that's where history is. >> john meacham, you are also working on a few project.on the other side, it's in your state, so you'll approve in philadelphia this week. there is a great group issue one putting toke a big movement of foreign elected officials, some historians, the great joe ellis. we're having a meeting there on thursday, can you watch it live stream, talking about renewing the founders promise. how can we get these systemic problems in politics fixed? i think the more light we can shed, the better we'll fight the heat of the moment. >> john meacham, thank you for coming on tonight. i really appreciate it. just ahead, my one of one with olympian adam rippon, ahead, more controversy with the vice president. we are back after this. ♪ imagine if the things you bought every day... earned you miles to get to the places you really want to go. with the united mileageplus explorer card, you'll get a free checked bag. two united club passes. priority boarding. and earn fifty thousand bonus miles after you spend three thousand dollars on purchases in the first th

bash has agreed to stick around and joining our conversation presidential historian and author john meacham. let's start with you, the viewpoint of the white house. it was said on this broadcast and elsewhere the u.s. was nudged into kind of appropriate behavior, behaving as we used to long ago, two years ago where it concerned russia. >> if you look at all of the various things that both president putin and the government of russia have done, attacking the u.s., meddling in our elections and in our infrastructure and our power plants and electrical grid and attacking one of our closest allies with the nerve agent attack in britain and we have not heard very much from the president in terms of a response. we finally did see some sanctions this week but even those were seen as a sort of very minor response given all of the various things that russia has done and both sides of the aisle, both republicans and democrats, are calling for the president and for the administration to do more to really step up to russia. this is a president who is willing to talk tough against our enemies and talk t

we have to heed his warning tonight. >> john meacham, in earlier times, like 9:00 p.m. had the back end of the broadcast to have a thoughtful conversation about what we've just witnessed. we'll have to put that off until 2019. but for now, what have we just witnessed today in this administration and how it differs from any known norms? >> well, it does differ from any known norm. on general mccaffrey's point, i'm reminded something associated with jim baker said if it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck and swims like it duck, it just might be a duck. at some point, common sense kicks in with the president and his relationship with putin. the one thing that i think links the stories, russia, director mccabe, the stormy daniels business is what the greeks taught as you long time ago. character is destiny. and as michelle obama said really brilliantly in 2016, the presidency doesn't change who you are, it reveals who you are. and the one thing that links all of these stories is that we have a president who is entirely running things on what is best for him and what h

republican strategist and political commentator, and historian john meacham. mika will be back with us tomorrow. before we start this, mike, it has been remarkable, has it not, that there has been complete silence from donald trump when it's come to stormy daniels from the beginning. i mean, you could go through all the people that have crossed donald trump's path over the last two and a half turbulent years in politics and there have only been two that he has not struck back on. v vladimir putin and stormy daniels. >> he's afraid of both. you know, it's odd, joe, when you mention the president's reluctance or his hesitancy to acquire new legal teams because of his own personal flaws, i guess. there was laughter around the table here when you indicated their appearance would preclude them from being hired but it's not funny anymore when it's considered what's going on with his failure to obviously as you indicated tweet about anybody he fears and he really fears what's happening. >> yeah, he really does. and you know, his struggle to stack his legal team conti

. >> john meacham, and this is what he said. the interview, i was going back to the interview this past week of the republican mayor who said -- >> a really, really good piece. >> who said i'm going to vote for conor lamb because we need to send a good man to washington. >> make america good again. >> make america good again which is the most compelling campaign slogan. >> trademark it. >> america is great because america is good and when america stops being good, america will no longer be great. this is what john meacham said. that interview brought to mind the praise of george w.h. bush's live. more to reform than to revolution. more to the management of complex si than to the making of mass movements. bush's life code as he once put into a letter to his mother was, tell the truth. don't blame people. be strong. do your best. try hard. forgive, stay the course. >> joe, i wish i could -- >> and you look at the front page of the boston globe today and you look at these pictures of all the people that have quit already. >> and th

john meacham, jump in. >> give us a little bit of compare and contrast. now have pompeo, bolton in an office where you once had offices where you had kissinger, rogers, baker, talk us through what you think that dynamic will mean for our actual foreign policy and possibly projections of force. >> yeah, i think if you think about what the national security apparatus does broadly, john, you know this better than anybody, is that it kind of accomplishes three things. it interacts with our allies and runs this network of alliances which is our number one asset as a nation full stop. that will be under scrutiny if not attack. secondly, that national security apparatus deters our opponents, but in a measured and sensible way. and i think the forward lean toward combat is going to be extremely concerning and lastly, you look for the international security apparatus to be kind of guardrails around the presidency because of the immense power that's vested in the executive branch. i feel like those guardrails are kind of drifting, god help us if we lose jim mattis.

john kennedy and the american space race. >> the cnn historian backstage for gossip. the basement studio and the jon meacham who's got that at msnbc. the same deal with the cdc. of course the great historian and i.t. maintenance on a transformative books that so important and jon meacham has written so many wonderful biographies and many of us know him from his basement. the segment today's talk about who is your favorite historical figure. i think i want to make that a free and fun thing so people have wanted to or why and then get into some other element. why don't you start us off with your favorite story? >> the way the question is often phrased as who would you like to have dinner with? i used to say jesus, but that didn't end very well. don't want that. so mine and margaret has a familial connection here. i wouldn't have to say much, so that's good. they would be a very good set of cigars, which is important to me. he was able with a genuine renaissance man. he wasn't able,, able writer, usually prolific, the command apart called the largest human being of our time. might send is the lesson i take mos

john f. kennedy and a great space race. >> be watching for that and he's the seasoned historian and a bit of backstage gossip he has a bit of basement studio, basement studio in the of jon meachamwho's got that at msnbc. and margaret macmillan is trying to make the same deal with the cbc. of course a great historian in 19191 of the stressful netbooks that so bored. jon meacham is written so many wonderful biographies, former editor of "newsweek" and many of us don't from his basement studio from "morning joe." the assignment today is ready to talk about who is your favorite historical figure. i want to make that a free and fun things the people who have one or two and why in the maybe later we'll get into some other elements of thinking that writing the people you love. why did you start us off with your favorite historical figure? >> the way this question is often phrase is who would you like to have dinner with? i used to say jesus but that didn't end very well. [laughing] i decided -- don't want that. so mine is, and margaret has a familial connection. mine is winston churchill. i would have to say much. [laughing] that's good. there would be a very good set of cigars which