jon meacham just referred to reading the transcripts. it's an incredible experience to read them, fascinating. i would also addis tushing. they're very disturbing to read. the employment of language for a president is one of the most vital aspects of the presidency. if you're of a certain age with a certain attention span, and i would measure it maybe with people of the age over 45 who aren't working around looking at their phones, they're used to a president using language to move things, point things out, emphasize the importance of things. >> strategically. >> it's very upsetting, kind of depressing to read the transcripts of this particular president as he rambles on anecdotally, ad libs about things that are critical to the future of this country. >> mika, this is not about donald trump being ignorant, not about donald trump not reading books. is not about donald trump not knowing the issues. we have known that in the past. alex, just get lined up for us, if you will, donald trump back on the "today" show in the 1980s, we'll show yo

we welcome to our broadcast jon meacham who took his place among historians long before he won a pulitzer, american lion, andrew jackson in the white house. and john, i thought about you when i first heard this news, wondered what was going through your mind. tell us? >> you are a jersey shore guy. i suspect you grew up with arcades along the sea shore. i went to a lake and there was is a ski ball machine and pin ball machines. and sometimes you would roll the ball and it would bounce out and hit the opinion ball machine. that's basically what's going on in donald trump's mind. he had basically -- he has two different ideas here, he has jackson and jackson's legacy, which i'm pretty sure he began contemplating after the election when steve bannon mentioned him as a jacksonian figure. with me last may, he brought up the question last may, why was the civil war inevitable, couldn't that have been worked out, couldn't there have been a deal made? i think what happened is these two things intersected, crashed in his head in that arcade. ultimately what is disturbing about it honestly is they

jon meacham who wrote the definitive biography of andrew jackson said to "the new york times" today "the expansion of slavery caused the civil war. and you can't get around that. so what does trump mean? would he have let slavery exist but not expand? that's the counter-factual question you have to ask." so in the next trump interview yes, only hope that the interviewer will ask president trump how he would have avoided the civil war. how much slavery would president trump have been willing to allow in the new territories of the united states? that's another version of today's question, easier question of are you for making coverage of preexisting conditions mandatory or optional? the governing outcome is always in the details. always. so as jon meacham is insisting, you cannot say you would have negotiated away the civil war without telling us exactly how, exactly how you would do that, without telling us what your position would have been on allowing slaves in the territories, and how that would have convinced the south not to commit treason and not secede from the you know and wage

thank you, jon meacham. >>> president trump is claim blaming the former president for the michael flynnre going to kiss cuss. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ sfx: engine revving ♪ (silence) ♪ we believe in food that's anaturally beautiful,, fresh and nutritious. so there are no artificial colors, no artificial flavors, no artificial preservatives in any of the food we sell. we believe in real food. whole foods market. e*trade's powerful trading tools, give you access to in-depth analysis, and a team of experienced traders ready to help if you need it. it's like having the power of a trading floor, wherever you are. it's your trade. e*trade gave us the power to turn this enemy into an ally? microsoft and its partners are using smart traps to capture mosquitoes and sequence their dna to fight disease. there are over 100 million pieces of dna in every sample. with the microsoft cloud, we can analyze the data faster than ever before. if we can detect new viruses before they spread, we may someday prevent outbreaks before they begin. (vo) when you wake up with miracle-ear... ...your mornings can come to life with

pulitzer prize winning jon meacham is with us next. on september 9, 2010, pg&e learned a tragic lesson we can never forget. this gas pipeline ruptured in san bruno. the explosion and fire killed eight people. pg&e was convicted of six felony charges including five violations of the u.s. pipeline safety act and obstructing an ntsb investigation. pg&e was fined, placed under an outside monitor, given five years of probation, and required to perform 10,000 hours of community service. we are deeply sorry. we failed our customers in san bruno. while an apology alone will never be enough, actions can make pg&e safer. and that's why we've replaced hundreds of miles of gas pipeline, adopted new leak detection technology that is one-thousand times more sensitive, and built a state-of-the-art gas operations center. we can never forget what happened in san bruno. that's why we're working every day to make pg&e the safest energy company in the nation. >>> welcome back. with us for some perspective tonight a pulletser prize winner presidential hist

. >> and chris cillizza, it was jon meacham who commented over the weekend not since preworld war i have we seen a resurgent russia, germany talk about going it alone and more passivist and isolationist united states and we know how that turned out. you're arguing in fact the national security area foreign affairs is where donald trump may have his biggest influence yet. negative influence, positive influence or do we know? >> we don't know. like many things with trump, i think we know he's willing to do and say things other politicians and presidents have not previously been willing to say and do, david. he represents unrt dorthodoxy, uncertainty. when we look at his slogan make america great again there's a tendency to focus on the dmoek policy. the truth of the matter and the ambassador can speak to this, you can always change more in terms of foreign policy than you can in terms of domestic policy as president. you're very circumscribed as a president in terms of domestic policy largely but congress, president trump struggles with the health care bill, funding for his border wall, th

brinkley called the most bizarre 24 hours in presidential history, joining me is historian professor jon meachamof "american lion andrew jackson in the white house." to just try to put this in some sort of context, can you give us a history lesson? >> sure. jackson fought for the union in 1832/33, south carolina was causing problems, they wanted to pick and choose which federal laws they wanted to obey called nullification. it was seen as a pretext for about a future battle over slavery and i think what -- you know, the president, like all presidents or most presidents, sees as he wishes to be seen. that is, he looks back to history for inspiration and -- but more often look for sanctioned for a given moment and if you listen to what he said there and what he said in the past about lincoln, jeffson and others, he is clearly in a way talking about himself, a tough guy with a big heart, at least his vision of himself. and so i think whenever a president talks about a predecessor, it's important to put on a pair of x-ray glasses and try to figure out are they really talking about how they hope we a

was assassinated who resented andrew johnson's lenient reconstruction policies as you and i and jon meachamts back to commemorate, of course, shay's rebellion. >> jon meacham just texted you. he's our historical record. >> he's gotten to you. >> joining us ranking member of the house select committee on intelligence congressman adam schiff of california. good to see you this morning. >> good morning. >> you have asked for james comey, called for james comey to testify before your committee or somewhere before congress. have you formally asked him to appear now? >> we have not. there are a lot of committees that have an equity here. certainly equity committee does. certainly judiciary committee, government reform committee. what i'm pleased to see there's bipartisan support now to get to the bottom of this. you have republican chairman chaffetz saying he wants the documents and is prepared to subpoena them. you have republican chairman like mccain and graham who have already extended senator graham an invitation to director comey to testify. so i think we can be confident if these documents

. >> joining us, jon meacham. gentlemen, good morning. father, let me begin with you.elationship, not the past. we can talk about that during the campaign, but just today, the two of them getting together. what do you think both of them want out of this meeting? >> it's a little warmer than it was before. the pope was pretty pointed about giving him a copy of the encyclical on the i represent voo and a sculpture of an olive tree, saying i'd like you to be an instrument of peace. president trump was court y'all. we'll see if he changes his tone on the environment and the poor as a result of this meeting. we'll see. >> father, we're concerned at times how donald trump is going to carry himself on international stage. he gave -- i understand he gave the pope first edition book -- signed books of martin luther king, junior. this is what he should have done, lbj 50 years ago giving the pope a bust of himself. trumpid not invent -- >> that would be a graven image. >> talk about the irony of these two people coming together today, the day donald trump's budget comes out and s