i started to realize there was one exception to this, there was lyndon johnson often roosevelt would y come have breakfast with me and johnson would have breakfast with him. i said to a man named james wrote was an adviser to roosevelt and friend of johnson i said what's needed is different to franklin roosevelt and he said roosevelt was a political genius almost no one understood what he was talking about. lyndon johnson understood it all and roosevelt sold out. roosevelt once said if i'd gone to t southwest texas i would hae turned out like that. yes sir. >> when you are doing interviews can't people you talk to our aware they are talking of history and care about how they look. how do you decide what to believe, what they are shading and what they are not. >> how do i decide what to believe in the interviews flex >> i never believe what is told to me. ovaughter] you interview people over and over again. i think i have 22 interviews with one of johnson's a have several hundred pages of typed nodes. then you go to the other people who are involved in the story and to ask them the sam

he said, because lyndon johnson never put anything in writing. well, corcoran was only partly right. johnson hardly ever put anything in writing. as i'm going through the papers in the johnson library, there are two amazing documents. one is a telegram from a huge texas oil contracting anddam building firm and johnson is getting a federal contract saying to lyndon johnson at the beginning of october, lyndon, the checks are on the way. money that is being sent to him, unprecedented amount of money, is for him to be disturbing to congressman. lyndon johnson is a genius. he does that have any power, , t he realizes therere is one thing he has that no other congressman has. groups of people. he knows thehe texas oilman and contractors who need favors from the federal government and he -- and are willing to pay to get it to give campaign contributions, and he knows the northern liberaral congressman who need money for their campaigns. he arranges that all this s mony be given through him, and that creates powerful stuff and there is a list that i found

lyndon johnson had a certain empathy as well.be both of them having come from poor backgrounds made them closer to seeing people who were in trouble and feeling for them. he taught at a small mexican-american school and saw the pain -- he was a kid in college at that time, taking off a year to make money. he saw the pain of prejudice and he really wanted to help them. and he changed those kids' lives. whereas for franklin and teddy roosevelt, empathy didn't develop until they actually went into politics. teddy said that he was going in for an adventure. get in the state legislature. he thought it might be fun. but once he got there and saw tenement houses and was a police commissioner later and he saw what the slums were like at night, then he developed what he called a fellow feeling and desire to help make their lives better. and fdr's polio made him a more otherarted man to whom people that had fate deal them an unkind hand, and now him, so he could relate to them better. david: the leaders you write about, many of them had pr

to get a chance to vote against lyndon johnson's war in vietnam. he wanted to put vietnam on the ballot. gene mccarthy scored what was considered a resounding victory in the new hampshire primary by coming in such a strong second to the president of the united states, and by the end of that week there was a second challenger to president lyndon johnson from within his own party, new york's democratic senator robert kennedy jumped into the race against lyndon johnson. we had never seen anything like this, two power challengers against an all-power incumbent democratic president who had won a landslide in the last election, and the pressure from these two challenges against the incumbent president forced something no one saw coming, something that shocked the country, the president of the united states giving up, withdrawing from his own re-election campaign. >> i shall not seek and i will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president. >> no one who saw that can forget that moment. and then all hell broke loose in the democ

president barack obama embraced the lyndon johnson went to austin texas presidential library. rights leaders like john lewis and andrew young are saying that johnson deserves credit for a lot of what he did and he is tied to the story of martin luther king jr., which after all is the only person we have a national holiday for. so it's just right at this moment in time, johnson's civil rights have moved to the forefront where the trail of tears slaughter of andrew jackson has sent jackson down and woodrow wilson's bigotry has shot him down. it tells us that race has become a much more important issue in a way to how one works as president, even to the point where george washington doesn't get hit as badly for being a slave owner because he freed his slaves upon his death, while jefferson didn't do that. if you go micro in the numbers, you see that jefferson is punished more for slavery than george washington is, even though they were both slaveowners of the era. syphilis terms of the scandal, we need to remember that that is unfolding during several administrations. so it has le

some of you will have a mental image of lyndon johnson. but he had this unusually large head. and he had really big years. ears. and by this time he had kind of jowls. and when johnson would get sort of invested in something that he was saying, he would often shake his head, in this case he did shake his head, and those big ears would flap a little bit. and the jowls what kind of go on the jowls and this is what he did. and he said, stuart, jack, i don't know what to tell you. because you see, i had a dream last night and i don't remember tapping either one of you on the shoulder. >> [ laughter ] >> okay. i'm going to stop there. i'm going to stop there. and see if there are any responses, any questions. and so we'll see where we go. i certainly don't want to overstay my welcome. questions, any reaction? yes, sir in the back? >> [ inaudible question ] >> i'll repeat it. go ahead. yeah. what do i think of "saturday night live"? >> [ inaudible question ] >> yeah okay. that's a really hard question to answer. in any way that will get general assent. a lot of it depends on how much

