i'm joined right now by democratic congressman raja chris moorgty and mieke eoyang, and john meacham of course our presidential historian. congressman, yesterday, today and tomorrow seemed to be strengthening a lot of confirmation the president did in fact have that phone call with zelensky, the president of ukraine but also there was a lead up to it, and we're learning just now two witness tuesday the follow up. the very next day the president is on the phone with sondland saying are you getting this job done, are you getting this dirt you're asking zelensky for? it shows personal involvement it seems to be how you're looking at. how are you looking at it? >> that's right. i think the evidence from yesterday points to basically the president even more involved in this scheme than we knew before. and as a consequence we're following up on this new information. and at the end of the day i think ambassador taylor's compelling testimony and revelation of this piece of news makes it even more important that we proceed with the inquiry and ask further questions. >> it seems to me just fro

doris kearns goodwin or david mccullough or john meacham or robert caro, i interviewed john roberts. in the interview in the beginning, i said did you always want to be chief justice of the united states? and he said no. when i was little i had no interest in that. do you want to be a justice of the united states supreme court? know. did you want to be a lawyer? what did you want to be? i wanted to be a historian but all i can about was american history and that is what i wanted to be. i told my father that, he said it is a nice profession and how do you support your family? he majored in history. coming back from spring break, got off the plane at logan airport, and are you a student at harvard? yes i am. majoring in history, the cab driver said i majored in that also. so maybe his father had some good ideas. >> those are the types of things that come out. >> you get funny things, george washington, it turns out could have lived a little longer. now member of his family, no male member lived past the age of 50. when he was asked to be president of the united states he was 57. i'm to

. >> for more i'm joined by john meacham and the president of the constitutional accountability centerll start with elizabeth because i think -- i don't understand dershowitz, his argument presidents are more powerful than kings. kings could have people killed just because they didn't like them. >> yeah, that would be news to the revolutionaries who fought and died against rising up of a king. but as indicated by the number we have article 1 and article 3 and those lay out the other two branches of government. we setout a tri part tite with checks and balance. >> why do we have a procedure for impeachment? why do we have a procedure for not getting re-elected? kings don't have to run for re-election. and he can't be impeached. that's in the constitution too, sir. >> yeah, an solutist argument about article 2 flies in the face of everything, really. from magna carta, the 13th century thomas paine in common sense published in january 1776, five, six months before we declared independence he wrote some say who is the king of america? well, in america the law is king. and in monarchies kin

historian and author of "soul of america," from john meacham.of president trump. lawmakers approved a resolution 232-196, largely along party lines, to formalize the rules and guidelines for the public phase of the impeachment probe. the eight-page resolution lays out the format for open hearings and would allow the president or his counsel to participate in impeachment proceedings held by the house judiciary committee. two democratic congressman, jeff van drew of new jersey and colin peterson of minnesota, broke with the party to vote against the resolution. both represent districts that donald trump won in 2016. independent congressman justin amash also voted with the democrats. up until this point republicans have largely complained about the impeachment process being behind closed doors, but house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff told msnbc last night that the process of releasing transcripts can now begin as early as next week. house speaker nancy pelosiy defended the resolution on the house floor during a news conference and wit

your first interview was with john meacham. >> was the first one who had written a book on jefferson and john is a turkic scholar, now the head of the thomas jefferson foundation. .. >> in addition to our historian historians, i interviewed john roberts. in the interview i said did you always want to be chief justice of the united states? he said no when i was little i had no interest in that. did you want to be a justice? know. a judge? know. know i didn't want to be a lawyer either but i wanted to be a and historian about american history and my father said that's a nice profession but you won't make any money you will write books nobody will read how do you support your family? so he went to harvard and majored in history coming back from spring break and the sophomore year got in the cab and said to the cab driver take me to cambridge and he said are you a student at harvard? yes i am. what are you majoring in quick. >> history the cab driver said that that i majored and also. [laughter] so he thought maybe he had one - - his father had some good idea. >> so with george washington

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john meacham, thank you so much. really appreciate your time this morning. >> thanks you. >> and coming up, devyn nunez tout as thoroughly de-bunct conspiracy theory about who hacked the 2016 election. that is next. o hacked the 2016 election that is next we're oscar mayer deli fresh and you may know us from... your very first sandwich, your mammoth masterpiece. and...whatever this was. because we make our meat with the good of the deli and no artificial preservatives. make every sandwich count with oscar mayer deli fresh. there's a company that's talked than me: jd power.people 448,134 to be exact. they answered 410 questions in 8 categories about vehicle quality. and when they were done, chevy earned more j.d. power quality awards across cars, trucks and suvs than any other brand over the last four years. so on behalf of chevrolet, i want to say "thank you, real people." you're welcome. we're gonna need a bigger room. in't easy. 12 hours? 20 dogs? where's your belly rubs? after a day of chasing dogs you shouldn't h

