george bush says to him come work on my campaign.t will help you with your greasy and he found he loved it. youus find that one thing you he a passion for and you grab onto it. the wife's passing was a way of starting a new. >> confession time, i haven't read the book either but i want to. hearing you talk about jim baker's career and trajectory and until he actually gets to power, hearing all of that in 2021 is a no-brainer. my question is is there anything that can be applicable to the career or is it just look how things used to work and now there is now. >> individual agency matters. that is part of the take away of the story and the structure of the politics matters. we can talk about it and chris can tell you better than i can in the 1980s when jim baker was at his height, half of the states had delegations that were split. there were democratic senators that voted republican or vice versa. this was a country where there were competitive elections within states and parties and he was apolitical but he also came from the south f

was dying of cancer one person jim baker in some of the one person who regularly book is his george h.w. bush. he said i've been told this to anybody. i've been told this to my mother and i have been told this to my childrenth and my wife in 1959. he said to george h.w. lush my wife is dying of cancer and i want to spend the next few months spending time trying to make her life is good as possible. this is something strong and powerful. wend asked baker and they descre each other as brothers. that doesn't mean they love each other over time. who of us to never leisure problems with their siblings? they had to bring rivalry into politics. like the time baker told bush he wasn't going to win. maybe he should have picked it enjohn sununu as as stafford dan quayle as vice and he shouldn't say things like read my lips. the tension between them was the biggest in 1992 comes along and bush wants bigger to come back and run his re-election campaign. bush word hitter at taker for not doing more to saven 41. but you knowri where friendship the said the bush the person you was held not once, not twice.

jim baker went to george h.w. bush and said there is currently no more foreign policy problem more deserving of your attention. the soviet union is broken up. another one of the surprises in my research was what a huge flip that caused inside the bush presidency. secretary of defense dick cheney said this is the greatest thing ever. instead of one arsenal, we have an arsenal broken up between four countries. we should break up the soviet union into the tiniest possible pieces, and secretary jim baker said that is exactly wrong. this is more dangerous. we need to do everything possible to consolidate that arsenal inside russia. he went to bush and convinced bush that he was right, so baker started working with russia to convince them to denuclearize. as this is happening in 1992 president bush loses his reelection campaign. president clinton sees that he has got ukraine, is country is becoming a market economy, and he says both publicly and privately we just raised the cold war line across europe. why should we draw a a

bush were bitter at baker not doing more to save 41. you know where friendship begins and where and the date george h.w. died in houston, the person who came not once not twice but three times that day with jim baker, thewa guy standg there at his bedside when the 41st president of united statess died rubbing his feet, was jim baker. that's a friendship that goes beyond politics in a way we haven't seen in the modern time anyway. >> it's interesting, as you said, he probably would not have gone into politics except for bush, he wasn't the political analysts until he was 40. he wants ran for attorney general, the boring campaign. when reagan becomes president and gets into trouble, he's brought into the white house and you described his job as the sh detector. [laughter] becomes very hands on pragmatic, he works with democrats and republicans but he's really tough. is that a good description? >> his cousin came up with this great description and his cousin said he was. that became then the cover of "time"e magazine, probably the cover that cemented baker's national consciousness as the smooth fixer who w

he confis in george hw bush. he said i haven't told this to anybody. i haven't told this to my mother. i haven't told this to my children. i haven't told us to my wife. this is 1969. okay doctors, maybe not as open with wives as they were with husbands at that era. she knew by the way, but he knew and she said he says to george aw bush. my wife is dying of cancer, and i want to spend the next few months. just trying to make her life as good as possible. this is a friendship that is sealed. in something big and strong and powerful. so when we ask them about we asked bush we ask baker and they both describe each other like brothers. that doesn't mean of course they love each other all the time who of us doesn't always have some relationship problems with our siblings, right? there are sorts of things a sibling rivalry, so they had sibling rivalry arguably in office in politics. they were times when baker told bush things. he didn't want to hear like it was time to drop out in 1980. he wasn't going to win like maybe you shouldn't have picked johnson noon