the fifth and final volume of his massive series, "the years of lyndon johnson," focuses on l.b.j.'ency and the vietnam war. but it's publication is not expected for at least another year. in the meantime, caro has written a memoir about what he does. it's simply titled, "working." part of our ongoing arts and culture series, canvas. >> brown: "power reveals"-- two words on the wall of an office in midtown manhattan. >> you do all the research aer then you sitand you say, what is this book about? is is the inner sanctum of one of the nation's leading historns, robert caro, now sharing some of the lessons he's learned over a more than x decade career. >> i learned it book by book as i went a said, well, i think i've learned some stuff, and i just want to pass it along, not as advice, but as one reporters, you know, people who are trying to find out the truth about things. >>kirown: caro began his wor life in the 1950s and '60s as a reporter inclung for "newsday." his first book, "the power broker", published in 1974, chronicled how an unelected oftcial, master builder rob moses, beca

and the phone rang, it was two days after christmas, and it was lyndon johnson, i hadn't talked to him in two and a half years. he said, "bill howe you doi" "i'm fine, mr. leader." "what are you doing," he said. "i'm packing to go ba to austin." and he said, "no, no, i'm going to make a run for it, "i don't think i'll get it but i need you back." i hung up and i said, "judith pack forashington, "not for austin." and we went up, on the way she said, "what did he offer to pay you?" and i said, "i have no idea he didn't mention it." (audnce laughs) and so i spent that year back in his office around the country, seeingding all of the politicians,el, meeting them, watching what happened. they were heavy drinkers in those days, l and after y of campaigning they'd come to the hotel d they would drink until 1:30, 2:30, 3:30 in the morning of course i learned a lot, but gradually, that led me in the direction of washington for my career. when he didn't get the nomination he did get picked to be the vice presidential running mat i started to go back to texas then, and he said, "no stay through t

in the case of kennedy, johnson was concerned about the upcoming election to guide his options in vietnam. even after winning the election of 1964, lyndon b. johnson was not clear about what to do with what he called the little shit country in asia. the tapes and documents of the time indicate he knew he could not win in vietnam. he nonetheless chose war. when nixon was elected in 1968, he ordered the strong-armed technique of massive bombing, to bring the north vietnamese to the peace table. from the statistics we reviewed in class, we learned the bombing became unconscionable, particularly when nixon admitted in what was dubbed the zilch memo that the bombing had no effect in the conduct of the war. nonetheless, nixon continued the bombing to have an effect on the upcoming elections of 1972. as has been our practice throughout the course, we have used music and film as examples of the culture of those who served in vietnam and the united states. it is a reflection of social history during wartime. let's listen to some music, quietly. there are other classes going on and right next door, they are giving tests. ♪ ♪ prof. white: for toda

and lyndon johnson, who held every high office in washington, including president of the united stateson, he is trying to complete the fifth and final installment. he says they are not biographies but studies in power. you talk about power, and we all know the old saying, "power corrupts and all that," but you make a point of saying that it also causes things to happen. >> what i think power always does, bob, is reveal. when you're climbing trying to get power, often you have to conceal what you really intend to do or how you're doing it, because if people saw that, they might disagree with your aims or be afraid of the way you're doing it and not want to give you more power. >> schieffer: johnson always knew just how far that power would go. his first rule was never tell man to go to hell unless you can make him. >> exactly. that was a great rule. >> schieffer: i've always thought that johnson not only had a great ability to explain to people why it was in their interest to be on his side, but also why it was not in their interest to be against him. >> you know, john connolly once sai

i was going back tthis sme at the end of the summer, and lyndon johnson at his desk said, ghou know, i think you to transfer to the university of texas." that's where he lived and that's where he had a tevision station and i sai th"mr. leader i don't anhave any money,he had "i'm going to get married, and i've got a job "in north texas in denton," he said, "i l give you a job-- - [don] ktbc? - [bill] ktbc the radio station which somehow mysteriously was the only station in the country that could broadcast all ree networks. (audience laughs) - i wonder how that happened. - they had a monopoly, the vorable gods were looking down, and i got a job with him. he had promised me that he would pay me a hundred dollars a week that was astonishing in '54. it was more than my father had ever made in his life as i said earlier and i went down and he worked me 40 hours a week buwe bought the first mobile unit in texas. and i used to tool around town study, covering accidents and murders and the state senate the state legislature and that was probably the biggest crime scene in austin. (audience la

