george benjamin, executive director of public health socials. elina beverly, the former national deputy director of african-american outreach for the obama administration. joe watkins is a former white house aide under george h.w. bush. and jemile smith, senior writer for rolling stone. i am going to get to all of you on your reactions to what you heard, and again, my statement about the president's opening was only our opening, because we did hear a lot more and got into a lot of questions asked and answered and some that i don't think was raised at all with the vice president and dr. birx as well as the admirals. let me go back to one thing i had raised with you elana before we heard the briefing. and that was -- and i did not hear that addressed -- about those that are incarcerated and those that are being held in detention camps who have forced situations. many of those incarcerated not convicted of anything, waiting trial. we are not hearing any kind of directance or guidance from the white house on those individuals. >> absolutely. just to

and george making small talk with benjamin west, he said this general you had, george washington, what is he doing now? and benjamin west said well, he has retired to private life and he has returned to his farm in virginia and he is a private citizen. and george iii looked surprised and said something to the effect if washington could do this, he is the greatest man in the world. he had done that. he simply walked away when he had everything in his hands. and i think when you combine all the stories about washington and you see the choices that he makes, you start to see the development of his character. the choices that he made for the betterment of his nation rather than for the betterment of him. that is the type of character that a photograph or even that a portrait cannot portray. so, we will open up the floor for questions now. any questions, guys? you make up questions i will make up answers. no, no, no? okay. >> how did they select george to be the commander? >> he had attended the continental congress wearing a military uniform. and he had served in the seven years war. he sa

george mason and benjamin franklin were proponents of impeachment. they look at precedents in english law, which they wanted to keep, which they wanted to dispense with. one of the things they decided to keep was this language. they look very closely at what it meant for treason. they did not really want to execute anybody for committing high crimes and misdemeanors. my understanding is they pick that term because it could be broad, and what they were trying ofdo was, in the case executive undermining power and liste's trust, you could something like that under high crimes and misdemeanors. clearly, people are debating that today. all sorts of legal scholars that are more qualified than me. >> keep in mind that the role of the executive -- adams got caught in the middle of it. the first president was washington. he wasn't really in elected president, he was the most famous man in america. on adams really fell in a big way. endless debates over whether john adams thought the president should be a king or a president. it is part of what people talk abo

now here's a look at the relationship between george washington and benjamin franklin. >> good evening. welcome to the atlanta history center on this incredible wet night, and i really appreciate all of you coming out tonight and braving the weather to hear our author talk tonight by edward j. larson. now, this talk is being recorded by c-span, so be sure to silence your mobile telephonic devices. you don't want to be embarrassed on nationwide cable. this evening larson will discuss his newest book, "franklin and

i know george mason and benjamin franklin were components -- were proponents of impeachment. they looked at precedents. in english law, what they wanted to keep and what they wanted to dispense with. one thing they decided to keep was the language of high crimes and misdemeanors. they looked closely at what it meant for treason, because in england there was a quote associated with treason and they did not want to execute anybody for committing high crimes and misdemeanors. my understanding is they picked the term because it could be brought it, and what they were trying to do was say if you -- executivee of the undermining power people's trust , in the government, you could list something like that under high crimes and misdemeanors, but clearly people are debating that today, legal scholars who are more qualified than me. and it's a big debate. >> keep in mind that the role of the executive -- i mean, adams got caught in the middle of it, but the first president was washington. he was not really an elected president. he was the most famous guy in america and of course he was

now here's a look at the relationship between george washington and benjamin franklin. >> good evening. welcome to the atlanta history center on this incredible wet night, and i really appreciate all of you coming out tonight and braving the weather to hear our author talk tonight by edward j. larson. now, this talk is being recorded by c-span, so be sure to silence your mobile telephonic devices. you don't want to be embarrassed on nationwide cable. this evening larson will discuss his newest book, "franklin and washington." it has been named one of "the washington post"'s ten books to read in february and one of "usa today"'s must-read books of winter 2020. pulitzer prize-winning historian and author wood commented that larson easel wently written duel biography reveals that the partisanship of franklin and washington was indispensable to the success of the revolution. larson is a prolific author, speaker and darling chair in law at pepperdine university. he is making his seventh appearance at the atlanta history center. we're delighted to welcome him back. larson is also the co-auth