george w. bush and barbara bush were very better baker not doing more to say 41 and that was already in their relationship but you know where a friendship and, begins where it ends and on the day w was dies he accuses him, the person who came to his house not once, not twice but three times that day with jim baker. the guy standing there at his bedside running is the was jim baker. that's a friendship that goes beyond aypolitics in a way we haven'tseen in modern times . >> is interesting, as he said he probably wouldn't have wanted to politics as such except for was. he wasn't a political animal intexas . he once ran for attorney general and lost and a very uninspired campaign. but then he's brought to washington and then when reagan becomes president and gets into trouble, he's brought into the white house and he's sort of, you described his job as the ship detector. he becomes very you know, hands on, pragmatic. he works with democrats and republicans he's really tough . is that a good description

but he was a very sharp partisan about he and george w. bush did have a few of politics annoyed maybe both of them that you were meant to fight hard business and bush himself radiated that didn't really seem that comfortable with a thousand points of life that he did waging and yet he authorized than bush also is responsible for this, shoemaker authorized the campaign michael dukakis, they turned him into you know, sort of tech socratic governor of massachusetts and they turned it into a flagburning aclu card-carrying practically like an un-american figure it was also not man enough to defend his wife and extraordinary brush and when baker would say a very advisor to him throughout the washington said that baker does not do regrets and we found that to be the case in many interviews we couldn't get him to say that he regretted anything like he's basically mye record is my record with a kind of guy and this was the only thingg really important, the ony says that he ever said to us, will probably my going too far and by the way to go back and ask

george bush ended up moving it to georgia under president bush, ended up moving it to crimea under president obama, who joked about it. president trump at least sold the most javelins that they have been using for the first line of defense, but we should be getting more armaments, and getting poland to send airplanes and should be together with the parts of the you that are with us to ban russian oil. host: joseph tweets, why are we taking sides in this work? how do we know that ukraine did not do something? is that fair? guest: i think this gentleman is a distant formed. it shows the dangerous nature of this information through the internet. what that ukraine has become a democracy. they are plenty corrupt. they have embraced freedom and are willing to fight for it. the invasion is an outrage in this time of our world that they would even consider destroying a democracy like that. host: markets, republican, florida. go ahead with your question or comment. caller: first of all, the generous six committee -- janua ry 6th committee is a joke. you are supposed to have a drinking number from the

back, for example, i remember i was watching a speech michael dukakis made when bob dole and george w. bushere running for the republican nomination, and i was listening to him specifically, and he started the speech and said, you know, bob dole says that george h.w. bush isn't much of a leader, george h.w. bush says bob dole isn't much of a lee arer, well, time i actually agree with both of them. i think you can only find that through c-span, so i would not have had book had it not been for c-span, so i thought it was appropriate to dedicate it to c-span. >> host: my favorite part of watching c-span is during the senate vote you get to see all the interactions on the senate floor. that's a lot of fun to watch. i spend hours watching that, i'm afraid. in the great american political trivia challenge you have a whole section on political insults. >> guest: yes. >> host: why did you include that? >> guest: because i just find them absolutely fast fascinating. politicians are very good in terms of being sometimes very creative in the way that they insult people. i find that fascinating. there'

was biggest when 1992 comes along and bush wants baker to come back to run his reelection campaign. he does it very reluctantly and it's's a bitter moment. george w. bush and barbara bush were very bitter for not doing more to save 41 and that put a wrinkle on the relationship. but it begins where it ends and on the day that george hw bush died in houston, the person that came to his house not once but twice, three times that davis jim baker. standing there at his bedside when the furry first president of the united states died rubbing his feet was jim baker. that's a friendship that goes beyond politics in a way we haven't seen in the modern time anyway. >> it's interesting as you said he probably wouldn't have gone into politics except for bush. he wasn't a political animal in texas until in his 40s. he once ran for what the attorney general ran a very uninspired campaign, boring campaign. but then he is brought to life in washington and when reagan becomes president and gets into trouble, he's brought into the white house and you describe his job as the detector and he becomes very hands-on, pragmatic. he works with the democrats and republi

the land commissioner of texas is a neighbor on my street on the son of jeb bush and george w bush. i would like to write about the if i were george w. i think he is. stories that need to be told that haven't been properly if he's interested in making his legacy look better. and that is the bullhorn moment the weak one week after 9/11 the story of how he was in florida and was told about 9/11 in the air force one, you know, i had to fly to different military bases and then how he came to washington and we were under siege where how he pulled the country together and then stood on the rubble of the trade center with that bullhorn moment and then through a striking yankee stadium and i would do one week. looking at george w. bush's immediate response to 9/11 which was really quite quite inspiring story. what do you think of his post-president? well, his second one i do is his work with aids in africa. he saved a lot of lives working with all sorts of people, you know, bono and you know all the it's real life saved that george w bush very getting the money there to fight you know that c

