>> guest: no, it was bobby kennedy who pretty much got johnson to bow out, pretty much. it was-- johnson was stunned by gene mccarthy's winning new hampshire. techie, jean mccartney did not win, but he had a much higher about that anyone expected. gene mccarthy was supposed to get 10% and he got over 40% of the vote and that was played as a win. johnson was stunned by it, absolutely stunned by it and was not sure where to go. bobby kennedy was also stunned by it and when i did not know at the time, was a high school kid time watching this and what i did not know is that bobby kennedy had been thinking about running for president before gene mccarthy and the people who eventually talked gene mccarthy into running for president first try to talk bobby kennedy into running for president and bobby kennedy chose not to do it and he wished gene mccarthy at least at the beginning, were naturally meant that, but then when he saw what gene mccarthy achieved in new hampshire bobby kennedy announced right away that he was now-- he saw how weak johnson was. that's what bobby kennedy

salinger calls of bobby kennedy at headquarters. bobby kennedy is furious. he says, "my god, we have lost the election." he calls the civil rights office and yells at them. he says, you are not going to do anything further in this campaign. you may have lost it for us with this one call. jack kennedy did not have a problem with it, they did. then, curiously, within a day, someone close to bobby kennedy, he has wonderful oral histories about this, he was a colleague and friend of ours and we interviewed him before his death, he got a call from bobby kennedy the next day and bobby kennedy is checking in and he says, "bobby, i need to tell you we have a crazy wire report from georgia that says you have talked to this crazy judge. don't worry, we already put out a retraction." bobby kennedy says, "you better withdraw that retraction because i did call him." it is very convoluted, but the governor wanted to get rid of a -- it is kind of a pontius he called and- said, "we will do anything to get martin king out of the jail. bobby kennedy, if you call the judge, he

bobby kennedy despised lbj. the scene at the hotel becomes incredibly dramatic. you finish the tale. >> kennedy bungled this because he should have known that johnson's attitude towards the vice presidency was also dogmatic. there were plenty of signs along that somebody who is paid better attention to the situation would have realized there was a chance here. told theogmatically story of flying to los angeles did he flew commercially. one of the people who sat on the trip was tony bradley. kennedy was under orders not to talk at that point because of his voice. they were scrambling messages back and forth so what about johnson they said, is scribble comes back he will never take it. he was wrong and he should have known better. when he came back up from the private one on one with johnson and says you are not going to believe this. he really wants this. at that point our narrative is picked up by bobby kennedy. , here is a genius historian and we are up there pages are looking at 1600 of bobby kennedy and there are several pages of them after the president was mu

bobby kennedy could have believed his brother's candidate history and his own reputation would have been tarnished if the castro assassination plot ever became public. it is possible, in fact, that robert kennedy blamed himself for his brother's murder. when i worked for the senate foreign relations committee, i had a conversation with the senator george mcgovern that has always stuck in my mind. he was a friend of robert and jacqueline kennedy. in 1978, mcgovern subcommittee on international operations was engaged in an inquiry into the activities of foreign intelligence agencies within the united states, including savak and the other intelligence services of some of america's upstanding allies. my colleagues and i had recently questioned cia officer's about the agencies liaison relationship with these forms services. the topic turned to assassinations in the assassination of president kennedy. warnedd that castro had only two months beforehand that american leaders would not be safe if they were hitting in terrorist bus to kill cuban leaders. i was standing and staring out the window,

lbj's 49 and then the next-- after that happened we won a landslide and right after that happened bobby kennedye senate went to the same senate room where jack kennedy declared for presidents, declared for the nomination and around march 17, a few days after new hampshire and then richard nixon had me at the end of march had me waiting in an airport, laguardia to report on him on what lyndon johnson said on his speech on vietnam because we're canceled our speech and i'm waiting in that limousine and i'm listening to lbj and that's when he announced he wasn't going to run again and he's out of the race all of a sudden. four days later doctor king was shot to death in memphis. my hometown, washington dc, i had calls from friends, seventh street was burning up, 14th street was burning up, federal troops on the nation's capital. this is what was going on in the spring. then came oregon, president nixon won six straight states. no one would contest him and get in again send my main fear was the fellow in california named reagan because as lies with the conservatives with us and nixon republicans no