he can't believe that benjamin franklin and george washington are so much more famous than him. [laughter] >> there is a rift that goes through the letters, he does it four or five times. his utter disbelief is that history would remember that george washington would smoke with benjamin franklin's electric rod, and the two of them did everything to save the country. we take for granted the other founding fathers. adams didn't matter as much until after the second world war. >> abigail or john? >> either of them, as characters in the public domain. we grew up during the adams chronicles on pbs. but in the history of history, there is like a hundred years were so much of the writing about the revolution is about what did washington do? what did franklin do? now we are getting more parity. people are going to look more about benjamin rush, which is nice but it is ridiculous. if you told the story of the founders without benjamin rush, i think they would be genuinely surprised. >> there is a reason for that? >> part of the reason is that the letters between adams, jefferson, and rus

those were the last words that benjamin franklin addressed to george washington. they came at the end of a letter written and what franklin knew would be the last year of his life. washington closed his response to franklin with the salutation, your sincere friend. and this exchange, written in the first year of washington's presidency, each expressed and i'm quoting here -- undying respect and affection for the other. with franklin adding esteem and washington topping him with veneration. at the time, franklin and washington were the two most admired individuals in the united states. which is why franklin college, always done in georgia, the state university -- mike was not called the university of georgia it was called franklin college. and they were the most famous americans in the world. their final letters to each other represented a fitting and to a three decade partnership that more than any other pairing would forge the american nation. the relationship began during the french and indian war when franklin supplied the wagons for british general and with il

benjamin harrison. it will be a common thread in all of these. 2000 with al gore losing to george bush. and now 2016 with trump beating hillary. he for 2016, all three of those involved had weirdly .egacy presidents john quincy adams wins in a contested one. benjamin harrison, the grandson of william henry harrison of hampden sydney. and then george w beating gore. that is just a fascinating thing. probably, in some way that would be hard to completely fish together, underscores the fact that a legacy candidate has a really strong network to draw on .hat can help win an election then of course we get 16 and that breaks the pattern. it is fascinating that a legacy candidate is still involved, even if on the losing side of the election. your comment -- >> about the predictions of that election, i think we should think about those predictions that go along with easy wins were based on running statistics about the state of the economy in that election compared to other elections. when they ran the models, gore should win. , he did win the popular vote, right? not win by millions, he only won

benjamin harrison, the grandson of william henry harrison of hampden sydney. and then george w beating gore. that is just a fascinating thing. probably, in some way that would be hard to completely fish together, underscores the fact that a legacy candidate has a really strong network to draw on that can help win an election. it then, we get to 2016 and breaks the pattern. it is fascinating that a legacy candidate is still involved, even if on the losing side of the election. >> your comment about the predictions of that election, i think we should think about those predictions that go along -- that gore would easily win were based on running statistics about the state of the economy and that election compared to other elections. when they ran the models, gore should win. well, he did win the popular vote, right? but he did not win by millions, he only won the popular vote by 500,000, then you had florida. we talked about the 2000 election in an earlier class. we will not cover much of that today. bear in mind, the controversy about that recount in florida, bear in mind the d

george washington, is very significant and important. susan: so if you were a politician of the era, your choice of clothing fabric might be a political statement? peter: oh absolutely. if you look at benjaminarrison's wife, her gown that she wears to the inaugural of harrison is silk, but it is woven in the united states, and it is emblazoned with icons of the nation. the burr oak and things like that. keeley is a congressman, very big protectionist, he was very careful to always wear clothing that was american made. only by america. the notion of america first, and made, made in the usa is something that has been around for a long time. susan: what are we to make of the fact that the first piece of legislation passed by the congress when we signed the constitution to become a nation on july 4, 1789, sign into place on washington, placed a 5% tariff on most imported goods. peter: that totally makes sense, because any government needs money to operate. there is no income tax at this point. there has to be some source of revenue. tariffs in this early period, really up until the 1913 is it needs to be revenue-generating. if you are going to have a federal government, this is the argument bet