doug brinkley has talked a little bit about that. in general, other than lincoln, they don't do well in the survey. guest: that's true. they are challenged by a great number of issues. jackson, you have political and social reform. person certainly is the that we normally think of in terms of political reform during this. in terms of the spread of democracy for the so-called common man. the other social reformers are not jacksonian democrats at all, they are whigs. that's what jackson faced at this. he had very negative things. the other presidents as well. they are dealing with sectionalism and not happen -- handling it very well. you had someone like peers and fillmore and buchanan, especially. with buchanan just allowing the civil war to occur, nor -- allowing north carolina to secede from the union and then other states alling suit. and other states following suit. and not doing anything about it. california on a republican line, can, welcome. caller: thank you for taking my call. the two greatest democratic presidents in my judg

host: let's start with doug brinkley. guest: truman is a great win. i would go with franklin roosevelt. when the great depression came america, he was able to come in with the civilian conservation corps to plant 3 billion trees and start repairing the land of america that had been abused by the big agriculture. i think we were lucky to have fdr when we did. , i am a big admirer of mr. monroe. when he was president, we called it the era of good feeling. after the war of 1812 we needed to heal as a country. monroe came in and was exceedingly popular for two terms. he studied the united states at a crucial time. underappreciated one. he was the perfect president for his moment after the war of 1812. host: richard norton smith? guest: i think it's tough to beat the first president, the president who defined the office and the republican experiment atop which it stood. office.on took by the standards of his time, he was an elderly man. by modern standards he would've been almost 80 years old. he complained that his hearing was going. he was very sensitive

doug brinkley, he always hadab historical reference that nobody else had that could create a coined ofdo you think he would find as the most important or significant historical reference that would describe this time of donald trump? >> well, he probably would have turned back to george orwell, who he loved so much, and the very fact of the matter is, orwell's books are back in circulation. and the one consistency of this contrarian, christopher hitchins, our friend, was his disdain of authoritarianism in any guise. and he would go after-- whether it's henry kissinger, the catholic church-- he did not care if he smelled authoritarianism. so i think the moves of donald trump to suppress the-- suppress journalists would drive hitchins mad. >> although, it's hard for me ton where he would have come down on this election. lesli, what do you think? >> i think christopher would have been appalled by trump, but he also would have said, "who gave us trump? hillary clinton." i mean, christopher was not, as you know, a big supporter of hillary clinton. >> no. >> and feel that he would have said

steve is a law professor and doug brinkley, a presidential historian. john, i want to start q you. you know judge gorsuch. is he a scalia clone? >> well, i don't think he's a scalia clone, but i think like the american people saw last night, he's an incredibly intelligent man, but he's also a very kind, gray slous and polished person. and so he's certainly not a scalia clone in the sense he has some views that are different than the late justice. but he's a wonderful, wonderful pick for the administration, and i think the american people are going to not only respect his credentials, but as they get to know him, they're going to like him. >> why will they really like him? >> because he's genuine. he's really committed his life to the law, and he is a warm person. i think you saw some of that last night in the ceremony, the way he interacted with the audience. he's have very magnetic personality and a good person. i think you'll see the people of the united states, as they get to know him, they're going to like him. >> steve, if judge gorsuch is confirmed, he wouldn't really change

. >> hockenberry: what would he think of bannon, doug brinkley? >> as martin pointed out, it's like swiss cheese filled with holes. hitchens was deeply well read and a brilliant interpreter of modern life and bannon is sort of a goldman sachs hack, wanna be producer in hollywood who kind of stumbled on this policy in 9/11 a policy of raw american nationalism, thoughtless. hitchens' word against established religions in general, and so, the fact of bannon trying to play some kind of god donald trump, you know, the first lady reading the lord's prayer at the florida rally the other way, those are things that would have irritated hitchens, but i do think he would have aimed for bannon for the intellectual poser and, also, leslie nailed it, too. there's no way christopher hitchens would have voted for hillary clinton. >> hockenberry: what do you think his verdict on the state of the american system would be right now? >> well, i think a couple of things. with one, remember christopher said the totalitarian is my enemy, not the person who tells you how

done quickly of rice university -- doug brinkley of rice university.that is coming up at 8:00 eastern we go to conrad and hear from pennsylvania. good morning, republican line. caller: boy it is very difficult to get on this network. watch this daily. -- i this daily. host: glad you got through. caller: me too. i was an independent before trump. i am glad you brought up this subject today because i have had a lot to say but unable to get on the network on c-span. i am a c-span junkie. i turned republican because of trump's direction. i am a vietnam veteran from 1963 to 1967. elections, i noticed we were having protests at that time, but they were not all against the war. some of them were against the fact that the major families that owned newspapers in this country were buying them all up. we knew what was coming, which this election has obviously made it the most important part of direction that they are controlling us. the media does control us. they kept us in that war until 1974. what i wanted to mention is some of the issues that came up. hubert humphrey brought it against presi

know host: you hosted a wonderful documentary last night with the same title of your book and doug brinkley made the point that the green knight had not been given by the eisenhower administration. actually, use rose in the planning process. do you think part of that is misunderstanding between the military mind at work and civilian mind in other words you would have any number of contingencies ready to go so that the president always had options? guest: zero course and i think that is lost in time. that is lost in the years that have gone by, so it's kind of molded into this storyline that obviously fit the kennedy folks to be able to talk about this as an operation that he moved forward, but there were clear stipulations at your grandfather made that he did not follow. host: and had not actually decided to go ahead. so, i'm curious about-- there are other wonderful speeches he gives, one of them was called, it was the one to the press club, cross of iron that's often referred to in a way it sort of a book into the farewell address. what was it about the farewell address aside from the bal

doug lis brinkley. and laura coates. a big panel. this is a big story. david gergen, you first. a stunning blow in your assessment to the president's travel ban. >> absolutely. it's astonishing. i think in fairness, new president often out of the gate. john kennedy had his bay of pigs in his first 100 days. bill clinton had the controversy in the gays in the military the first 100 days. i must say, i cannot remember a president who has had so much chaos surrounding his presidency in the first 100 days. i understand they were trying to address a serious concern they had. they brought this on themselves the way they drafted this. they didn't have the lawyers. they need to vet this in a way to pass constitutional muster. they wouldn't have had this problem. >> i'm looking at you jack kingston. >> having served in congress 22 years. we would meet until 2:00 in the morning, routinely and often there would be some almost disaster, newt would get us into hc 8, the bull pen and the bottom of the capitol and say, look, we got to pull together. sometimes we'd meet two and three times a da