the following tuesday morning, he's with bobby kennedy. and bobby kennedy is pressing to find weak spots and saying are you going to be political in this coming year. and he responds damn it, if i was going to political, i would be running again. it just shows an extraordinary moment in presidential life. here is one question that is probably good as we can head towards wrapping this up. thank you for the detail timeline. i think we all do think that. looking at our recent experience with political conflict, how can we learn more from the success of the cords program and your concept of associative power. >> thank you for the question. and i could go on for a long time. let me try to suggest this. power is actually a continuum. and i take this from clats wis. what does he say about war? war is an extension of politics by other means. what does this mean? war and politics are on the same continuum. politics is let's say over here with peace. and war is down here with violence. but they are interrelated. the ultimate war is nuclear annihilat

between the movements of the time and and the more establishment world the murders of him and bobby kennedy. but i think that there are there are lessons of what to do and what not to do one thing not to do is to look down on people that are in our tribe because tribalism ultimately can't succeed if it's coming from the left it's great for oligarchy they like to divide us all into tribes but if we want to create a majority hereon democratic world we have to transcend tribalism and the sixty's had way too much tribalism including on the left there were arguments between those that favored violence and nonviolence between those that thought the inner path was the most important thing that only political action was meaningful and there were arguments even within each category at tom haynes memorial service a few months ago there were people still on stage at his memorial service arguing against the candidacy of eugene mccarthy instead of bobby kennedy a fifty year old argument within the reformist wing of the democratic party we don't have the luxury of that today there has to be a way of havi

right after that happened bobby kennedy in the senate went to the senate -- it same senate room whereack declared for president. declared for the nomination and around march 17th few day after new hampshire. and then -- richard nixon had had me at the end of -- at end of march -- had had me waiting at an airport laguardia to report on him on what lyndon johnson said on his speech when vietnam because we had canceledded our speech i'm waiting in that limousine, and i'm listening to and -- listening to -- lbj that's when he announced he wasn't going to run again. and he's out of the race all of a sudden. four days later, dr. king was shot to death in memphis. riot and hundred cities my hometown, washington, d.c. i got calls from are friends 14th street burning up. federal troops in the nation's capitol marines, on the steps of the capitol itself -- this is what was going on in that spring -- and then came oregon, nixon president nixon won 6 straight states noone contest against him and main fear was a guy in california named reagan as long as we have the gold water conservatives with us

his secretary of defense who is very close to bobby kennedy, right? who was a potential threat and the joint chiefs and a lot of americans that believe that military power will solve all our problems. just go out there and as we used to say, kick ass. and we'll beat them all up and they're all go away and we'll win the war. and there is a bunch of americans getting stronger every day, which is the anti-war movement. how do you slice the salami? so what you do is you get the military almost everything they ask for and not everything. and then you do bombing pauses to please the doves and in the middle you propose the johns hopkins speech where johnson said to hanoi if you call off the dogs i'll put a billion dollars into village development in indochina and in north vietnam too. so johnson is constantly doing this. one of the criticisms that i think comes out which goes to the reputation point, why did johnson get this reputation of being escalation? is he never went public with sort of his strategy. i don't think there is any speech by johnson that sa

he wrote a book about bobby kennedy's life, political life and history of his family. it is enjoyable. >> booktv wants to know what you are reading. send us your summer reading list via twitter at booktv or instagram or post it to our facebook page. facebook.com/booktv. booktv on c-span. television for serious readers. >> pamela paul is here, "the new york times" reviewer, out with her book. who is bob? >> bob is my balk of -- book of books. he has been a companion i kept since 17. in one journal i have written down the title of every book i read. sgr >> what kind of condition is bob in? >> he is not in good shape. i keep getting asked to bring him along for appearance but it is an old fashion. not a fancy journal. i bought it at the corner stationary store and i spilled coffee on him. i feel like he is rotting from within and the binding is starting to fray as soon as i started talking about him. i don't know if is resentiment on his part. >> do you still record? >> oh, yeah. absolutely. as soon as i finish a book. i just got back from australia and read about five or

what drew you to bobby kennedy? >> well, i -- i really admired him. the energy and the sense of -- hope. that we can do it. we could, we could remake america. he inspired me. >> you know what was striking about him as i recall. he was a hero of mine. he had an extraordinary ability to reach across class lines. to reach across -- racial lines that i really have, not seen since. what was it about him that, that allowed him to go into poor white communities, poor black communities, working classette ne ethnic white communities in the urban areas and come away with people feeling like he was their advocate. >> i think we all, we all saw something in him. that was real. that he had this, the ability, capacity to identify with people. whether, black, white, latino, asian-american, native american. it was, it was his whole being. that he cared. >> his brother's assassination had something to do with it? >> oh, it changed him. made him a different person. it drove him to say to himself, you know, i will use my time to make things better. >> it is interesting.

