if you think of the old marlboro man, i think that's what you think of barry goldwater. t to the university of arizona. his father died of a heart attack, and so he had to stop his education, come home, and take over the business, the goldwater department store, which was sort of the best department store in arizona. his father was jewish, his mother was an episcopalian. so the story goes that one day he walked up to the phoenix golf and country club and they all knew who barrgoldwater was, and he said, "well, i'd like to play," and they said, "we're tribly sorry, we can't let you play." we don't allow jews to play here." and he paused for a second, he said, "well, i'm only half jewish, can i play nine holes?" - he was a photographer. ix published about five or photographic books. ♪ [theme music] ♪ - he was one of the firsteople to take a boat down the colorado river, and he filmed it, and he turned that t that's how he his name well-known in arizona, a because he took thund to all the movie theaters and showed it. - he was a great pilot, he loved to y. - a kid who rememb

in 1964, johnson's opponent was barry goldwater, republican senator of arizona and someone from the far right of the republican party. so the mainstream of the republican party in the early 1960s and before was not that far removed from the democrats. certainly there were lots of issues on which they differed, but this general understanding that progress was possible, that expertise was valuable, that you needed big organizations to get things done, even though dwight eisenhower warned the american people in his farewell address about the growing military industrial complex and about the scientists who no longer knew how to innovate because they were on a government paycheck, he nonetheless surrounded himself with scientists and understood the importance of these very large organizations to conduct the business of the united states. right? so, that both democrats and republicans are part of this broader post-war consensus about what the role of the government does, the importance of people having -- with expertise in charge, and goldwater is someone who comes out of -- well, right field

once barry goldwater got the nomination johnson told his reporters i don't need you anymore, he didn't want to say publicly i don't want bobby kennedy to be my vice president, he said i have decided that none of my cabinet members will be my running mate. it was directed to one cabinet member. everybody understood that. bobby has great support, cannot smile, sorry i had to do that. kennedy leaves the cabinet, runs for the u.s. senate in new york and gets into the race in september. the election is in november. he shoots ahead in the polls but the republican senator against him, a liberal republican, very popular in new york starts ticking up in the polls, johnson is killing barry goldwater in new york. i think he had a 2 million vote margin. kennedy is starting to lose and getting down to the wire and it is apparent bobby kennedy had the worst thing he ever felt he had to do in his life and that was lbj. johnson comes in to new york the next two days, johnson, 3, kennedy, look at these trays i have of bobby kennedy campaigning material for the senate race you will see johnson humphrey

i had gotten excited about barry goldwater some years before. i was able to tell mr. buckley later that when i met him as a united states senator that you warped my brain when i was in high school and i haven't changed since. that's the way i feel about it. we took -- we were facing in many ways circumstances similar to yours, although i don't think the hostility was as great as it is today on college campuses from what i hear. they were tolerant of us but politically, winning elections in alabama was very difficult. there weren't many republicans in the south, especially alabama. from 1874 to 1987, 113 years, the governor of alabama was always a democrat. from 1879-1981, both our senators were democrats. only two republicans were elected to the senate in 140 years. 1994, i became the first republican since reconstruction period to be elected attorney general and alabama. [ cheering ] i am telling you this, we should think about it. you get to that you get the picture. we were outnumbered, the odds were stacked against us. we worked hard and battled away. we campaigne

i got excited about barry goldwater and told mr.akley you workedi met him, my brain and high school and i've not changed since. that is the way i still feel about it. ways aere facing in many circumstance similar to yours although i do not think the hostility was as great as it is today on college campuses from what i hear. of us, butolerant politically winning elections in alabama was very of a there were just not very many republicans in the south and alabama. in 1987, 113 years later, the governor was always a democrat. both senators were democrats. in 1994, i became the first republican since reconstruction to be elected attorney general of alabama. [cheers and applause. mr. sessions: i'm telling you this, we should think about it. you get the picture. we were outnumbered. the odds were stacked against us. but we worked hard. we campaign. i remember campaigning for the governor, afor candidate for governor, my wife and a group of us went to the state fair to pass out bumper stickers. we were supporting a very articulate, dynamic

