historian john meachum joins us again. hn, john mccain carved out such a unique role in public life. having never won the office of the presidency, the office he always wanted, he still looms so large in human rights, in fighting for the -- against what was happening to the prisoners in guantanamo and what was happening to prisoners in black prisons around the world. these were not popular positions that he took. >> no. we used to think of him as kind of the umpire of american life. he would call them as he saw them. and where -- to belabor the metaphor, we're at a moment in our politics today where everybody is on one team or the other. it is a ferociously tribal moment. you cheer or you -- you hiss depending on which side of the stadium you are on. and senator john mccain lived up to the great american tradition of using reason as the approach to different issues. so yes, he was a ferocious critic of the war on terror, more of the harsher interrogation techniques for the obvious biographical reasons. but george w. bush ha

historian john meachum joins us again. john, john mccain carved out such a unique role in public life. having never won the office of the presidency, the office he always wanted, he still looms so large in human rights, in fighting for the -- against what was happening to the prisoners in guantanamo and what was happening to prisoners in black prisons around the world. these were not popular positions that he took. >> no. we used to think of him as kind of the umpire of american life. he would call them as he saw them. and where -- to belabor the metaphor, we're at a moment in our politics today where everybody is on one team or the other. it is a ferociously tribal moment. you cheer or you -- you hiss depending on which side of the stadium you are on. and senator john mccain lived up to the great american tradition of using reason as the approach to different issues. so yes, he was a ferocious critic of the war on terror, more of the harsher interrogation techniques for the obvious biographical reasons. but george w. bush

secretaries join a discussion with current white house correspondents and presidential historian john meachum to talk about george h.w. bush, andrew jackson and franklin d. roosevelt. live coverage from the white house historical association conference with representatives from presidential sites across the country will get under way wednesday morning at 9:00 eastern.

well, i'm trying to catch up and i have the paper of different authors that are coming, i have john meachum's book, amy tran, and some of the other authors that i really want to make sure that i least touch on, i have a basket of books that i'm reading. >> host: book tv live at book festival at convention center september 1st all day long, we are right at the entrance if you're down there, stop by, pick up a book tv bag and say hi and have your picture taken in book tv frame, dr. hayden has her picture taken in that frame as well. thank you for your time today. >> and thank you for the bags, they are perfect. >> book tv recently asked capitol hill to ask what they are reading this summer. >> well, i read a variety of books and i read a variety of them at the same time so that as one loses my attention i can shift to another and so on, i highly recommend that. people watch tv shows and they don't have to reread the one they saw the episode from last week when they do it the next week so you can skip from book to book and still know where you are pretty quickly. but one of the ones that made qu

yamish and john meachum.vering this and following trump's impact on candidates as they try and use him to move themselves forward and sometimes use some of his darker tactics if you would call them that. i would say somebody was playing that on their phone, that sound bite in my home and i stopped in my tracks. i heard it right away and i didn't hear it any other way than the way i heard it, which was racist, planned, prepared and really ugly. >> i think as a reporter who has covered race for a long time, when you use the word monkey and ar the particular ewe lat and talking about an educated black man who is the mayor of tallahassee. andrew gillum has a degree from florida a&m university. he's been honored as an outstanding alumni of that university. it's a historically black university. so the fact that you would call him articulate and say he was performing well was of course in and of itself is racially charged because you're saying a black man with a degree can speak well which has historically been some

when jefferson comes home to monticello to his beloved monticello, john meachum likes to sat roads were open but, of course, it's all jefferson crying he can't be at monticello for 40 years in public service. he finally does come home in 1809 and he never leaves. he almost immediately calls his daughter and family to come and for her to be the hostess of the plantation and bring her family there. i think it's obviously partly because he wants a woman to be in that role and he can't obviously have his relationship doing. that he also wants to protect her and have her and her children at monticello. >> but zhe make a coupshe does f appearances. this is martha jefferson randolph. and she is officially his hostess but she is not there a lot. meanwhile dolly madison is on the other side of town creating a whole political center of networks and connections at the white house, and jefferson lets her do it. but there are these moments where she does show up, and i'm thinking of the work of cynthia kerner and it's when the news about domestic work comes out. this is about it president's white da

john meachum -- >> oh, lord.oo many examples of these sort of posers, this guy posing as a southerner as the son of the confederacy. but all of this talk, from laura ingram, corey stewart, overlooks one small detail of american history that many americans said the same ignorant thing hundreds of years ago and 150 years ago when the irish came. they said the same ignorant things when the with germans came. they said the same iger norrant things when the italians came to america. there have been a small segment of know-nothings who have been saying the same thing about immigrants coming in this country for over 240 years. i ticked off a list a couple of days ago about immigrants and their families that came recently and transformed silicone valley. if we had donald trump and corey stewart's view of america, then you wouldn't have had steve jobs over here. you wouldn't have had the founder of google over here, the founder of yahoo! over here, the founder of reddit over here, the founder of ebay over here. i mean, an

secretaries join a discussion with current white house correspondents and presidential historian john meachum to talk about george h.w. bush, andrew jackson and franklin d. roosevelt. live coverage from the white house historical association conference with representatives from presidential sites across the country will get under way wednesday morning at 9:00 eastern. >>> white house historical association vice chair introduces panel. this is about 1:45. >>> good morning, ladies and gentlemen. i'm very happy to be here. i'm also treasurer of the ronald reagan foundation as well. another presidential site. to get things off this morning, i'd like to frame or session by connecting to the over arching objective of the summit it which is to share stories and memories of the narratives they create and discuss insight spoo the management and out reach of presidential libraries, homes and museums.ispoo the management and out reach of presidential libraries, homes and museums.nspoo the management and out reach of presidential libraries, homes and museums.tspoo the management and out reach of presiden

finally, john meachum, wanted to ask you, while that is the case and this weekend showed that we weren't going to have repeat of charlottesville, you look at some of the polls came out this weekend and almost nine out of ten republicans agreed with donald trump's approach on race relations, that's about as damning a number as i've heard about my former party. it's 83%, i'm sorry, 8 out of 10 republicans i'm told put themselves in the position of agreeing with how donald trump handles race relations. how damning is that? >> that's so much better at 83. such beater number. i think it could be wrong obviously. my instinct would be this is a manifestation of this tribal commitment that we now have and so many people have to partisanship. and there are an extraordinary number of people who will walk off a cliff if trump says that's what we should do. and what we have to hope for is that, a, that the cliff is not too high and it's not too imminent. >> kasie hunt, on the hill we hear all the time that republicans seethe quietly and privately about donald trump, whether it's on trade, whether it