier charlie. >> charlie had a reputation for being a rascal, proof that the white house can be the paw-fect home for any pup. this could be your future, the south lawn of the white house, a rubber red bouncy ball. you're into it. i can tell. so the doggone great news is that the american kennel club is offering a virtual tour of this e

george h.w. bush was 50 years old when he was given this post to handle that very important relationship with china. so we'll see if this turns out to be the pick. raises question >> bill: the last four years we've seen mike pompeo and donald trump standing up to beijing. you wonder the comparison, the contrast between those gentleman the past four years and what mayor buttigieg would bring. >> absolutely. do we want china to be facing someone that they, you know, have a healthy fear or a healthy intimidation of in terms of being -- holding their feet to the fire? look at the situations with the concentration camps in china and the issues that we need to hold their feet to the fire with regard to economy and military build-up. is he the man to do it? >> bill: it will be a fascinating relationship. we shall hear. lloyd austin was introduced to america an hour ago. it's reported that he called isis the jv. a spokesman for him denies that. what do you think? does he meet the waiver requirement to be the

and i remember going through this with the conversations with george h.w. bush. remember, he got 39% of the country to vote to rehire him in 1992. and yet, as the years went by, the decisions he made for the good of the country that were not for his own political gain have come to be seen as the right ones. so when he died, he died much more esteemed figure. what's the lesson between truman and bush in that sense? the lesson is, do what you think is right. put the good of the country ahead of your personal gain. and play the long game. i think you have quoted before, truman said he never slept better than when he made a hard decision, but he thought it was the right decision. if you do what you think is right, often, also if you challenge your base of supporters, that's what history remembers. you know, what's the one thing we remember about nixon that's certainly clearly positive? it's the epa, which was against the base of his party and going to china. lyndon johnson and race. you would not have bet on november 22nd, 1963, that lyndon johnson would end up playi

george w. bush, he served as secretary of transportation, and later, as as president -- excuse me, george h.w. bush, and later as president george w. bush's first chief of staff. john podesta served as chief of staff to president bill clinton, among several other senior roles, a counselor to president barack obama, and co-chair of the obama-biden transition project. i did a little sleuthing around town with friends and former colleagues and even some family members who happen to work for both individuals about mr. podesta. i was told he was "measured a great manager smart on all fronts and willing to listen to all voices, whether senior or carr, ias for secretary was told "he instilled in us from day one how lucky we were to be at the white house that we were public servants. we were to be humble and we were to put the country and the president first." the one word i heard to describe them both was calm. in normal times, the presidential transition can feel unwieldy. call him, steady leadership is essential to set the tone and chart the course, regardless of party affiliation, and particularly,

declawing the labor of obama started with richard nixon gerald ford jimmy carter ronald reagan george h.w. bush bill clinton george bush and barack obama they all said energy independence and it all seemed ridiculous i think even in 2008 when barack obama came in it did not seem very likely because people did not really that was 2008 was the year that people began to think you could apply shale gas technology toil it turned out to be incredibly disruptive technology transformed the market and stead of the u.s. importing 60 percent of its oil and the vulnerability or the sense of insecurity that goes with it you now have the big 3 it's the united states russia and saudi arabia who sit astride world oil market and the u.s. is the number one producer of oil and gas in the world 12 years ago unthinkable. what would have happened 12 years ago if the iranians even with a small attack attacked a u.a. e. ship or attacked saudi oil production facilities or if the united states had assassinated you know an iranian i or d.c. al quds commander what would have happened to the price of oil tell that story th

i would say that bob gates and george h.w. bush had a very good relationship. leon panetta and barack obama had a very good relationship. john brennan and obama certainly. here's a spoiler alert. for those who know that i wrote another book called the gatekeepers about the white house chiefs of staff, some of the attributes that make a great white house chief of staff also serve cia directors well. it's no coincidence, in my view, that leon panetta was the gold standard at both. there were certainly other great white as cheese and of the great cia directors but panetta was right up there with the best in both jobs. that's partly because that had a lot to do with the fact that a netted when you begin director for obama he was 70. yet been around the block. he served in congress. he was comfortable in the corridors of power. he knew the white house and he could walk into the oval office, close the door and tell barack obama what he didn't want to hear, and that's essential in both jobs. >> you portrayed him as being not just an honest broker but like a brilliant

senate, and earlier as the governor of tennessee and the education secretary under george h.w. bush. this is about 30 minutes. >> senator lamar alexander, we are sitting in the senate health education labor and pensions committee room. you have chaired this panel for about a third of your senate career. why this committee? sen. alexander: ted kennedy used to say there is a lot that comes through here. if you want to fix something, this is where you come.