he starts ticking up in the polls and in the meantime, johnson is killing barry goldwater in new york. i think he had 22 million vote margin. kennedy is starting to lose and they are getting down to the wire. and it is apparent that he's not going to make it. kennedy had to do one of the worst things he felt he had to defend his wife and i was askedd lbj to come to help. johnson comes to new york, spends two days, plus there's ththe state stage with johnson y buttons and if you look at the trays that i have the campaign material from the senate race, you'll see all oyou will see ale things. johnson pushes him over the line. kennedy wins by a decent margin, gets its victory speech from lbj is watching on tv and thanks everybody in the room that does not think lyndon johnson. [laughter] and then johnson did not forget it. by now, we are starting to accelerate into vietnam. johnson started to send combat troops over and when we got into 1967, the vietnam war has been going on a solid three years of open combat. we had almost half a million troops over in vietnam. a number of u.s. senator

presidency in 1980 as a goldwater conservative wins a landslide election just 16 years after barry goldwater had been annihilated in the 1964 campaign by texan lyndon johnson. you see a radical transformation in a very short period of time but there's no single moment. it's this perfect storm of social conservatism and evangelicalism and religious mobilization, and the idea that scandal and corruption in watergate and all of these things where the message of i trust my government and my government is competent, and my government is not going to waste my money gets transformed by 1980 the ronald reagan government is not the solution to problems here government is the problem. >> in this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. government is the problem. [applause] >> what i hope people get from this book is, one of the reasons why i wrote this book is that historians and political scientists and the journalists have been trying to study and understand political change especially what really has been a lot of historiography in my field is this idea that barry goldwater ge

if you mean barry goldwater or ronald reagan and william f. luckily trump's the most effective anti-liberal in american history. it's not because he is conservative. it's because he applies common sense and so much of modern liberalism is and if you apply common sense of falls apart. i take seriously the story he tells about the women he got to know who has been in wise to have an abortion and her daughter was with her as she was telling the story. that was the decisive moment did i give him that one. he also said he would contemplate legalizing marijuana you can't assume that trump is going to walk into the room having spent 30 years thinking this stuff through. reagan became, reagan originally was an fdr democrat and made commercials for harry truman and hubert humphrey. when hubert humphrey was the anti-communist liberal running against a procommunist liberal which tells you just how bad that period was and reagan became an anti-communist. when he married nancy her father was a very right-wing medical doctor and gradually through a series o

we have talked it, there's this legend about how barry goldwater and hugh scott and john rods went downwhite house to tell nixon this support wasn't there anymore. that was august 6th, august 5th. one of the things and i think this is worth everybody remembering is about politics and law moving differently. things at summit part start to snowball. what happened for nixon in july of '74 was the house judiciary committee who was doing everything we could be be fair about it and move with some deliberation, in themonth, this week, we're also celebrating thefry of this, the supreme court said that nich on had to turn over the tapes. and of those tapes was the great smoking gun tape where nixon actually says, we're going to use the cia to block the fbi from investigating the break-in. it led to the obstruction charge. and insofar as there is if not a parallel at least one of mark twain's historical rips you know it doesn't repeat itself but it rhymes, i do think what we saw this week in trumpland was the beginnings maybe even the middle of what an obstruction case might look like. we know --

barry goldwater, william buckley, what he is is the most effective anti-liberal in american history but it's not because he's conservative. it's because he applies common sense and so much of the liberalism is nuts if you apply common sense it just falls apart. i take seriously the story he tells about the woman he got to know who'd been advised to have an abortion and her daughter was with her and she was telling him the story, that was the decisive moment. so i give him that one. there was a story that he would contemplate legalizing marijuana. you can't assume he's going to walk in the room having spent 30 years thinking this stuff through. he was an fdr democrat and as late as 1948 made commercials for harry truman and hubert humphrey and hubert humphrey was the anti-communist liberal running against the procommunist liberal in minnesota we tend to forget just how bad that was and reagan became the anti-communist and then when he married nancy, her father was a very right-wing medical doctor and gradually through the series of conversations he began to be more and more anti-tax and

