tom brokaw on the greatest generation and the new global threat we are battle now. >>> and a mother's day like no other. the front line workers isolating away from their kids >> are you crying, ruth >> yes they're happy tears. very happy tears >> and the moments together they'll never forget >> announcer: this is nb "nightly news" with kate snow. >> good evening. we begin with late news at the white house that the vic president will take the advice of the white house medical unit and out of an abundance of caution will give a little distance between himself and others for the next day or two. several other top officials are self isolating in some form after two people who work at the white house tested positive for coronavirus. we have our team of correspondents covering every angle for you tonight. we begin with kelly o'donnell at the white house. good evening, kelly. >> reporter: good evening, kate. today a white house official says the vice president, out of caution, i laying low this weekend and has no restrictions on the schedule for the coming week. he is following the guidance

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meritede is our film, by tom brokaw -- narrated by tom brokaw, which gives our visitors the overarchingut next to me, over here on the left, a very special exhibit. this is an exhibit case that is long, thin line of english. bernie pyle walked the beach is where the american forces landed dd he saw all of the the beach.war at what we have in this case is actual artifacts and sand from utah and omaha beaches. he writes about what he found. you can see he talks about shoe polish, showing kids diaries, bibles, hand grenades, toothbrushes, razors, and he particularly singles out in his column writing paper. he talks about how the young men who gave their lives at normandy intended to write an awful lot of letters back home and the other thing they had an awful lot of was cigarettes. he said that packs of cigarettes had been handed out to the troops before the landings began and he made the comment that the line of cigarettes up and down the beach marked the high water of this sacrifice at normandy. it is a moment for our audiences after the film to pause and reflect about what was going on

makers even more important in 2900 we really saw the emergence of online journalists and reporters brokaw through life videos online is not a new trend but a feature on you tube and facebook was especially useful for us when brokaw sting the democracy movement live rather than 00000000000000000000000 reader. really allowed us to fume hong kong policeman to document their actions and behaviors on the front line as stand news we explicitly stated our support for the freedom of democracy those who cared about the movement felt stand news share the same values there was a sense of collective empathy although the. people really sold the independent a new house to be. showing what was really happening on the frontlines and they didn't feel they were compromised in the same way that like to see the mainstream media be. real support for these outlets people would follow them live streams these messages learned individual john is lending them encouraging and this also translates into a lot of financial. journalist who's held me the height of the protests they were receiving you know 100. well wish

introducing the man that coined the phrase the greatest generation, tom brokaw. >> v-e day, i was 5 yearsctory in europe and world war ii. an enormously important celebration. we had taken on hitler and europe and prevailed with the help of our allies when a lot of people didn't think it was possible. now is the time to remember the glory of v-e day. >> my dad was a imagimajor infl to join the united states marine corp. he inspired me to wear the uniform myself. the most senior officer in the military was also inspired by his mother and father to serve our country. i would like to introduce the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general mark milley. >> both my parents were part of the greatest generation and proudly served in world war ii. my mother served with the navy at a hospital in seattle taking care of wounded. my father was with the 4th marine division and made assault landings. both have passed on, but i carry their example of integrity and selfless service as daily inspiration. >> since the mid '90s we've been losing these heros at the rate of about 1,500 a day. now we're do

film narrated by tom brokaw. it gives our visitors the overarching story of d-day at normandy. leftto me over here on the is a very special exhibit. this is an exhibit case longated to bernie pyles thin line of anguish column. beacheslly walked the at normandy, omaha beach, utah beach, where the american forces landed. he saw all of the war left over by troops who had been killed coming ashore at the beach. what we have in this case is actual artifacts and sand from utah and omaha beaches. he writes about what he found. you can see he talk about shoe polish, showing kids diaries, bibles, hand grenades, toothbrushes razors. he particularly singles out in his column writing paper. he talk about how young men who gave their lives at normandy, intended to write a lot of letters back home. the other thing that they had an awful lot of was cigarettes. he said that packs of cigarettes had been handed out to the troops, before the handings began and he made the comment that a line of cigarettes up and down the beach, marked the high water of this sacrifice there at normandy. moment for

i'm tom brokaw, nbc news, new york. [end of video clip] >> i have to tell you that most americans thought the pardon was the wrong decision at the time. it sent the wrong signal that powerful politicians like nixon were above the law, while normal -- while ordinary citizens like you are i would have gone to jail for the same thing. certainly archibald cox felt that way at the time. ford understood that criticism, but he sincerely believed pardoning nixon was the best thing for the country, which is what he told me multiple times when i first interviewed him in 1995. i want to tell you about that interview. i met with ford in a hotel in new york city. it was part of my work on the archibald cox book. i wanted to get his side of the story, because i thought the pardon was a bad idea, archibald cox thought it was a bad idea. he was impassioned when he talked about it. as he talked, he pulled out his wallet from his back pocket and pulled out a little scrap of paper and read it. it was a citation to a supreme court case, bu