when johnends was nominated for president in 1960, the director hoover called bobby kennedy, jack's brother and his campaign manager, and said he just was calling to assure the kennedys that even though the file existed at the fbi on jack and inga arvad, they could rest assured that j.ed gar here would make sure the file was terribly taken care of wouldn't see the light of day. the kennedys got he the message and the first phone call that jack kennedy made, the first phone call after he was elect president, the day after the election, was to call j. edgar hoover and ask him to stay on as leader of the fbi. hoover used jack kennedy's relationship with inga arvad to ensure his own continued performance as director of the fbi. >> whats the importance of the inga and jfk story? >> i didn't believe that john kennedy would have been president of the united states without having known inga arvad because of three different things. first, inga arvad gave him the confidence to pursue a political career. he always cared about world affairs and wanted to go into politics but understood that number -- a

and when john kennedy was nominated for president in 1960, director huber bobby kennedy was jack's brother and his campaign manager and said he was calling to ensure the kennedys that even though the file existed at the fbi on jack and inga arvad that they can rest assured j edgar hoover make sure that file was taken care of and wouldn't see the light of day. the kennedys got the message and the very first phone call jack kennedy literally the first after he was elected president the day after the election was to call j edgar hoover and asked him to stay on as director of the fbi even though he had been under pressure from liberals to fire huber huber is the relationship with inga arvad to keep ensure his performance at the fbi. >> what is the importance of the inga and huber story? >> i don't believe he would've been president without knowing inga arvad. first, inga arvad gave him the confidence to pursue a political career. he always carried about world affairs and wanted to go into politics that he understood he always been compared within the family to his older brother. kathleen kenne

bobby kennedy could have believed his brother's candidate history and his own reputation would have been tarnished if the castro assassination plot ever became public. that possible, in fact, robert kennedy blamed himself for his brother's murder. when i worked for the senate foreign relations committee, i had a conversation with the senator george mcgovern that has always stuck in my mind. he was a friend of robert and jacqueline kennedy. subcommitteevern on international operations was engaged in an inquiry into the activities of foreign intelligence agencies within the savakd states, including and the other intelligence services of some of my colleagues and i recently question cia officers at langley about the agency's liaison relationship with these foreign services. one day after work, i stopped by mcgovern's office to brief him on what we had learned. this was in 1978. no one else was present. us martinis.d the topic turned to assassinations. in the assassination of president kennedy. castro had warned only two months beforehand that american leaders would not be safe if they were

schlessinger wrote an incredible book about bobby kennedy's life, his political life, the history of his family, and it's certainly an enjoyable read. >> booktv wants know what you're -- wants to know what you're reading. end us your summer reading list @booktv or instagram at book underscore tv or post it to our facebook page, facebook.com/booktv. booktv on c-span2, television for serious readers. >> and you're watching booktv on c-span2. it's television for serious readers. we're in new york city at the publishers annual trade show, and what we like to do during the summer is preview some of the fall books that are coming out. next up we want to introduce you to zoe quinn the author of "crash override: how gamergate nearly destroyed my life and how we can win the fight against online hate." zoe quinn, what do you do for a living? >> guest: i usually make weird art, but ultimately i guess my day job is an independent game developer. but i also help run a crisis resource center for people being targeted by online harassment. >> host: we'll get to that, but let's go to the gamer part

bobby kennedy was the villain. the justice thought that as attorney general he should have testified on his behalf and he actually had this idea which is actually kwaned in the current times. the administration puts the judicial nominee ghard and the judicial nominee heads for the senate, the attorney general should come and testify. now we don't see much of that happening. it was a different time. the courts of appeals are much smaller and he obviously was a special case. he was a second african-american judge in the country and his nomination had been controversial for that reason. eastland had tried to talk the administration out of nominating him. also bobby kennedy was close to eastman, worked close to him and thought that bobby kennedy should have gotten to eastman and stopped the mistreatment. especially because the session was coming to an end at that point he recent appointment would have ended. i never checked this. the justice claimed that he could have gotten the second recess appointment but he couldn'