back in 1964, reagan understood this, in his speech for barry goldwater, the soviet union -- he knewis days in hollywood fighting off soviet provocateurs with the hollywood trade unions -- the soviets will never stop until somebody stands up to them. that is what reagan understood, fdr only in the last couple weeks of his life when he admitted to a reporter before he passed away that it was a mistake to trust joseph stalin. carter found out to his dismay with a mistake to trust *-- because within weeks of the assault, the soviets invaded afghanistan. that's what trump needs to understand. the culture, whether it's the soviets or russians, it doesn't matter. they respect strength, they abhor weakness, and you have to deal with them from a position of strength.y >> laura: how would you have advised him to handle this today differently? >> well, i would have pointed out the areas ofof agreement, pointed out the need to keep talking, pointed out the fundamental differences between the united states and russia, that there are things that could not be overcome whatsoever. just a fact of li

if you mean barry goldwater william buckley or reagan he is the most effective anti- liberal and americanhistory not because he is conservative but he applies common sense so much of modern liberalism is not one -- nuts if you apply common sense falls apart. i take seriously the story he tells about the woman he got to know who was advised to have an abortion and her daughter was with her but that was the decisive moment. i give him that one but also that he contemplated legalizing we are one. you cannot assume he will walk in the room having spent 30 years reagan originally was the fdr democrat and as late as 1948 made commercials for harry truman and humphrey but humphrey was the anti-communist liberal running against the procommunist liberal that is how bad. was. reagan became the anti-communist and then when he married nancy her father was very right wing medical doctor and gradually through conversations reagan began to be more and more anti- tax and then more working with general electric there is a book called the education of ronald reagan about the time the eight years he spent a

the breaking point finally occur when people like republican senator barry goldwater from arizona stood up and said there are so many lives you can take and now there's been one too many. he joined with several other republican senators and went down to the white house face-to-face with president richard nixon, sat in front of him and explained enough was enough. it will take that -- it will take that again for republican senators to have the courage to meet with this president and tell him he has to stop giving away the heritage, the values, and the legacy of the united states of america. mr. president, those courageous americans back in that day were, of cows, talking about -- of course, talking about laws and dangers to our democratic system. they took the oath of office, the same one we have taken to protect the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic and to put party second to obligations to our nation. for their courage we in history owe them a debt of gratitude. since yesterday's if i fiasco wh putin, only one republican has spoken specifically, he was joined with j

the committee that reviewed my father's case where prescott bush, president bush's grandfather, barry goldwater out .f arizona and senator russell the house office building is now named after him in downtown washington, d.c. there are eight hours of deliberation back and forth. at the end of the session my father is given a standing ovation, a pat on his back and good job for your country. he has been exonerated for any wrongdoing. but the miss information circulateo circle -- around. even today it continues to circulate around. that is why i want the book to be published. the personal journal and correspondence of cia you to pilot francis powers. for 20 plus friends years. he was a professor at brown university when i first met him. since that time back 20 plus years ago, we have been on several panel discussions and several lecture venues around the country. feelingshave no ill towards each other or towards our fathers. we look at it from a historic perspective. after dad was returned, this misinformation was still circulating around. even today continues to circulate around. partly because o

i kept thinking back time when people like hugh scott, a legendary senator, and barry goldwater and others showed up in nixon's office to tell him game's up. i don't know that they would be showing up to at the time president game's up. they would be showing up, though, to tell him, you know, mr. president, this has to stop. you've gone too far now. >> john, there are some americans, probably not a whole lot that are watching us tonight, but have a benign view of what the president's connection to russia is. they may believe the president's constant reiteration that's there was no collusion. but one is faced with the reality, senator tammy duckworth put it out today, where she says republicans in congress cannot continue to turn a blind eye toward the very real possibility that vladimir putin has compromised our commander in chief and turned him perhaps without his knowledge into a russian asset. one is left with diminishing possibilities here as to why donald trump won't take one of the easy options and try to confront vladimir putin 1/10 as much as he goes after trudeau and merkel and ma

the committee that reviewed my father's case were prescott bush, president bush's grandfather, barry goldwater, out of arizona, and senator russell. those three senators and their colleagues had eight hours of deliberation, questions back and forth. at the end of the session my father is given a standing ovation, a pat on his back and good job for your country. he has been exonerated for any wrongdoing. but the misinformation continue d to circulate around. and even today it continues to , circulate around. which is one of the reasons i bookd to have this published, which is titled "letters from a soviet prison." the personal journal and correspondence of cia u-2 pilot francis powers. it has a forward by khrushchev. khrushchev's son. we are friends. we have been friends for about 20 plus years. he was a professor at brown university when i first met him. back 20e that time, plus years ago, we have been on several panel discussions and several lecture venues around the country. he and i have no ill feelings towards each other or towards our fathers. we look at it from a historic perspective. no