behind me is our film, narrated by tom brokaw which gives our visitors the overarching story of d-day at normandy but next to me, over here on the left is very special exhibit this is an exhibit case and is dedicated to ernie pyle, who actually watched the beaches at normandy where the american forces landed. he saw all of the traces of war left over by troops who had been killed coming to shore at the beach. what we have in this case is actual artifacts and sand from utah and omaha beaches. ernie pyle writes about what he found. he talks about shoe polish, sewing kits, and grenades, toothbrushes, razors and he singles out in his column, writing paper, he talks about how young men who gave their lives at normandy intended to write an awful lot of letters back home. they had an awful lot of cigarettes as well. he said packs of cigarettes had been handed out to the troops before the landings began and he made the comment that sodden cigarettes were lined up and down the beach and marked the high water of the sacrifice there at normandy. it is a moment for our audiences after the film to

to show you a brief clip that tom brokaw, the iconic news anchor for cnbc, did for us at any event at duquesne for the 40th anniversary in 2014. ascovered the pardon for nbc these events unfolded 40 years earlier. here he is as he talks about his recollections of that incredible time. how will i remember gerald ford's pardon of richard nixon? the disgraced president who was forced to leave office because of watergate. it was a sunday morning. the social climate in washington was very relaxed. all that we had been through in that city. 1973, spiro agnew had been forced to resign. then we had the long seizure of watergate, the supreme court decision that, tortured explanation i richard nixon, and ultimately, his resignation. there was an enormous amount of relief. not just in washington, but across the country such goodwill from gerald ford, who seemed to always do the right thing. i was at a brunch at the home of the housing secretary when we began to hear that gerald ford was about to pardon richard nixon. it seemed like a signal that had come from outer space, some kind of alien envi

nightly news host tom brokaw was also interviewed extensively bester stay in the network has a quote cover up culture during which she called her several hours long interview with investigators in a statement bester saying that lack was one of many in orchestrating a cover up on fox news to her carlson confirms the ongoing investigation with former n.b.c. producer and investigative journalist rich mchugh that's that is true i'm aware of it i have been looking into it for a story. it was the new york attorney general's office civil division make you left n.b.c. after he was told to stop reporting on the harvey weinstein scandal by then chairman andy lack of though lack deny mchugh's accounts calling it lies in an op ed mchugh says the more reporting we gathered the more nervous they got but lott wasn't the only one trying to get mchugh and ron and farrow to go silent about their findings on harvey weinstein n.b.c. news president no open haim was also very vocal about it and is still at the network as tucker carlson points out how can and you act be gone but no oppenheimer still there

a program out of the headlines on al-jazeera venezuelan state television has brokaw's video of the man it says is one of 2 u.s. mercenaries captured after the alleged plot against president nicolas maduro the u.s. government say they others were detained after a failed beach landing the u.s. government denies being involved at least 5 people including a child have been killed in a gas leak in southern india up to $300.00 people are reported to them hospitalized in a factory that produces plastics the city of. this state is of her own and has more now from india's capital new delhi. so what we're hearing is local government officials say that they received an emergency call from the industrial area in the southern city of them at around 3 30 in the morning saying that they with gas from the air they say that when they arrived on the scene that it was difficult to breathe but they couldn't stay in the area for more than a few minutes rescue workers started arriving at 4 o'clock in the morning now the national disaster relief agency has been called evacuating people within a 3 kilometer r

france brokaw when he was working for nixon, when nixon would put a metal on someone it would often remind finally had to put scotch tape on the metals . so he shows up he's greeted by a song written just for that occasion to that theme because at that point, everything is falling apart for him and he was going to the base. and that was 40 years ago, 45 years ago. so there was very much a concerted effort on the part at that point of the republican party in the same way the democratic party was reaching out to the counterculture . when youlook at the march on washington, bob dylan was there, peter paul and mary .re he had an answer to this so if you're despairing of where things are, this is a perennial story. and then we crash into the 1980s with president reagan and the whole notion of mourning in america . and two different songs that are really two sides of that going. >> you can listen to lee greenwood's god bless the usa and it can really move you and you can listen to bruce springsteen, born in the usa and be a big fan of that and they both have different meanings and they come from

