and when you compare that biography of james baker to what you see in the republican party today they couldn't be at greater odds with one another james baker is still alive and it's just a remarkable change in fortune in which this party doesn't know what it's about anymore or at least donald trump has a huge huge piece of it but there are other parts of now the fringe the former establishment republicans trying to figure out what to do. and with with don tom sang that this is only the beginning of the movement on that rail concerns in our rail fares that they couldn't be more saying. social division of civil unrest as we saw on january 6th. well i think we have to be on guard for that that's a very interesting question you ask i think there are some pieces of that infrastructure in which donald trump spoke to and animated the crowds that he did that he no longer has you know he doesn't have airports one to fly around and to do great public rallies where the local. towns and cities and counties would give way to him because he was the president he's a private citizen now he's no

which was he appointed james baker to be the chief of staff ed. meese was expected to become the chief is staff that didn't happen. but ed was put in charge of the overall transition effort and and jim baker was put in charge of the white house transition. so i came together because i knew

which was he appointed james baker to be the chief of staff ed. meese was expected to become the chief is staff that didn't happen. but ed s

i understand you have two of most america's james baker and leon panetta that will present brief introductions for you. they'll be speaking remotely on your behalf today. so, secretary baker, would you like to go first? >> thank you, chairman warner. thank you, vice president chairman rubio and members of the committee for inviting me to speak today on the nomination of william j. burns to be director of the central intelligence agency. i am truly honored that bill asked me to speak on his behalf today. and i am delighted to be joined by my old friend leon panetta. without any reservations, members of the committee, i can strongly recommend bill burns to you. bill is to be congratulated. bill is quite simply one of the finest and most intelligent american diplomats that i had the pleasure of working with. his unique combination of experience, skills and character make him an outstanding choice for directorship of the cia. as secretary of state, i relied on bill's judgment during one of the most tumultuous eras and we worked in the cold war peacefully, ensure the reunification of germany firmly

. >> he had replaced james baker as chief of staff at the start second term. along. >> i honestly tried to help him be a good chief of staff. like lesson number one, how you handle nancy. he wasn't an ego maniac. oh, i'd better will listen. >> she had a certain radar. >> if she sniffed out that there was someone in his circle who wasn't 1,000% loyal to ronnie, they were toast. >> she said, you know, jim, we're going to have to make a change here. don regan will have to go. you know, ronnie can't fire anybody. >> he didn't like to get rid of anybody. but she did. she had no hesitation whatsoever. >> it didn't go well. >> the first lady was asked if the president had demanded she get off his back firing him. >> how can the president deal with the soviets if he cannot settle a dispute between his wife and the chief of staff? >> she called me ten times a day to talk about it. >> one day, don regan came down to my office. he looked at me and said, i think i made a big mistake. and i am, what was that? and he said, well, i was talking to the first lady and she was r

ii understand you have -- two of america most distinguished public former secretary of state james baker former defense, and cia director leone panetta brief introductis with you speaking remotely on your behalf today so -- secretary baker would you like to go first? ri>> thank you chairman wariner. thank you vice-chairman rubio members of the committee for inviting me to speak today overt nomination of william j. burns to bent director of the agency. i'm truly honored that bill asked me to speak on his behalf today and i'm delighted to be joined by my old friend lee on panetta. without any reservations, members of the committee, i can strongly recommend bill burns to you. bill president biden is to be congratulated for choosing bill. and my reasoning in this regard is really straightforward. bill is quite simply one of the finest and one of the most intelligent diplomats i had privilege of working with his unique experience, skill, and character make him an outstanding choice for directorship of this cia. as secretary of state, i relied on bill's judgment during one of the most it mulch

which was he appointed james baker to be the chief of staff ed. meese was expected to become the chief is staff that didn't happen. but ed was put in charge of the overall transition effort and and jim baker was put in charge of the white house transition. so i came together because i knew i knew him from when he managed the president ford campaign effort. i worked in the ford white house at that time. and i knew the white house. i knew the white house structure. i guess better than anybody else. who was there at the moment and so i was drafted into this effort. jim baker stayed away from washington for the majority of the time left at edm used to run the transition, but we had a small team that worked towards the planning and it was just by chance, and i guess i knew knew the structure and new where new the offices that i would be put in charge of the planning for the white house piece of it. about this i'm sorry. i didn't hear your question stuart. this chris. i was gonna ask chris the same question. yeah this come to drop in your lab. well in a

we just had recently a great book, a great biography written about james baker iii, and that's about high policy. policy from the top. this is -- look at this book as like a compliment to that what was going on at the bottom levels, people you never heard of but accomplished great things in their very anonymous way. >> bob that was great. thank you for the introduction. i have a couple of questions just to follow up and to tee up the conversation. wanted to start by just talking about the book itself and then we'll get to gersony but for me the title was very telling and it had echos so the title is "the good american." and as i think of it i was thinking of the echos of "the ugly american." letter and verdict, and then also the "the quiet american" graham green. so give you my enter attention the ugly american is about arrogance. >> ways. >> the arrogance of power "the quiet american" about innocence in a way of america. and -- say maybe also more about when you say "good" and you're putting in a realist perspective and the way i was -- my interpretation was you mend something but a

