host: we are talking with julian zelizer, and editor from a new book. we go to michigan first to hear from brian on the independent line. caller: can you hear me? host: you are on air. have been trying to find out information going back to 2009 and i'm hoping you could be helpful. mueller at the fbi, the iranian deal going down. in for the first time history, obama could not appoint an inspector general at the state department. that is alarming to me, knowing hillary in place with all of these conflicts. and the clinton foundation. and it is really appalling when you have a state department that has over 300 under the inspector general's purview, you have mueller in charge of the a ei -- of the fbi and none of this makes sense. information so i am hoping you could help us out and find out why there was no inspector general at the state department that was confirmed? it lasted for over four years. with all of the information we can get to, the only information -- on a channels like c-span. host: we will get a response. guest: this is part of the story fr

host: we are talking with julian zelizer, and editor from a new book.e go to michigan first to hear from brian on the independent line. caller: can you hear me? host: you are on air. have been trying to find out information going back to 2009 and i'm hoping you could be helpful. mueller at the fbi, the iranian deal going down. in for the first time history, obama could not appoint an inspector general at the state department. that is alarming to me, knowing hillary in place with all of these conflicts. and the clinton foundation. and it is really appalling when you have a state department that has over 300 under the inspector general's purview, you have mueller in charge of the a ei -- of the fbi and none of this makes sense. information so i am hoping you could help us out and find out why there was no inspector general at the state department that was confirmed? it lasted for over four years. with all of the information we can get to, the only information -- on a channels like c-span. host: we will get a response. guest: this is part of the story freq

julian zelizer a professor at princeton university.he aforementioned harry enten, writer and analyst and amanda terkel, washington bureau chief for the huffington post. harry, explain the numbers to me, what's doing on? >> the president has a loyal base of supporters and everyone who hated him before the campaign hates him now except for a few republicans who switched from disapproving of his job to approving of him personally and that's what's happened. the democrats already all hated him. most of the independents hated him and the republicans are sticking by his side and nothing that seems to occur in this presidency takes them away from him. >> harry, something else to be kept in mind, i think, is that electability and approval rates are two totally separate things. >> sure. of course. i think that this is one of the key things we need to remember, right? donald trump was the most unpopular candidate of all time when he faced off against hillary clinton in 2016, but clinton herself was the second most unpopular candidate of all time

nathan gonzales, tim naftali and julian zelizer. understand you have some insight into this race on tuesday that you want to share. >> i think what's interesting is the two parties are fighting over the narrative of this election cycle because this district, the 18th district, really doesn't exist anymore. because the state supreme court threw out the map. this 18th district has been chopped up in a way if conor lamb, whether he wins or loses, he's probably going to in what's called the new 17th district against a republican congressman. i found it amusing that president trump attacked that georgia candidate for not living in the district. if rick saccone wins, he's probably going to run in the new 14th district, even though he lives in another new district. it all gets confusing. this isn't about the majority, this is about the fight for what type of district democrats can win in and what's possible for november. >> speaking of those districts, julian, that was one of the things that the president attacked, was the redistricting pr

joining us is cnn analyst julian zelizer. author of the book "the presidency of barack obama."tulations. edited by you. looks fantastic. let's start with the big story of the morning. tariffs. this is a good time to bring this in. barack obama opposed tariffs on chinese steel. exports plunged in 2016. george w. bush imposed. are we hyperventilating? >> i think that is what president trump is banking on. he may have looked at the history and saw two presidents did it and there was a price and it did not work. they survived and both were reelected to two terms. there is a little historical back drop that is relevant to the immediate coverage. >> you are not suggesting president trump wants to do something barack obama did? >> no. he is calculating he can take the risk. he is giving corporate america what they want. next week, there will be debate about the financial deregulation. he could withstand the backlash, but give voters in the key rust belt states something they want. >> the market reaction is one thing. his party is not so happy. senator roberts, the chairman of the sena

historian julian zelizer, on his new book, "the presidency of barack obama." the "50 capitals