. >> reporter: in 1965, tom brokaw was a reporter for wsb-tv, atlanta's nbc affiliate. >> nbc said, wed you at the station to coordinate all the videotape feeds that are coming in. i went to the office that day, and we began to get these terrible reports of the violence. >> it's a lot of smoke. >> i was in the editing room with all this videotape, and there was a videotape editor that i was very fond of. he was a fourth generation southerner, white guy, and he was a decent man, and he began to look at this stuff, and i'd say, eddie, it cannot go on. >> well, i -- and he would, well, look, here. i'd say, eddie, look again. i'd make him roll the tape back. these are cops, they're beating these people, and they're beating them nearly to death. come on, eddie, and he looked again, he said, it's wrong. it's wrong, and he lowered his head. that was the power of television. it could bring it right to your home and to your heart. you could not deny what was going on. you couldn't excuse it in some way. >> by the mid-1960s, watching television had become a nightly ritual in most american househ

correspondent and fox news journalist and about two years ago she confirmed her allegations against tom brokawhe broke exclusively with a set variety. >> tucker: we spoke with some people today too, there are a lot of them. and the lack left yesterday. noah oppenheim was the other executive, there he is on the right who helped squash the weinstein story, in between them is nicole wallace who is currently an anchor. it does raise the question, have current nbc employees complained about the behavior of their executives or are they backing the executives -- where are they? >> i've spoken too many people within nbc past and present. the general consensus has been hallelujah, andy lack is finally out, it took too long. but people are still saying there's more that has to be done. you mentioned noah oppenheim, he was heavily mentioned in ronan farrow's book, rich mccue is ronan farrow's producer. it doesn't take a genius to figure out that andy lack's successor was going to be noah oppenheim and now he's going to be replaced by someone else, that's probably not good news. >> tucker: it's really har

tom brokaw wrote a great book called it boom, 1968.ngeburg massacre, my father was shot, three others were killed. 28 others shot along with my father on the campus of south carolina state university. also had assassination of dr. king april 4th of '68 and assassination of robert kennedy. combined with uprisings from soldiers coming back home in vietnam, this is reminiscent of this year. i want people to understand we're only one generation away. trauma that many people, black folk, are displaying in the streets right now is real trauma, perpetual sense of grieving that you're seeing, underlying cause. i'm a son of the civil rights movement and i love brother cornell west, but my father and i are sharing too many of the same experiences. i'm 35, buried a good friend worshipping in church with others. he had emmitt till, i have tamir rice and breianna and george an ahmaud. i want to take the statements further. lot of white folk watching the program, trying to figure out what they can do. that's interesting question. first thing you hav

and then aid of his in the senate was part of the investigation and tom brokaw with that old cbs in timelife had the goods with the full dossier and ready to go public and when kennedy was assassinated and then to put it back in the box and this is important because they were through a dramatic transition to have a situation a scandal breaks and at the height of the cold war the new president of the united states has to resign. there is no 25th amendment so no provision so for replacing c would have gone to the speaker of the house as acting president and had to schedule a special election. so this is an interesting ethical debate. i should know the name but i don't so the country had been through this dramatic transition and also word is fascinating how kennedy hated lbj but it was clear to the kennedys taking the final trip to texas that he didn't have this way and texas they thought he did even if he wasn't willing to resign you can speculate they would find a way to rotate him off the ticket now the conventional wisdom is that you don't get civil rights act of 64 if not elected but t

and this is something we're going to get into a little bit later in the program but colleagues in brokaw's media where arrested and 'd even the day was not heard about that any word on the street about why this might have happened. i think why this is happening is because people feel like so many people feel here that the minneapolis police haven't are not haven't been held accountable they feel like there is racism in the police department they feel that their concerns are not or they feel that. that is what. they want to even charge so i think that that's what you. are out of there will be there for the time being thanks very much indeed for that update from on the ground in minneapolis will be with you as the own thanks very much in the meantime let's speak to you gave it as one do joins us live now to talk about protests happening elsewhere in the united states and george floyd's death has ignited protests in at least 6 all the cities. yeah that's right this is really touched a nerve that video seeing george floyd dying there with the officer with his knee and his neck has touched a ne

i wasn't sure that wasn't much more than an excellent marketing slogan for brokaw's book. i've come to terms with it and i accept it, i think, only if we include the whole country. as you said, the country was unbelievably unified. and it happened in an instant but it stayed right on through the war. and how we get that again none of us here in this audience can say today, certainly i can't. but the unity was the great thing during world war ii. >> my grandfather used to tell me -- and this could translate maybe to some students -- prior to seeing the movie, you would see a newsreel regarding the war and it would say, "please don't buy canned food. we theed to hneed to ship it to soldiers." it would be general public items, things you do everyday would help the entire war effort so both on the radio movies, everywhere you would see some sort of effort, you are at home but you can pitch in to this effort. >> yeah. >> you don't see that anymore. >> we were welcomed home, as the troops are today. i'll tell you a humorous story about what happened, just very briefly. we're on