decide that they are going to spend time preparing and in the case of biden, i think that and bush both. yeah george w bush. both of them did a lot of preparatory work and biden's case obviously to get to 206 people in in the white house. it was a lot of personnel work than a decision to focus on presidential appointees who did not require senate confirmation. he also worked on a developing information and strategies on issues that may came up. such as the date went under a heading of unconventional challenges what an unconventional challenges. could they possibly face and then assigning people to work on those challenges flesh them out and then develop mitigating strategies. so the preparatory work early is not just mandated by the government. it's also good practice by the candidates. that's tremendously helpful. i mean my read on your really interesting paper martha, is that the candidates and the government have put so much more? resources and attention into transitions in this 21st century and yet the transitions have for the most part been less smooth. which i think is a paradox that is worth

he gave them all a free pass george w bush. they're all going to be rehabilitated. they're all going to be treated as great statesman. one day. i mean, they gave president obama a nobel prize for not being george w bush. the question, of course, the world that dancing around with or avoiding as does it work as torture work doesn't work. people that have information that are part of an underground apparatus, a terrorist organization at revolution or organization accomplished organization. whatever organized form of collective alan chip i b, they want right now. and the people that you pick up that are innocence. yes. you tell them to pieces, you'll destroy them, you will ruin them. i think that a few of the people that passed passed through my hands as an interrogator did have intelligence. but most the vast majority of the people that i dealt with work just being picked up because they were males of military age and they were just get swept up. and these raves, i don't think torture is always being used as a method to gain information or, or confessions. it's often j

these countries were targeted by the george h w bush, or george w bush, the senior vice president of ronald reagan and bribed with hundreds of millions of dollars. and these monies were given the countries in exchange for their acquiescence and their submission to american military and economic and political objectives. no ring of nato military bases is being formed around russia. the u. s. nato have over 600 military base is world wide. russia has just 18, but the west still claims that russia has aggressive intent by turning those russians. the soviets into this dangerous bogeyman that wants to take over the world. that was a conscious strategy to create this image. it. and soviets, as out for world conquest, which was not the case, then bar now with nato should have died, but they will give it meaning. it is about infected created by, by nature nature, business machine does. you must remember if nato, what is bad shareholders in the united states and elsewhere in lodge obs companies would lose millions and millions. they'd only have one yacht instead of 2 yards each. there. oh dea

anita was laura bush's chief of staff in the second term and anita said it was actually george bush's suggestion that laura give the address on the topic of afghan women. so president bush was the one who thought that this was something that laura should do and he was absolutely, right. we also have something from bonnie who asked for us to talk a little bit about michelle obama's speech in new hampshire in response to the hollywood access tape. anyone pull that from their memory and comment on that one and when we when they go low we go high speech yes. i i think i had an incredible opportunity to watch that speech at a communication and gender conference and everyone was talking about it. we didn't watch it live. we watched it later on a group of us watched it in a hotel ballroom later that night and it was great because we had a free for all on it. and i think that that's when people started talking about michelle obama running for the presidency. i don't know you probably remember that but that speech again was something only i think michelle could have given at that time. you kno

these countries were targeted by the george h w bush, or george w bush, the senior vice president of ronald reagan and bribed with hundreds of millions of dollars. and these monies were given the countries in exchange for their acquiescence and their submission to american military and economic and political objectives. a ring of nato military bases is being formed around russia. the u. s. nato have over 6.

, land missioner of texas on my street, son of jeb bush and george w. bush i would like to write about, i believe he has two stories that could be told that haven't been properly, if he's interested in making his legacy look better. and that is the bullhorn moment the story of how he was in florida, told about 9/11 and the air force one had to fly to different military bases and came to washington and we were under siege and how he pulled the country together and then stood on the rubble of the trade center with that bullhorn moment and then through a strike at yankee stadium. i would do one week of look at george w. bush's immediate response to 9/11 which was really quite inspiring story. >> what do you think of his post-presidency. >> well the second i would do is his work with aids in africa. he saved a lot of lives working with all sorts of people, you know, bono, and it's real lives saved, getting the money there to fight the campaign, against aids in africa. he didn't have to do that. it wasn't constituent politics, that i think came out of his chr