bobby really, i think was ahead of, of john kennedy. in understanding the need for empathy. ed for conscience. bobby was an early person who -- in the administration, who understood that the only way to, to push forward on civil rights, was for the people at the very top, john skkennedy, bobby kennedy, to imagine what it was look to be in the shufzoes of a black person in america. he conveyed that and was influenced by martin luther k g king. >> trying to get the ear of the president. face time with the ps. convince the president of your point of view. helps to have allies in the white house. did king have any allies around jfk? >> he had allies. yeah, harris wolford, met king in the 1950s. and in montgomery. went on to become a u.s. senator. >> became a u.s. senator. but, he, he was actually a very strong civil rights advocate within the white house. but he became frustrated by how slowly kennedy was moving forward. and he left after about a year or so. to go work in, in the peace corps. so, king lost a strong advocate. which was really unfortunate. he also had sargent shriv

he wrote a book about bobby kennedy's life, political life and history of his family. it is enjoyable. >> booktv wants to know what you are reading. send us your summer reading list via twitter at booktv or

of course jfk and bobby kennedy are together working side by side. they had a very special bond. bobby was his campaign manager and advisor. of controversy when jfk becomes president because he appoints his rather as attorney general with not a lot of experience. bobby stood up to the task. he starts to really understand the weight of the issues around the world. jfk knew he was going to run for president and hope to get the nomination from the democratic party. he traveled widely in the united photographer who photographed him for a number of years is very interesting. you see jfk at a moment in which he has to make some strong decisions. over on this wall is one of the many pictures while being on the , he was life magazine actually a sports photographer, a famous boxing photographer. nobody could figure out why he got the six -- this assignment. 1953, it is a really beautiful picture and shows the spirit of jfk. of course and 57, prior to him running for president, the great photographer, who had more life magazine coverage than any other during life magazine's many years as a

caller: my cousin is bobby kennedy. one, whents to make, this was going on in june, why wouldn't there have been a movement to maybe try and change state regulations on absentee voting? and betsy devos's brothers attended meetings in west africa, talked about his locker a trump, andt ivank i feel this new policy with president trump in cuba trying to restrict trade while there is this boom in russian investments, you know, the importance of looking more at what is happening there. host: a lot there to sort through, what do you want to pick up on from that? guest: one of the issues here, and we had known it from the beginning is that president trump's family does have business dealings abroad. businesstensive dealings abroad. one of the concerns from an ethics standpoint from the beginning is the present potential conflicts of interest and put the family and the president in a situation where it may look like they are trying to help themselves as opposed to the country. when you move into this situation, that background

but bobby kennedy had loads of experience in government and in politics and never would have taken presidentennedy's place at an important meeting like this summit that this took place. real issues clearly it's a challenge when it looks like the president's family members may profit from relationships with other countries at a time when we are discussing issues like north korea having nuclear weapons and what we do about it. real issues, real challenges, real problem. i don't think having ivanka in that kind of key position was in the best interest of the country. >> joe, thank you very much so. great to see you as well. she has the day off tomorrow, she's going to brunch. can you believe that? she has a day off. >> i'm very excited. >>> coming up in our next hour, training mission with a message. what just happened in the skies ne near north korea. later congressman suzan dell bean will be here to discuss tensions over north korea. t's d. got it. book the flights! hai! si! si! ya! ya! ya! what does that mean for us? we can get stuff. what's it mean for shipping? ship the goods. you're a go!

schlessinger wrote an incredible book about bobby kennedy's life, his political life, the history of his family, and it's certainly an enjoyable read. >> booktv wants know what you're -- wants to know what you're reading. end us your summer reading list

this is like bobby kennedy. he had to recuse himself.he same rule when john ashcroft refuses himself. this was expected and it had to happen. this is the big important thing. if the president forces him out, you can kiss the next six months goodbye if he forces out jeff sessions. if he forces him out because of the recusal, why did you do that because he did the right thing? it would be difficult to find someone new and you can imagine with the confirmation hearing would look like. we need a nominee who is on the front pages and the president would have little or no chance to get his message through. it would be a p.r. disaster and i think jeff sessions would do the president a great favor by staying exactly where he is. and i hope the president is convinced that is not in his best interest to go out and do this. >> jon: who would want the job if he was fired or quit? jeff sessions came out very strongly in early for a guy who was a long shot. it would make you wonder. >> any nominee would have to consider that if they do the right thing