this is our course, you are german -- you are joining an august group such as john meacham. >> always wanted to make grad school. [laughter] >> you finally did. i didn't get a chance to email out frank's bio. this is may the single most important, critical keeper of the reagan legacy, the reagan legacy in america today. frank worked on the 1976 reagan campaign, he worked on the 1980 campaign, he worked in the white house, he worked on the 1984 campaign, and he has been the longtime chairman of the reagan ranch, which has been one of the three major vantage points in american politics today. there is the library in simi valley, the ranch in santa barbara, and eureka college. frank, thank you for being here. let me get right into it, then the students will ask questions. you organized the very first conservative political action conference in 1973. >> 1974, right? >> 1974. and reagan spoke as the keynote speaker, the star attraction. >> first of all, thank you for having me. the great baseball player who used to play for the yankees, yogi berra, had a 10 seat to mangle his sin -- had a

i love the john meacham excerpt you just did. thank you for that.omething thing to like out of the godfather to me. just starting from reading the that call -- i need you to do me a favor -- that's the thing that starts the extortion. then withholding the military used tohe gun basically cause duress to the ukraine. then he piles it on by saying there will not be a presidential meeting and this other stuff. it is no different from some mafioso saying, well, i want to offer you protection so pay me this kind of money. then you are building or your house will not get burned down. when they don't they start a little fire. then they are meeting the mafia's request. host: a lot of attention on gordon sondland. a full week of hearings to be live on the c-span networks. the president spending yesterday with turkish president erdogan. the meeting yielding little progress. this question from john roberts of the fox news channel. [video] >> you spent a lot of time with the tv today, but bill taylor recounted a conversation that a native his overhead the day a

author of soul of america and rogers professor of the presidency of vanderbilt university, jon meacham. >> johnn us an overview of this first week. look at the fact that the watergate hearings seemed to go on forever, well over a year. what was compressed into one week this first week i thought was extraordinary. >> it was. i had a friend whose mother was dying in the summer of 1973 and he's convinced she stayed alive through labor day because she wanted to see the end of the hearings. in this case, she would have been able to go and meet her maker more quickly. i think the democrats have arranged the narrative, have told the story in a way that has been, as you say, compelling. but it's not really an arrangement when that's what happened. and i think that's one of the things that we have to remind ourselves is while we've been beaten up in the ring here by trumpism since 2015, there is this essential truth is which is, as john adams said, facts are stubborn things. here are the facts. i think we saw pretty clearly the first day what the two stories will be. there's the story of the state depar

this is a crisis of the first and historic order and if jon meacham was still around, i'm sure he would say exactly that. >> well, johnsting -- >> i'm sorry. >> no, it's interesting hearing your emphatic constitutional passion. i want to bring in not jon meacham but jason johnson who joins special coverage as well. we're enrolling coverage given the breaking story. the detail i'm about to mention from the "new york times" story is one we haven't reached yet. i don't just mention it although i am admittedly a fan of the musician, but that's not why i bring it up. i bring it up because of the evidentiary specificity of it. they note that in addition to the other items mentioned, the president asked mr. sondland, quote, about a$ap rocky, an american rapper imprisoned at that time. mr. rocky's case is one we covered on the show. i mention it because it speaks to the very detailed account we ve here. it's not just people in the tate department saying i heard the president and sondland talked about these seven things and these five were about ukraine and these three were about bribery and here's other things that may or may

meacham. happens to be the author of among other titles "impeachment: an american history," to which he contributed with tim naftali, jeffrey engel, and peter baker. so johnthat the early '70s were a bad era for television earphones that stuck out on camera and that mr. chancellor preferred copy on paper to the teleprompter in front of him, tell us about the man -- i heard a historian talk about ruckelshaus as a patriot's patriot. tell us about the mark he leaves on american society. >> that's a great description. he was part of a vanished breed. he was a moderate republican. he was of the rockefeller, prescott bush school of republicans who believed in fiscal probity but wanted to protect the environment and wanted to protect the rule of law. what i would hope tonight and going into tomorrow is that every self-described republican supporter of donald trump would read that obituary very carefully and imaginatively project themselves to that ultimate moment of reckoning. do you want said of you that when the constitution was under ferocious attack you stood in the breach and stood for the work of madison, hamilton, and jay, or do you want to be seen as som

first met john, i meeting with the editor of in 1995 wanting me to work for the magazine and cover the campaign. andmeacham walks and maynard parker said i would like you to meet jon meachamation editor. i thought he was an intern taking coffee orders. he was 25 or 26 years old. you have probably been carted most of your life. bit of hair dye now. i tried to use that. david: at least people have not referred to you as [indiscernible] [laughter] the first is one of we ended up with a fantastic relationship. he is the guy who was taking the pictures that i was taking. with the bob dole picture and the bill clinton picture, when you're the guy receiving these images in washington, it's a three-pronged test. you have to have the image, the all have tohe ethos wind up. i would say this behind his back, no one ever produced what we needed better than david did. ae bob dole cover was at particularly glum moment in his early campaign. he would call to complain and you knew who it was because he referred to himself as tall. [laughter] bob dole is mad. [laughter] sorry, senator. then, bill clinton -- this is little rock area it jon: yes -- david: yes little rock election night. bob