jeff greenfield on the changing centers of power in washington. and in our signature segment, north korean defectors in south korea using american movies and tv shows to undermine a repressive regime. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust-- supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, alison stewart. >> stewart: good evening and thanks for joining us. tomorrow, an institution enshrined in the u.s. constitution-- the electoral college-- i

here to explain is jeff greenfield.ld reagan was elected with a mandate, twice as a matter of fact, and yet changed so little. donald trump lost the popular vote and is about to change so much. explain. >> well, when reagan came in with 489 electoral vote 10-point in the popular vote majority with a newly republican senate that would seem to qualify as a mandate under any circumstances. but he leaves eight years later, the size of the federal government is no smaller the federal debt and deficit is bigger, no departments had been eliminated. two of his supreme court nominees underwrite the core of roe v. wade. and writes the guy marriage decision. one, reagan never had both houses of congress. the house was always democratic. and it's also important -- i think this is key, the republican party was very different. when reagan came in, the senate was filled with moderate and even liberal republicans. packwood of oregon, specter and hines in pennsylvania, so between a democratic house and a very different republican party,

>> poor jeff greenfield.e takes it but can sense the sweat breaking out on his upper lip, he has been told off by margaret thatcher. buckley is great. thatcher is saying gender is not issue in the uk and not relevant. buckley is poppycock, that is nonsense. if women are qualified why aren't more women in office around he pushes back in an interesting way. he did a few episodes with claire booth louis. she asked to talk on the show about feminism. they were old friends and couldn't disagree with the ideap of having her on the show. so he did, he gave her this long, very positive introduction and he concluded the introduction by saying, i should like to be begin by asking if you find the way that people introduce you on television talk shows to be con today sending? here is what she says. >> bill, i thank you for that warm and extraordinarily detection. you will be pleased to know that reading the entire introduction which was -- to say the least, there was only one masculine put-down. this is a high level of a

rick santelli, yamiche, katty and jeff greenfield. welcome all. what struck you the most about the podesta interview? >> he sound flustered when you asked him about their decision making within the campaign and wisconsin. of course, russia is important and the fact that hillary clinton the focus on her private e-mails was something that hurt them, how democrats move forward is really going to be -- they will have to look at what they did in the election and who they lost 57and how they lost and wh the turnout was so low. i think those -- that's what struck me most. he had other answers but when it came to his own campaign and how it was run, he wasn't as strong. >> what did you get out of it? >> he did say there's going to have to be an investigation because the donors are saying what did we send our money on? one other thing that i thought was different was from my reporting with senior members of the white house, what they are saying is that after putin was spoken to by obama, the white house says that the leaking -- the hacking stopped but, of

jeff greenfield who entered theg program noted that television was a visual medium. the only element on the pioneering line i had been able to detect us whether he would someday part his hair with his tongue.r but it didn't matter they came with the ideas and when the show premiered in 66 it was the novelty of the conservatives explaining the position. whether you watch the show as a liberal or conservative viewer you would find them challenged. richard hofstadter attributed the thinking to paranoia and intellectualism and status anxiety.ed to be buckley seemed to be walking proof as to drive the point home one of the early guests was verr goldwater. they confirmed the confident claims about the liberalism and the weighting of the liberalism described.d. it was the support it needed to dominate the politics. by extension it seemed a pipe dream of the possibility purged to the conspiracy theorists. these were the folks that seem to have a stranglehold on the conservative in 1996. buckley to forge a new image for the conservatism virtually from scratch. that is how the

jeff greenfield emceed a 20 year celebration program kno noteded totally ascended a visual medium.the only element of visual interest on "firing line" i've ever been able to detect is whether mr. buckley would someday part his hair with his tongue. it didn't matter. he came for the words and ideas and perhaps when show premiered in 1966 for the steer novelty of seeing and right wing conservative explain his position. whether you watch the show as a liberal or conservative, you would find politics both offended and challenged. as if to drive the point home, one of our lives only was barryu goldwater. to many americans goldwater was a landslide defeat susskind his claims about liberalism and the waning of the extremism that hofstetter had described it buckley was determined to show the world conservatism was alive and well, if struggling for the foothold in order to dominate american politics at that paranoid conspiracy fears of the john birch society for writing should not be taken for the concert movement. to truly understand "firing" line" we must consider a buckley use of the sho