interesting thing of that night is the first he'd been beaten in the first race since world war ii and bobby kennedy coming up from california. we went down to the front of the bench hotel. when an aide of mine called me from headquarters and said kennedy had been shot. it would be interesting if we went to the democratic convention more so than ours. so i went out there and i happened to have a suite on the 19th floor of what he called the comrade who tell. i had gone down in the street and went across and was partway at the school at grant park and they always pointed me out fbi, fbi. [laughter] so i was up on the 19th floor watching where they were raising cain and who walks in but norman mailer with the heavyweight champion josÉ torres and i was alone. we looked out and a line of police came down, turned to the right, turned up michigan avenue and they headed into the park and wailed on these folks for 15 minutes. josÉ torres was cursing the police. i remained silent because i was rooting for the police. [laughter] after what those fellows had been giving to me that their resolve the democratic

i can see truthfully that the example of jack and bobby kennedy helped guide me into politics and thatade me a better public servant once i arrived in washington. i have to imagine it would give them great pride to see a new generation of kennedys, like joe, carving their own proud paths in public service. for whatever reasons i receive this award, whatever the scale, the challenges that we overcame, and the scope of progress we made over my presidency, it is worth pointing out that in many ways the times that president kennedy confronted were far more perilous than the ones that we confront today. he entered the oval office at just 43, only a few years after khrushchev had threatened to bury america. wars raged around the world. large swaths of the country knew poverty far deeper and more widespread than we see today. a young preacher's cause was just gaining traction against a land segregated not only by custom but by law. and yet in that volatile tinderbox of a time, president kennedy led with a steady hand, diffusing the most perilous moment of the cold war without firing a single

"there were two assassinations of prominent people - martin luther king and bobby kennedy. there was riots on campuses and the chicago democratic convention at that time and yet at the end, at the end of that period, we were able to go to the moon on something that everybody thought was a good idea that brought everybody together." and do something first and before the soviets, before they could do it." "we accomplished something very important." "alright, houston we're hard dock. roger apollo 9, hard dock." "they're going to take the lunar module to the moon and they're gonna go down to about 47,000 feet." "and i thought that was just as dangerous if not more dangerous than just going down and landing." "the guidance was absolutely fantanstic and we'll give you the burns right now. this engine is just beautiful." "so apollo 10 was, i think may of 1969." "then neil armstrong, buzz aldrin, and mike collins, three guys born in 1930. all of them test pilots. they just ... fate, the arc of technology and these three guys come together and they get the first chance to land on th

when john kennedy was nominated for president, director hoover called bobby kennedy and said he was calling to assure the kennedys that even though this file existed at the fbi on jack , they could rest assured the j edgar hoover would make sure the file was taking care of and would not see the light of day. the kennedys got the message. the first phone call jack theedy made the day after election was to call j edgar hoover and ask him to stay on as director of the fbi, even though he had been under considerable pressure by liberals to fire hoover. >> what is the importance of chief -- inga and jfk story? >> i don't think he would have become president without her because of three things. she made it possible for him to pursue a political career. he always wanted to go to politics, but he was always being compared unfavorably within the family to his older brother. kathleen kennedy said it was heresy to suggest jack was better than joe junior. a said i can tell you, as somebody who has been on the world stage, you have everything it takes to be president of the united states if that's what

you have your excuse now. .hey have weapons kennedy, in a moment of tremendous greatness, says no, we're going to talk. he puts his brother bobby in charge of talking to the soviet emissary. you have nuclear weapons in turkey aimed at us, right on our borders. why can we not have nuclear weapons in cuba aimed at you? kennedy sees the hypocrisy of it and says your absolutely right. i will take my missiles out of turkey. they set all we're doing here is we have missiles because you are threatening to invade cuba, and kennedy says ok, i give you my bow we will not invade cuba, and they say ok, we will remove the missiles, and that shows they were defensive in purpose. that was the deal that was cut. it shocked the military, shocked the cia. it is impossible to overstate their reaction. look what kennedy had done in one fell swoop. he had pulled the carpet out from two or three years of study, report, analyses, regime change operations because they knew the only way to oust castro from power -- everything else had failed, assassination, everything -- was invasion. suddenly kennedy had said that is all over. that is why was called t

