joining me now, linda johnson, president and ceo of the brooklyn library.y show. this is the first time you have organized a day of action in addition to banned books week. why now? >> it is not an accident that we have done this now. part of it is the fact that we are leading up to the selection in a year where book bans have been instituted at an unprecedented level. we didn't enough before the election so that we could have a whole session getting people registered to vote. we believe that the majority of people in this country are not in favor of censorship but that there is a lack of awareness and we wanted to amplify the issue. >> you are asking supporters to become, quote, intellectual freedom voters. what does that look like at the ballot box? >> i think that the important issue is that we are trying to get elected officials and legislators to understand that their constituents care deeply about this issue and will vote on this issue. so first step, obviously, getting people registered to vote. second step, identifying people. in municipalities, the

joining me now, linda jones, president and ceo of the brookland library. president johnsonis event. >> part of it is the fact we are leading up to this election when book bans have been instituted at an unprecedented level. we wanted a whole session getting people registered to vote. we believe the majority of people in this country are not in favor of censorship, but there's a lot of awareness, and we wanted to empathize the issue. >> you are asking supporters to become "intellectual freedom voters." what does that look like at the ballot box? >> i think the important issue is that we are trying to get elected officials and legislators to understand their constituents care deeply about this issue and will vote on this issue. and so first step obviously getting people registered to vote, second step identifying people, and municipalities, there is a library at just about every municipality in the country where there are now bills being enacted that are banning books of a particular topic or category of topics. it started about three or four years ago where they were banning

and then he offers it to linda johnson, not really sincerely. nd he doesn't think johnson is going to take it. lyndon johnson is all about power. his whole life is that going to give up the power of senate majority leader to be to hold this worthless office of the vice presidency, but yet that's exactly what lyndon johnson does, because he's afraid what's going to happen if he turns it down and jfk loses and he gets blamed for the defeat or of jfk wins, and then he takes it out on lyndon johnson when he the presidency president and maybe lyndon johnson will not be senate majority leader in 1961. so he takes that he takes the job. he takes the candidacy and instantly regret it goes on a bender. actually for about a week, but then straightens up flies. right. and is not an asset to the ticket anywhere except really in the south and in texas. but boy, is he an asset to the ticket in texas. well, here's a little bit of john kennedy's acceptance speech in 1968. in los angeles. and we stand today on the edge of a new frontier, the frontier of the 1960,

linda johnson would go on for hours but it was off the record so, instead of going in for a 62nd =>, we could be in the oval office for more than an hour sometimes asking multiple questions to the president and also off the record briefings on air force one would turn in to on the record briefings so, it was a lot of work. >> one of the things that i think readers will appreciate about the work is the history different administrations and how they acted with the press, did you study that in preparation for taking on this role? >> no, i had always been interested in presidential history but i would say my knowledge was very superficial and i had no idea until i got on the beach how we did pull reporting and all the press conferences work in the briefing room and all of that but what i wanted to do with the research for the book was to see how things had been, how did we get to this era of live televised presidential news conferences because it wasn't always like that. president speaking to journalists extensively on the record is relatively recent and then also of course things got co

and then he offers it to linda johnson, not really sincerely. nd he doesn't think johnson is going to take it. lyndon johnson is all about power. his whole life is that going to give up the power of senate majority leader to be to hold this worthless office of the vice presidency, but yet that's exactly what lyndon johnson does, because he's afraid what's going to happen if he turns it down and jfk loses and he gets blamed for the defeat or of jfk wins, and then he takes it out on lyndon johnson when he the presidency president and maybe lyndon johnson will not be senate majority leader in 1961. so he takes that he takes the job. he takes the candidacy and instantly regret it goes on a bender. actually for about a week, but then straightens up flies. right. and is not an asset to the ticket anywhere except really in the south and in texas. but boy, is he an asset to the ticket in texas. well, here's a little bit of john kennedy's acceptance speech in 1968. in los angeles. and we stand today on the edge of a new frontier, the frontier of the 1960,

perhaps to the acquaintance of linda johnson, i don't know. nixon had a good relationship with president johnson in the post-presidency, but you like connolly just because he was a very strong individual. i think connolly endorsed himimn the 72 campaign as well. maybe that was the acquaintanceship. i can't recall the particulars now. but anyway, connolly was a very strong individual, so i, that's the main relationship he would've had. what was the second part of your question? [inaudible]n >> he would've supported -- the political part of him would've stayed neutral, but i think he would have come he like john connollyhe so much he would hav, he was, he had sort of a bromance with john connolly. [laughing]wo he thought that connolly would've been the best running mate for reagan. but then, but then he said a lot of times to, me, he said you know, connolly would be the best running mate but he would never pick him. >> ken, thankof you. ladies and gentlemen, let's give him a round of applause. [applause] >> ken will be available in our front lobb

and there was a real and visceral between bobby and and linda johnson, sadly. so. that's right i mean, so what then what happens? -- going to go to work for lbj we never know exactly what it was that made lbj reach out to him. other than that, he had written speeches for jfk, but we found a tape recorder that johnson had. he had a little button in his oval office. it, whenever he wanted an important conversation recorded, mainly because he could get deals when he was making them with congressmen or senators. he wanted to make sure what they'd promised they for him so he could keep them out. you said you this here it is. but in this case he was talking to bill moyers and he said, i need somebody who can speeches for me. and the way he described, i want somebody who can put sex into speeches. what in the world that meant? i want something you can put rhythm. my speeches. i want somebody who can put great churchillian phrases into speeches? who could that be? and moyers said, the only person i know -- goodwin because he had worked with him in the peace corps. but he's