experience during the cuban missile crisis, the leadership of presidents from harry truman to george h.w. bush and foreign leaders who influenced events during the cold war. held by the georgia historical society, this is an hour. >> we are here to talk about the cold war at 75. this marks the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the cold war immediately after world war ii in 1945. and i just want to briefly introduce you. you were born in macon, georgia, attended georgia tech, graduated from emory university and emory law school, served in the united states coast guard, came back to georgia, practiced law and served in the georgia house of representatives. then you were elected to the united states house of representatives. then you served for 24 years until you left office in 1996, including eight of those years as chair of the senate armed services committee, and since retiring from the senate, you co-founded, with ted turner and now co-chair the nuclear threat initiative. as i mentioned, we're here to talk about the events of the cold war as you experienced them. let's start with you. when

republican party joe watkins republican strategist and former white house aide to president george h.w. bush sarah thank you so much for sharing your views with us thanks. now early voting has begun in the us state of georgia in a race which will ultimately decide who controls the country senate 2 seats are up for grabs and democrats need to win both to gain control of the upper chamber republicans have long dominated in the southern state the president elect joe biden's win there last month as boy democrat hopes either way the outcome on january 5th will heavily influenced by the ability to carry out his campaign promises. coming up on this news hour from london sierra leone sees a sudden rise in child brides after the pandemic pushes families into poverty nigerian police deploy extreme vesta gaiters to find hundreds of missing school boys days after an attack in the president's home state and cleveland's baseball team drops indians from its name after 105 years gemma will have the details later it's for. at least $400000.00 people have now fled their homes in northern mozambique as fighter

i think he would've approved the clean air act amendments but george h.w. bush proposed the acid rain, the marketplace regulatory approach. that proved more cost effective, then we the proponents who , drafted it ever thought it would be. that's a milestone we can learn from. places thatrket have not been fully explored, and they were there were excellent incentives, and i think that has to be the way that the republican party gets back into the environment game. and i very much hope it will. >> chris do you want to add , anything to that? >> let me add to the republican pantheon of environmental leaders, barry goldwater, who was a committed environmentalist. and, in many ways ahead of his , time. i would like to recognize, that along with being in favor of clean air and water and healthy environment, americans are very individualistic, liberty minded and suspicious of bureaucracies, jealous of their own freedoms. and that, too, is part of the world that we live in. and there has been over the 50 years of the epa, a lot of opposition with the epa because of the

senator sam nunn two weeks ago, and he gives all the presidents from truman to george h.w. bush credit for their restraint in not launching a nuclear war, not -- whether on purpose or, as he thought even more likely, by accident, over the 45-year period while dealing with the soviet union and other threats to the u.s. across 45 years. you wrote, talking about ike, quote, there would be many sincere words of peace during his presidency, but ike was always preparing for war, unquote. that to me sums up what being president during the cold war era was really all about. would you agree with that, or do you think ike stands alone in that regard? >> well, i think that's the job of the president. but i'm not sure that every single one of them has done it as well or has taken that role as seriously as they should. but i don't think any of us -- i mean, sam nunn is probably as close as possible to who might be able to tell us, but i don't know that any of us who haven't been inside the white house or haven't served as president could imagine what that's like. the notion that, you know, y