then say truthfully that example of jack and bobby kennedy helped guide me into politics. kennedy made me a better public servant once i arrived in washington. i have to imagine it would give them great pride to see a new generation of kennedys like joe -- proud past and public service. [applause] pres. obama: for whatever reason, i received this reward. we ever came, the scope of progress we made up for my presidency, it is worth pointing out that in many ways the time said president kennedy confronted were far more perilous than the ones we confront today. atentered the oval office just 43-years-old, only a few years after khrushchev had threatened to bury america. world.ged around the large swaths of the country, large swathes new poverty for deeper and more widespread than we see today. preacher's cause was just gaining traction across a lan segregated not only by custom but by law. volatilein that tinderbox of a time, president kennedy led with a steady hand. if using the most perilous moment of the cold war without firing a single shot and enforcing the rights of youn

that the truthfully example of jack and bobby i can say truthfully that the example of jack and bobby kennedythem great pride to see a generation of kennedy's like joe carving -- whatever reason i received this award, to overcome the worth whiting is out that in many ways, the times that is that kennedy confronted were four -- more perilous than what we confront today. he entered the oval office at e3, only a few years after christian had -- nikita khrushchev threatened to bury america, new poverty far deeper and more widespread than we see today, a young preacher's cause .as gaining traction and yet and that volatile tinderbox at the time, president kennedy led with a steady hand. confronting the most heartless moment without firing a single shot. enforcing the rights of young black men and women to study at the university of their choice, unleashing a quarter of investors to distant corners of the globe. setting america's sites on the refusingt was hard and the kid has to consider the possibility that we might not win this race race. he had an unwavering faith in the character of the people

i think of john kennedy and bobby kennedy both had government experience. these guys neither do. >> and phillip one last question. there is a great word called institutionalist. it's not always a dirty word and sometimes it's a changed to kind of mean establishment times. but sometimes when you're working with a vast unwieldy and new-to you organization aka being, the federal government it's good to have an institutionalist around. >> that's right i don't think could call him jared kushner an institutionalist of the government. but he is trying to nafrgt it and remake it at the same time here. that's challenging in washington. there is resistance to that that but he is burrows trying to get it gun tp i can tell you talking to people close to him there is chatter on the outside should he go back to new york is it easier to quit. he and ivanka are said to be determined to stick it out gut it toum deal with russia on the side but continue to advise father and father in la zblau thank you both, rick stengel phillip rucker as walls. >> thank you. >> coming up th

bobby kennedy was the attorney general for his brother. there is precedent here.ent's prerogative to choose his staff. >> heather: hillary clinton fell into the same type of situation, it was eventually decided that as the first lady she could take on this health care debate. what do you think about it? >> nepotism is as old as dirt in politics, business, even the entertainment industry. it is nothing new for presidents going back to john adams. i think for president trump's agenda, they are getting in the way. as these legal woes continue to mount, there could be some serious conflicts of interest. there is also a law that stops all other people in the government from hiring, promoting, being the supervisor of one of their family members. in 1978 a law passed that allowed a little more leeway for presidents. president carter tried to appoint one of his sons, president obama and president reagan were all turned down by the justice department. why is president trump above the same type of grilling that came from the justice department shutting down previous preside

. >> you heard what bobby kennedy. he said 30 years from this year negro can become president.eat me right or i'll get in there and raise taxes on you. don't get me wrong, i wouldn't mind paying income tax if i knew it was going to a friendly country. >> there's something about giving somebody a fact or piece of information that may be a little confrontational that people may object to, but if you can turn it into a punch line, they're much more open to it. gregory understood the power of comedy. >> one day in new york, the phone rang. my wife said, jack's office. get on the phone, hi, dick, would you come on the show tonight? i said, no, thank you. and i hung up. because a black person couldn't sit on the couch. okay. the phone rang again. it's paul. dick, mr. paar, how come you don't want to work my show? i said, because a black person never sit on the couch. he said, come on. i said, no, no. he said, well, come on in, i'll let you sit on the couch. that's how it happened. >> what kind of car you got? >> a lincoln, naturally. >> well, that's -- that's -- >> to have dick grego