the college students protesting on cam pause were gunnpus per w >> that was tom brokaw reporting.ks for putting together that really incredible report. riveting. >> thank you for that, tom. >> still ahead, president trump admits social distancing has been effective at stemming deaths from the coronavirus. yet, as more people die, the president says states aren't reopening fast enough. is he putting his re-election strategy over people's lives? we're back in one minute. there are times when our need to connect really matters. to keep customers and employees in the know. to keep business moving. comcast business is prepared for times like these. powered by the nation's largest gig-speed network. to help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need. tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere. and a team of experts - here for you 24/7. we've always believed in the power of working together. that's why, when every connection counts... you can count on us. >>> let us remember how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat. in the final analysis, w

sidy passed away, and so the president called up tom brokaw and said, will you do this as a favor?tom had started out his career as a white house correspondent in the ford presidency. so he was one of the speakers in the cathedral. but ford, you know, ford's -- when he lived in alexandria, when he was a republican house leader, his phone was in -- his phone number was in the book. and his private number, every reporter in town had it. so he used to call a late, great reporter for the chicago daily news, i believe, who said that the role of the reporter is akin to that of a man on horseback who rides down the middle of the street breaking an equal number of windows on each side. >> change the tone a little bit here. someone asked, was a sense of humor considered one of the important presidential attributes? part two, with that in mind, where did calvin coolidge rank? >> you know, coolidge didn't say much, but what he said was funny. the great -- grover cleveland, who as you pointed out, true story. grover cleveland had very few friends on capitol hill, particularly in the talkative

guard on a landing craft during d-day six years ago, he walked on the beaches of normandy with tom brokawevisit it. >> love your freedom because that's what -- >> happy birthday. thank you for your service ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ >> we heard about the parade and wanted to check in frank is still sharp as a tack. >> reporter: what was it like when y street >> my cup runneth over i never saw anything like that in my life for me for me little frankie from brooklyn, no i was amazed i was amazed. >> reporter: fi wasn't mistaken, i may have seen a tear or two well up? >> i did cry a little bit. yeah, i did. >> reporter: frank was one of those guys who didn't talk about the war for decades. he speaks to school and church groups now to try to make real what for many young people is a faded black and white part of america's past. >> i'll tell you how lucky i am. when he hit the beach, 33 machine guns there, mg-42s, best machine guns in the war, firing at carety flying to my right and to my left. two guys next to me went down. why i survived, i don't know. >> reporter: fro clom colonial s to toda

linda vester who was a longtime correspondent who had already accused tom brokaw of unwanted advances the 90s, she has spoken to the state investigators, as has a former aide to matt lauer as has an employee who worked for chris matthews who was recently fired amid complaints about his movement and also megyn kelly. so this investigation looks to be at a pretty advanced stage, although probably it might lead to some kind of civil suit if there is found to be a hostile work environment. it much less likely there would be criminal charges. >> ed: he is now investigating some of this from the outside as an independent journalist and he was on with tucker last night and here's what he said about the significance. >> that is true. i'm aware of it. i've been looking into it for a story and it was the attorney general's office civil division. so we are not sure if it could be anything criminal but i do that they've been looking into this and interviewing employees over a number of months. >> ed: an important distinction there that we don't believe this is criminal, it's the civil division. t

your colleague, tom brokaw, is going to moderate it and we are having these very discussions because you give you black and white answers. don't ask me if it's going to be safe because safe is a relative term. it's like a light switch on and off. we're talking about a restat. i would say plan for school to start, plan for all these things, but have those alternative plans where if you have to suddenly stop on a dime and give back nine cents change, you can. but plan as if we're going to go forward. plan your lives, but just know that we are going to have a lot of additional interactions with this virus that we're not going to want to have. >> words that certainly get our attention and, doctor, this is why we will continue to invite you on with us to help us walk through this health and safety mine field. dr. michael osterholm of the center for infectious disease, research and policy, thank you so very much. >> thank you very much. >>> we take our first break this hour. when we come back, one day after threatening withhold federal aid to the state of michigan, there he is in the state

and the president called up tom brokaw and said will you do this as a favor. tom started out his career as a white house correspondent. he was one of the speakers. but you know, ford's -- when he lived in alexandria. his home was in -- his phone number was in the book. his private number, every reporter in town had it. so there was a late great reporter for the chicago daily news that said the role of the reporter is akin to that of a man on horseback who rides down the middle of the street breaking an equal number of windows on each side. >> change the tone a little bit here, someone asked was a sense of humor an important presidential attribute and with that in mind where did calvin coolidge rank? >> he didn't say much, but what he said was funny. grover cleveland, true story, he was on capitol hill, particularly in the talk, late in the middle of the night mrs. cleveland wakes the president and says there are thieves in the house, grover. and he said no, my dear, the achie thieves are in the senate. and harry truman said without a sense or hu of humor a man