well, joining me now, we have douglas brinkley, presidential historian and history professor at rice es, 1971 to 72. douglas, welcome. i'm also glad to have you. and look, president biden periodically met in the white house with scholars and historians talking about his legacy. how do you view his self-assessment, and how will history view his presidency? >> well, president biden is seeming right now to be a very wounded and bitter. he's not saying the right things about kamala harris. he's not saying the right things. you know, about nancy pelosi or barack obama. he's sort of sulking and then trying to spin a big legacy for himself. it would have been better to work behind the scenes like he did so well with getting the hostages released in the middle east, with working behind the scenes to get missiles to ukraine by going ahead and signing executive orders for national monuments and the like. but the media rollout of a farewell address after a farewell address with the net takeaway is kind of woe is me, where you have a wall street journal poll. only something like 12% of the americ

trump writes presidential history, we are joined by a man who does that for a living, douglas brinkleyace the nation" moderator margaret brennan. let's start with you. we couldn't help but notice the location today. no irony there. this is probably the ultimate irony really. >> margaret: president trump sworn in at the same capitol his supporter stormed. that wasn't lost on him because after his inaugural address, he gave extensive remarks about the election he lost in 2020, not the one he had just won. >> john: though he didn't say he lost it. >> margaret: of course. it's present, not just something reporters talk about. it's something that lives in his mind and became part of his very first actions while in office. during his inaugural scripted remarks, he used a phrase. he said he was saved by god to make america great again. that stood out to me because he believes he has not just a political mandate but a mandate from the divine. he is showing us he's going to test the limits of our judicial and legislative branches and he's going to see if they continue to act as checks and balan

douglas brinkley, julian zelizer, always good to talk with you both. thank you. >> pleasure. >> just ahead here she is, a first lady who has very much made that role her own. so what could this second term look like for melania trump? we have some news on that. >> the boeing 747 has crashed in the lockerbie area. >> it was the largest act of terrorism on the united states before 9/11. >> there are a number of anomalies trying to find out the why of it became everything you could look at the iranians, the libyans, the cia, hezbollah. nothing is what it seems in the lockerbie story. >> lockerbie, the bombing of pan am flight 103, february 16th on cnn. >> in our family, there was a passion for glass making that's passed down through the generations. >> we stood on some pretty broad shoulders to get to where we're at today. >> on ancestry, i was able to actually put together our family tree. each person is a glass worker. >> that's why we do what we do. we can't help it. the glass blowing, that's a part of our dna. >> it's in my blood. it's in my history.

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i want to bring in presidential historian douglas brinkley, author of "the unfinished presidency, jimmy" you knew the president and rosalynn so well, their family. what do you make of the service we'll see today? >> lesley stahl used the phrase serious pals. the vice president that was a serious pal was al gore. i've asked president carter on two different occasions a decade apart who in american political life he admires, and al gore would always come to the very top of his list. part of it was because of the georgia/tennessee connection, southern feel. but they just got along. he did not have that kind of relationship with jimmy carter. they both won nobel prizes. carter has been remembered by winning a nobel prize, so did al gore. they're in that exclusive club. jimmy ford was another serious pal. one could say they were just making nice. no. they really loved each other. they vacationed together, traveled together, talked to each other all the time. if you go through the papers of 1979, '80, '81, you'll see the friendship through correspondence, they were united in program after pro

author and historian douglas brinkley calls the outlier a profound, clear eyed evaluation of a leader whose legacy has been deeply misunderstood. for tonight's conversation with kelly, we are fortunate to have joseph crespino. joe is the jimmy carter professor of history at emory university. he's an expert in the political and cultural history of the 20th century. you united states and of the history of the american south since reconstruction. joe is also the author of three books. his most recent book, atticus finch, the biography. harper lee, her father, and the making of an american icon. so welcome to both kelly and joe. and a reminder to our audience to put your questions in the q&a box at the bottom of the screen. and we will get to those a little bit later. joe, thank you so much. gary, i do want to encourage everyone to chime in with their questions. i've got some questions for kai, but we are eager to have your participation. and kai, welcome virtual lee to atlanta and to the carter library. i know it's a kind of homecoming for you. you spent a lot of time here at the library

i want to bring in historian douglas brinkley. douglas?t on through. maga is american exceptionalism on steroids. look how we have changed as a society, the days of the me too movement and black lives matter, climate activism. it's just gone. there is a void that president biden has left that no democrat right now is able to fill. nancy pelosi not being there. michelle obama. aoc not there. there's a little bit of a void but the speech i think was better than his first in the sense that the tone of it hung together well. it's not a unifying speech but it masqueraded as one. >> norah: donald trump is now the president of the united states. president biden is set to leap from the east front of the capitol shortly. because we are going to be spending so much of the next four years talking about donald trump, perhaps a moment to talk about how joe biden sees these final moments. >> i was with president biden in the white house residence in august. he takes pride in his record, what he has done to navigate russia's war with ukraine. massive spe

historian douglas brinkley, thank you for joining us. >>> coming up here, we will take a look at thery of a director who spent a year with the taliban in the wake of america's withdrawal from afghanistan. he will explain what the taliban allowed him to capture and what he uncovered along the way. that's next on "morning joe." e. why do couples choose a sleep number smart bed? i need it a little cool and i need it a lot of cool. sleep number does that. sleep up to 15 degrees cooler on each side 9 out of 10 couples sleep better. the queen sleep number c2 smart bed is only $999, our lowest price of the season. shop now. growing your business is easy once you know the moves. with godaddy websites plus marketing, you can quickly create a website, and ai will customize it for you. get your business out there and get more customers in here. no sweat... for you anyway. create a beautiful website in minutes with godaddy. nice to meet ya. my name is david. i've been a pharmacist for 44 years and i'm from flowery branch, georgia. when i have customers come in i recommend prevagen. number one, b