as a former secretary of education under president george h.w. bush, president of university of tennessee and chairman with health education and labor and tension committees, senator alexander, we know, has worked tirelessly to ensure that every child can success. in addition to the work i just mentioned that he did with the every student succeeds act and the work he did on the carl d perkins career and technical education act, he's also led legislation to help people in their youngest years as well as their seniors year. i appreciate it, especially the work that he did on alzheimer's and making sure that we continued to invest in our science and education. one little fact you may not know in all the tributes that have come out about senator alexander and i was here for his speech is that every summer tore 25 years he and his wife and four children have gone to the boundary waters to canoe and fish. the boundary waters in northern minnesota, very close to where my dad grew up. in fact, right the town that's the gateway to the boundary waters in eli, m

and that doesn't include the two years he served as president george h.w. bush is secretary of education. his priorities have always been of great importance to tennessee, whether the army corps of engineers funding for inland waters, particularly his favorite -- this this is the ft time i have heard the word pronounced, chickamauga lock picking often talks about in our hearings or updating the way musicians are paid for their work. he's also led efforts to pass every student succeeds act in 2015 which present obama called a quote, christmas miracle, end quote. and as we hear promising news about coronavirus vaccines, we are reminded of the 21st century cures act. that is senator alexander's landmark 2016 bill that streamlined the drug and device approval process to bring treatment to market faster. he has a long record of work he can be proud of. lamar, you have been a great colleague and a dear friend all these years in the senate. i am proud of what we have achieved together. i will miss our dinners together and sitting next to you on the dais. i i hope you e

senate, and earlier as a governor of tennessee and the education secretary under president george h.w. bushthis is about 30 minutes. >> senator lamar alexander, we are in the senate health, education and labor pensions committee room. you chaired this committee. why this committee? >> it has a third of the jurisdiction in the senate. so i lot comes through here. if you want to get rid of common core or fix no child left behind, this is where you come. if you want to get medical miracles into a doctor's office more rapidly, you come here. if there is an opioid crisis, here. big argument over labor, here. so a lot happens here. we've got 23 members of the senate, from elizabeth warren and bernie sanders to rand paul. so if we can get a consensus here, we think the country can live with it as well. >> highlights of your chairmanship over the years? senator alexander: one emotional highlight was when i was sitting there and all 23 senators voted to report the bill fixing no child left behind. it may sound silly, but think about the elementary and secondary education. and everybody is an expert.

he served as secretary of state for president george h.w. bushite house chief of staff and treasury secretary. he is interviewed by baylor university law school hosted the conversation and provided the

senate, and earlier as a governor of tennessee and the education secretary under president george h.w. bush. this is about 30 minutes. greta: senator lamar alexander, we are in the senate health, education and labor pensions committee room. you chaired this committee. why this committee? senator alexander: it has a third of the jurisdiction in the senate. so i lot comes through here. if you want to get rid of common core or fix no child left behind, this is where yo

for political purposes donald trump is the worst of but we also had pardons under president george h.w. bush a big bum bob in the iran contra scandal and by president bill clinton the last minute pardons on the way out the door of the clinton administration weren't particularly admirable a lot of the talking to thank you for joining us professor professor richard painter from the university of minnesota thank you. for countless families being a kept apart this christmas because of the pandemic of course but most parents as i meant not to let in the most magical time of the year for the youngsters in russia that's opened the door to a new breed of children's entertainer. it's the holidays in the russian capital but with the pandemic still raging here many families are worrying that father frost could leave more than just presents under the christmas tree. that's created a booming market in children's entertainers who have recovered from cope with 19 and have the antibodies to prove it with at least a temporary immunity to the virus the promise to bring only holiday cheer to their clients home

i happen to have a really good one, george h.w. bush. bob teeter, who was his camp -- campaign manager said, he may have been the only person elected president because he was nice, but he was also modest and courageous. what weed me to develop called america 2000. when he called me to take the job i was president of university of tennessee. i have two questions mr. president, may i develop a plan to implement your education program subject to your approval? he said yes. said, may i implement a team? he said yes. i was able to circumvent the political authorization of the white house and recruit whom i wanted. i got david kearns, the former head of xerox to be the deputy education secretary. was great to work for because he gave me a lot of andtude, he delegated well he and barbara both participated. >> which role have you liked the best? governor. you answered that quickly. sen. alexander: i liked working -- you can see the results. if you recruit the nissan plant, it shows up, or if you create a governor schools for teachers, which i di