understand political change, especially -- what really has driven my field is this idea that barry goldwater gets crushed in the 1964 presidential election, losing to a liberal texan who is running on a new society platform, we trust our government, government is good. who980, ronald reagan, begins his career as a goldwater conservative, is winning just about as big of a landslide election as johnson wins in 1964. how do we get from point a to point b. historians, for 30 years, have been trying to figure out the locations, the issues. what i wanted to do with this book is take a step back and say , a lot of these historians are right, and they are looking at different facets of political change since world war ii. they are all right, but they are not exclusively right. the story is about all these things together. what i really hope is that people will be able to step back and see a big narrative of change over time. i also really hope that what people see in this book is not an uninterrupted linear progression of conservative medical growth. the sun grant -- the sun belt really is a battleg

barry goldwater once had the proposal when expected that john kennedy would be his opponent of doing some joint travel together and instead of partisan rallies have give and take not unlike the lincoln-douglass debates. do you think a number of these appearances might help reputhpudeuate of more repudiate - -- claims they might be tempted to make? >> the trump-clinton bus tour. i think the danger is it would be the punch and judy show. aybe not so much in terms of mise.j. talked earlier about walter lippman. but in counter to the walter lippman verification we might throw in a lot of john dewey as well, modeling in mind i think that can repair some of the damage that is damaged by the punch and judy how. >> we often find -- we'll have politicians' office contact us and say why don't you guys look at this ad or this claim that my opponent is making. sometimes they will provide valuable information to help in the fact check but a lot of times a politician's fact check of another politician doesn't really get to the claim. it is kind of countering that claim with other claims. it is not

barry goldwater wants how the proposal that he suspected john kennedy would be his opponent of at least doing some joint travel together, and in store -- instead of partisan rallies give-and-take, more like the lincoln and douglas rallies. do you think these joint scripted appearances might help repudiate of more outlandish claims that candidates might other be -- otherwise be tempted to make? >> i think the danger would be the punch and judy show. maybe not so much in terms of misinformation. you talk about walter littman, to counter the walter littman verification, we might throw in a lot of john dewey there as well, which is to say that modeling something like conversation aiming towards shared purpose, we need a lot more of that. if that is what you have in mind, i think that can help repair some of the damage that was done by the punch and judy show. >> we will have a politicians office contact us and say hey, why don't you guys look at this ad or this claimant my opponent is making, and sometimes they will provide valuable information to help us fact checked, -- checks, but a lot

with heronnection father who ran with their he goldwater in 1964 -- barry goldwater in 1964.ler: yes. anyway, i am so glad i got through to talk to you, brother. host: we will pass on your well wishes to kimberly. caller: get her back when you can. host: she is in our building often. she is doing a lot more work with saudi other networks. john is joining us from clinton, new jersey, the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: great, how are you? caller: great. i was calling about the congressional and senate races. in the senate races, here in jersey and pennsylvania, i am not sure what the status is. caseyght it was senator in pennsylvania, like a tossup or close. i cannot believe that. no casey is ever going to lose in pennsylvania. his father was governor, auditor general and he has won every race. i do not think pennsylvania is going to go republican this fall. however, in new jersey, where we have not had republican u.s. senator since clifford case in menendezs with bob going on trial and getting convicted of corruption, , andioned by

liberals now who are saying, where is barry gold water when we need him, which is just -- we should all retire when people are saying that. what they mean is that goldwater and hugh scott and john rhodes went down to the white house and they told nixon he had to go. they did it on august 5th, after the tape came out and then nixon is gone by the 8th. so these things take time. i suspect your dad's expletive deleted remarks probably happened about this point in the summer of '74. quickly to john's point, 34, 35%, that was joe mccarthy's national approval rating after the army hearings. if they take trump back to moscow in an orange jump suit, 35% of the country will be with him. that's just the way american politics works. >> one of the president's republican allies, congressman darrell isa says he doesn't think republicans will pay the price in the fall if the president has proven to have lied about the trump tower meeting. >> if he's proven to have not told the whole truth about the fact that campaigns look for dirt and if someone offers it, you listen to them. nobody is going to be surprised. there are some things in politics that you just take for gra