[evan thomas] 'there's a huge public misperception on civil rights.'f hideous racist and jack was the friend of the black man. not true. 'nixon had a strong civil-rights record in the '50s. 'he was a friend of martin luther king.' the republican party was the party of civil rights. 'the democratic party was the party of secession and segregation. every single member of the ku klux klan was a member of the democratic party. so, going into the election, nixon had reason to believe he would have a lot of black support. [sirens wail, dogs bark] just three weeks before the election, martin luther king is arrested. he and 50 other african americans had entered a whites-only restaurant. the police were called. they refused to move and they were all put in jail, 'including king. 'it got even worse' when he was transferred in the middle of the night to a state penitentiary in rural georgia. and he's at risk there. his wife is afraid that he's gonna get killed. this is nixon's golden opportunity to rescue dr. king and scoop the black vote. the arrest of martin l

evan thomas tags nixon tragically flawed. finds him enormously flawed. fes nixon to be our darkest president. the problem with all of these biographers is they their works on nixon between on other subjects and do this all within a couple of years. and they don't really take the time that's necessary to devote to learn the true essence of the person that they're writing on. if you don't look at richard nixon's in full, as i describe my biography, then you fall the trap that his cousin jasmine west described, which is we want the facts to fit preconceived ambitions. when they don't, it's easier to ignore the facts than to change the prenc because if richard nixon was actually a good guy and made a tremendous mistake, he paid the price for that transgression the entire rest of his life. and as children still do all over politics, our continued villainizing of a good man over one transgression for which apologized, resigned the presidency and served a self-imposed exile, says more about us as about richard nixon. so if we're goi

book and writing for the magazine, she and her colleagues at the new yorker, glasser, glasser and evan thomas are have a new podcast called the political scene. it's really great if you haven't heard it. i recommend it highly thanks to heather and to jane for being here. all of us tonight. please join me in welcoming heather cox richardson and jane mayer. that is quite a welcome. thank so much. it's great. it's a great honor to share this stage with heather richardson, somebody who's manages to be a writing success without a social media star, without clickbait and somebody who somehow doesn't talk down to your audience actually tries to meet them. i think you've said at some point that you wanted them to come away smarter than when they opened it started reading you, which i found to a great sort of contrast the recent i'm sorry to sound partizan, but republican presidential debate where where nikki haley turned to vivek ramaswamy and said every time i hear you talk, i feel dumber. well the great thing about heather cox richardson is every time you read, you feel smarter. so thank so much fo

well, now, think historians may disagree on because evan thomas in his biography of rfk said that in fact, he was doing at the direction of his brother. and it recounts a story that came out much later that was john f kennedy had called the governor of georgia. that's right. who was a who said, i want you to win, but i don't want to be embarrassed myself. that would harm me politically. so let's do this quietly. don't you get a call put in to judge? and that's what kathleen's father did. well, let's take it forward to once the administration took. fred, describe their the administration's relation ship. a mix, of course, vision and idealism toward the civil rights movement. well, this pragmatism that we're talking about, i think, continues to very much rule the rules of the game. you will. and i think and i'll speak primarily of the president, i think he tended react to violent incidents and it took that often for him to respond to in a forceful manner and to direct his brother to do the same. and so there is a kind of evolution. and if you look at martin luther king's views and tayl

clement evans's georgia brigade steps off towards what's called the thomas farm.gton farm to the thomas farm, evans's men will be by themselves for about 15 minutes. and the idea behind an excellent attack is to draw in the enemy and then be able to fight them or, flank them with other fighting units coming out of the field later. problem is for minutes evans is managed by themselves. so who's getting shot at? so casualties will be extremely high. evans brigade. these georgians. clementh' evans is on the left. so i had a photo of him earlier. he gets hit in the chest. if i say the word the house wife or a soldier's housewife. people know what i'm talking about. it's a kit of sewing needles and not to get too graphic, but the sewing needles explode mode. when this musket ball hits him. and when gordon wrote his memoirs literally years later, he said that evans was still picking needles out of his chest from the combat on right there is james van valkenburg of the of evans georgia brigade, who had fought extremely well the wilderness had helped capture the majoritof