jeff greenfield, who emceed a celebration program photoed that television is said to be a visual medium. the only element of visual interest on "firing line" is whether mr. buickley would some day warted -- buckley would some day part his hair with his tongue but viewers came for at the views and for the sheer noted of seeing an articulate conservative -- you would find you politics defended and challenges in 1964 richards have steader atruck beads right wing thinking to paranoia, intellectualism and status anxiety. buckley seemed to be walking, talking proof of the insufficientty of the claim. and as if to drive the point home one whenever the earliest guests war barry gold earth, to men americans his defeat confirmed suskind's claim that the waning of extremism. buck leaver wanted to show the world that conservatism is alive and well, and that paranoid conspiracy theirists of the john birch society variety. to truly understand "firing line" we must consider how buckley used the show to stake a claim for gold water and what then seemed a pipe dream. the possibility of a thriving conser

jeff greenfield on the changing centers of power in washington.nd in our signature segment, north korean defectors in south korea using american movies and tv shows to undermine a repressive regime. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust-- supporting trustworthy journalism that

just about this whole process, joe. >> i think it was jeff greenfield.tors? if you're going to have an electoral college, and we can have that debate, if you're going to have an electoral college, it needs to be automatic. as jeff greenfield said, who wrote the book on the electoral college, this is just absolute nonsense. a lot of people think the electoral college itself is antiquated and they have a lot of great arguments for that, but again, if you're going to have it, then the people's vote have to count, and it needs to be pledged. we're not back in, you know, 1789 here. people know who they're voting for. they make that decision whether we respect their decision or not. and the electors should affirm that. >> well, there's no doubt about that, joe, and no doubt about the fact that the electoral college -- >> a little earlier. >> is an an crunistic element of our political culture. no rhyme or reason why the state of wyoming should have nearly equal weight or equal weight in terms of electors to the state of california given the population, but it

jeff greenfield, you know this.rip tide takes you, we see tourists drowning all the time in pensacola because they fight it. when the rip tide takes you, you go with the rip tide and when it stops, you swim parallel to the shore and you come back in. the rip tide is now going to take this transition into this area. they have no choice. they go with it. >> if it was any other president-elect i would say that's a perfectly unacceptable thing. >> anybody. >> i think it's another example dealing with someone unlike anything we've ever seen before. >> a relationship here that people are not focused on. people talk about trump and paul ryan. trump and mcconnell is key to watch. trump is actually closer to chuck schumer, democratic minority leader than the republican majority leader of the senate. you can see jared kushner making overtures to chuck schumer. he wants to keep mcconnell on his toes. that's what he's doing by strengthening his relationship with schumer and if this russian things comes to a head -- hiring his w

jeff greenfield reflecting on the career of john glenn.and political passion retail, a problem that proved fatal for john glenn. he campaigned as a centrist. he broken within the cumbre -- a number of key democratic inches groups including jewish americans who do not like his vote to sell aircraft to saudi arabia. liberals do not like the fact he voted for reagan's first tax cut plan. two pundits, those votes might add up to centrism. politico.ng, from bill is joining us from atlanta. welcome to the program. caller: thank you for having me on. you had a caller talking about sputnik. our whole generation was having that phenomenon. we had flash gordon. our vision was full of these thoughts of going into space. now it is happening for real. it is hard to express the transformation it did to our thinking to see the event on the backdrop of having aspirations to do those very things. it was a very exciting time. host: bill, thank you for that time. jodi is a grain with you, it's just jodi is agreeing with you saying -- we go to thomas from fai