served more than three decades in the foreign service, just introduced by former secretary of state james bakerening statement moments ago, about to start being questioned by members of the senate intelligence committee. in the opening statement, he singled out china as what he called the biggest geopolitical test for the united states, and for the cia he says that means intense focus and urgency on china. he talks about the need to maintain a technological edge, particularly in cyber. he talks about the need to support and bolster the cia workforce. finally, he'll focus on key partnerships, including the director of national intelligence as well as 17 other intelligence agencies, as well as, on top of all that, key partners. there's no doubt he's diply respected as a diplomat. the question now is how a seasoned diplomat will run a massive intelligence agency, jim and poppy. >> and an agency that was the target of the last sitting president. we're nearly 2 1/2 years out from the brutal murder of journalist and washington post columnist jamal khoshoggi. we might as soon as tomorrow have declassi

that's what the late george shultz, that's what james baker wanted, that's what you and i have talked. that's exactly where it ought to go. i justt think we've got to get off this miracle cure of keynesian spending which never works. >> it's not going to be a miracle. larry: i get it. >> and larry summers is very much against this as well, as you can read. the thinks it's way too large. it's not just us, it's other people that are looking at this thing as being potentially damaging in the wrong run. larry: thank you, art. art laffer -- >> congratulations again. larry: folks, arthur, presidential medal of freedom designate, which is america's highest honor. >>> now, just how far is joe biden going to go on a coronavirus stimulus package? is it going to be big and broad and expensive, or night he actually moderate it and narrow it down, targeting it better? we'll have former treasury secretary steven mnuchin give us the right answers. he was a terrific treasury secretary in his own right, a good friend with me exclusively next up on [laugh] dad i got a job! i'm moving out. [laugh] dream

i remember james baker and jimmy carter after the florida recount looking at voter fraud and the bottomthe only one who committed it is donald trump, doesn't seem to have reached the viewers of right-wing media and i wonder if you can answer this question. i don't mean to put you on the spot but i'm going to anyway, is the country governable with millions of americans taking in disinformation? >> it has to be because there's really no alternative. there has to be, and if i may, it's these kinds of conversations, not to be self-congratulatory about what we all do, but you simply have to tell the truth. the only way to fight a lie is with the truth. and if the bible is right, the old story about the preacher, jesus said and rightly, if the truth shall set you free, then you have to keep doing it. and i think errin's point about the historical nature of this is exactly right and i do think the country's governable, mainly because joe biden won a greater percentage of the popular vote than harry truman or john kennedy or richard nixon in 1968, jimmy carter in 1976. more than clinton or geor

jimmy carter co-chaired a federal commission on election reform with james baker, the former secretaryample, the voter i.d. should not standard for the country. they agreed on other things. it was john paul stevens, the most liberal member of the supreme court that wrote the opinion upholding the constitutionality of photo i.d. that was the past. now we have a hard left that has taken over the democratic party and has given us h.r. 1. you heard about the horror stories on that. >> we're going talk a lot about h.r. 1 in just a minute, but go ahead. >> i know, but that's how much things have shifted. let me give you an example of where the hard left has operated. there's still some sensible democrats, so martin luther king iii and andy young, the former mayor of atlanta, jimmy carter, and even bill clinton five years ago at a conference to celebrate the voting rights act, and they agreed, why are we fighting spending all these hundreds of millions of dollars fighting about voter i.d., let's get people get one. let's get one, because you can't be part of the mainstream of american life. y

james buchanan, of mary todd lincoln, of marcus anger. tonight she'll talk to us about her latest book "building america: the life of benjamin henry latrobe." dr. baker will be joined in conversation not by me tonight but by my esteemed colleague doctor susan schoelwer, mount vernon estate executive director of the stork preservation and collections and the robert smith curator. we will hand things off you and excited to watch to watch this and learn more about this. i'll put everything in advance. take care, have a great evening everyone. i will see you another time. susan, thanks so much. >> thank you, kevin, and thank you to all of those who are joining us. gene, it's wonderful to have you with us tonight. >> thank you. >> i'm really excited about this. i think benjamin henry latrobe is one of those important figure some early america that i have really know that much about and perhaps that's true of many of our audience as well. kevin mentioned several of the previous books you have written on a variety of topics and they don't necessarily seem to lead to latrobe, so it always curious about how authors come to find the subjects. how did you get i

james buchanan, of mary todd lincoln, of marcus anger. tonight she'll talk to us about her latest book "building america: the life of benjamin henry latrobe." dr. bakere joined in converon