. >> and you heard what bobby kennedy said, 30 years from this year, negro can become president.raise taxes on you. i mean, don't get me wrong, i wouldn't mind paying my income tax if i knew it was going to a friendly country. >> there was something about giving somebody a fact or a piece of information that may be a little confrontational, people may object to it. if you can turn it into a punch line, they are much more open to it, and gregory understood the power of comedy. >> now another guy you will see in tonight's show is comedian russell peters. he has performed routines in front of sold out crowds all around the world from london, australia, singapore, he was named one of the best stand-up comics of all time by rolling stone. and he is joining us now, russell, great to have you with us, you have lots of fans here in the news room who are really excited to hear from you tonight. you're canadian, your parents integrated from india in the 1960s, as your ethnicity inspired your routines? >> if you've seen my act, you know that, ana, come on, lady. >> yeah, of course. >> maybe

. >> that's bobby kennedy's grand son. i want to deal with thum aspeis.me a sense of your duty. how this affects you or how does it affect your feeling and thinking about what the president just said today. >> it's just a terrible message that the president he has sent to our active service, openly transgender service member who's are putting their lives on the line to defend this country. and protect freedom. and it sends a terrible message to them that they're not worthy of being protected. and we're confident that we'll stand up against this, this awful move. people shouldn't have to live in the shadows. this has been done in many other countries. >> in israel. how was your experience as military person this regard to your orientation? >> it was really difficult. i had to hide who i was. and i lived in constant fear that i would be outed. and at the time that i served, you would be discharged if you were openly transgender. so you lived in the shadows. i was constantly afraid that i would get a call in to a commanding officer and be informed that i wou

this is why people were concerned about bobby kennedy being a.g. it's hard to fire your brother.rd to fire your son-in-law. and jared kushner is now, we know attended a meeting. the premise of the meeting was russia helping donald trump's campaign. we know he went to a meeting where it was reported he tried to set up a back channel with russia. i think if this was not a son-in-law, i think that, you know, the appropriate course would be for him to take a leave of absence and not have a security clearance until this investigation is over. because he's a son-in-law, that creates these uncomfortable issues so i don't know if i agree exactly what representative flores is proposing but i think the nepotism laws need to be looked at for sure. >> i'll give you the last word, andre. >> i know we in the media continue to talk about this but i haven't seen one person on the street have this concern. i think the american people, it really isn't fazing them. it's not what people are talking about. they're talking about job creation, taxes, they're talking about obamacare and what's going to

john kennedy and bobby kennedy, they both had government experience.se guys, neither of them do. >> and last question, institutionalist, it's not always a dirty word and sometimes it's changed to mean establishment types. but sometimes when you're working with a vast, unwieldy and new-to-you organization, aka the federal government, it's good to have an institutionalist around. >> that's right. i don't think anybody could call jared kushner an institutionalist of the government. but he's trying to navigate it and remake it at the same time here. that's going to be challenging in washington. there's some resistance to that. but he's burrowing in and trying to get this work done. i can tell you in talking to people close to him, there's chatter on the outside, should he just give up and go back to new york, is it easier to quick, and he and ivanka are said to be completely determined to stick this out, gut it out, deal with russia on the side, but continue to advise their father and father-in-law. >> terrific discussion, gentlemen, thank you both. >> tha

. >> you heard what bobby kennedy said, he said 36 years from now, a black man can become president.the history of comedy" at 10:00 eastern, 8:00 pacific. >>> "the lead" with jake tapper starts now. >>> "the lead" starts right now. breaking news. a new report says a man with alleged ties with russian intelligence was also in the room with the president's son and son-in-law and campaign chair on the day they were expecting dirt on hillary clinton. what else do we not know? is an apology enough? a top official in the department of education under fire for flippantly stating, falsely, that 90% of college sexual assaults are because of drunk hook-ups

. >> or bobby kennedy. >> he would be the prime example but that's not what we think of. we don't think of the attorney general being the president's lawyer. we think of him being the lawyer for the country. in a way that's very important institutionally. it is interesting that jeff sessions, democrats are not big fans of jeff sessions when he was named attorney general bust now he is seen by democrats as someone who is standing up for the institution. >> why doesn't somebody tell trump that? that attorney generals are a bit independent. they're almost part of court system sflflt if you're a business leader maybe, your chief lawyer, chief counsel, is watching your back. that's his number one client. but for the attorney general, the president is not in fact his number one client. >> well, trump got it wrong. today trump seemed the dismiss session's early endorsement of his candaidacace yiflt he said t to alabama. i had 40,000 people. he was a senator from alabama. i won this state by a lot. massive numbers. a lot of the states i won by were massive numbers. he looks at 40