and, as the former secretary of education under president george h.w. bush, he could not -- couldn't not put his personal touch on education policy. working tirelessly, as he said, to fix no child left behind. and this earned him the first ever james madison award. he has a reputation for indeed being a go-to lawmaker and as chairman of help here in the senate, he put a spotlight on the issues that affect the most sensitive aspects of tennesseans' lives. again, benefiting all americans. and i like the fact that he talked about bipartisanship and productivity. between 2015 and 2019, during his term of service at help, he has reported 45 bills out of his committee that have become law. 45 bills. as he mentioned, one of those was 12st century cures. and as a member in the house and working on originating this bill, we had said we're going to make this bipartisan. and indeed we did. and we moved it from the house to the senate. and yes indeed, there were some days we thought this is never going to happen. but, indeed, senator alexander insisted and, yes, it did

george w. bush commuted perjury sentence for lewis scooter libby it was also dick cheney steve cheapest for revealing the identity of cia agent valerie plame and finally george h.w. bush he pardoned armand hammer for making illegal contributions to the mix and campaign after hammer had contributed over $100000.00 to the republican party so i'm sorry contributions for pardons that old and new large pardons are never free they are not. for president elect joe biden the road to clinching the democratic primary and ultimately the 2020 presidential election was paved by black people from the organizers across the south in places like georgia where former gubernatorial candidate and voting rights advocate stacy abrams voting rights activists and organizer latasha brown and countless others gear of building a base that had all too often been ignored while on 2020 they were heard regardless of where you get your news the story was the same black voters made all the difference though black voters only make up a level percent of the national electorate 9 in 10 of them supported joe biden now with inauguration just around the corner on january 20th and the by the administr

william barr this wasn't the 1st time he's been attorney general he was attorney general under george h.w. bush the 1st bush and even then we knew there was a great believer in presidential executive authority and he advised bush on all sorts of things which certainly historians now in a lot of people then said were pretty pretty legally dodgy iran contra of the invasion of panama or whatever but he's always been a man who believed in the power of the presidency and under trump he was very much taking up that role once again as congress was subpoenaing trump and all the investigations that were under way it was always he said look frankly you can ignore congress so therefore this is a very good for like that a great deal whether this is because of any particular affection for trump i'm not sure that's clear this was something that we always knew william believed in. let's but didn't do and now we have to sort of piece things together a little bit from trump's tweets from. the reports we've had from the white house over the last few weeks for example what he didn't do off to the election for don

a little faces don't matter policy matters you know george h.w. bush appointed clarence thomas carson is a drop in a story because you put a black person there does not mean they're going to be able to carry out a black agenda once joe biden starts carrying out again but i do is very very important african-american men of the african-american community that's what i think before we start with but this idea that simply we're going to stick a black guy here and that's going to be a tough thing structurally don't change on the ground you know we had a black president for 8 years and to be african-american men feel that not enough with the granite sort of the particular position that they 'd are what will be involved but if you start tackling those systemic issues that over incarceration african-american men the over criminalization of the system the criminal justice reform ought to promote efforts that will help restore the black man's ability to be the head of household and part of the family again remembering that and certainly programs were put in plac

that's to do with trump that it had to do with bob barr has been attorney general before under george h.w. bush great believer in the power of the presidency the proud the executive and that suited trump very well especially during congressional investigations bar as attorney general can say look they have no legal authority over you trump loved that what he didn't like was off to the election bar not not getting behind trump's allegations of fraud by eventually saying that there were no evidence no evidence of fraud as far as the d.o.j. was concerned not only that in the last few days it was leaked to the wall street journal that bar the house about an investigation underway into how to biden the allegations that he's been using his influence as the former vice president now president elect some to make lots of money but but but bob was careful not to mention that before the election trump apparently not happy about any of this lots of talk about him wanting him fired but today it's all sweetness and light and barr is graciously stepping down a much loved former member of the trumpet ministrat