right here in this room lyndon johnson visited. not only six times but signed a piece of legislation designated united nations day. it's fun the think of some of the people who sat on that couch. the wonderful relationship between president truman and former president herbert hoover. two men who had completely different political ideologies. but formed a very warm relationship in the post presidency. i like to think about mr. and mrs. truman visiting with eleanor roosevelt. i like to think about some of the popular entertainers and celebrities of the day. jack benny did an entire episode of the jack benny program at the truman library and visited this hone. and both mr. and mrs. truman had wonderful senses of humor. and i can only imagine the laughter that was in this room. >> we're standing in the dining room in the grand addition of the gates' mansion. later the truman home. and what we see on the table today is a formal setting for six. and the setting was personally placed by margaret truman daniel. and i think when she set thi

robert caro, on the four decades of work he's done on the multi-volume biography "the years of lyndon johnson." >> you know, when i was a newspaper man, i remember i hao ted havingite an article while there was still questions i wanted to ask. when i started to do books, i just started to say, i don't want to start writing until i've got all my questions answered, and it takes a long time. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, utrman, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 me lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a bet r at www.hewlett.org. w >> ah the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. an

. >> john tyler, andrew johnson, chester arthur, calvin coolage, lyndon johnson, they were accidentalalls them thrust into the oval office when the previous president died. eight men that changed america, ceo of jigsaw and a sister company ocho google. pleasure to have you on. >> thank you for having me. >> fascinating book. what you talk about when describing these vice presidents who become president is the completely unexpected elements to it and it begins right at the start with john tyler who becomes president when william henry harrison dies supposedly because he got sick on his inauguration day but people didn't know the constitution was ambiguous whether the vice president became president. explain that. >> what the constitution says is that the vice president discharges the duties of president is there a vacancy. whether or not the vice president becomes president so john tyler who skips down after the inauguration and prepares for four years of irrelevance, finds out 30 days later william henry harrison is dead. he rushes back to washington because he know there will be a fi

he sets a precedent as recently as lyndon johnson still holds.becomes president of the united states based on a precedence he sets in 1841. we didn't have the 25th amendment until the late 1960s which formalizes that precedent. >> you talk about in some ways, the most famous successions, certainly of the 19th century, lincoln's assassination and andrew johnson becomes president, generally regarded as the worst president in history. the puzzle, if you try to answer, how could many regard as the best president in american history have picked a vice president who ended up being the worst president in american history? >> that's precisely right, fareed, when you look at how we win presidential succession throughout the course of our history, it's easy to say we got lucky, we navigated it and ended up more or less okay. >> that neglects the reality we were supposed to get abraham's reconsideration and it gave us andrew johnson, a man born a racist, the last president to own slaves, resurrects all elements of the confederacy, which gives us the precurs

lyndon johnson is the big engineer of getting nasa created out of the senate. glenn eisenhower goes along with it, but lyndon has his fingers in a pie. houston becomes a bit place to get a lot of the billions of dollars that gets pumped into the economy. the space center is named after lyndon johnson in houston. albert thomas, the congressman from houston, was part of the brown and root crowd that built dams for fdr. now they started building moon ports. he was powerful because he was head of congressional space appropriation. then senator robert kerr from oklahoma was the power of lyndon. kerr also wanted some of the dollars coming into oklahoma. after jack kennedy -- there are two big speeches of kennedy and they often get confused. march 25, 1961, he tells congress we are going to the moon. the next day in tulsa, oklahoma, all of the big companies and space enthusiasts, engineers, and scientists meet in tulsa. the next big kennedy speeches in 1962. the midterm elections is coming. september 12 he goes on a space tour to remind people of what he has done with

president barack obama embraced the lyndon johnson went to austin texas presidential library. ts leaders like john lewis and andrew young are saying that johnson deserves credit for a lot of what he did and he is tied to the story of martin luther king jr., which after all is the only person we have a national holiday for. so it's just right at this moment in time, johnson's civil rights have moved to the forefront where the trail of tears slaughter of andrew jackson has sent jackson down and woodrow wilson's bigotry has shot him down. it tells us that race has become a much more important issue in a way to how one works as president, even to the point where george washington doesn't get hit as badly for being a slave owner because he freed his slaves upon his death, while jefferson didn't do that. if you go micro in the numbers, you see that jefferson is punished more for slavery than george washington is, even though they were both slaveowners of the era. syphilis terms of the scandal, we need to remember that that is unfolding during several administrations. so it has less t

. >> without question, lyndon johnson, he had all the moves. he knew how to use power. d then when the war began to escalate and johnson didn't know what to do about it, he just started to flail around, and everything that he tried seemed to crumble in his hands. >> vietnam! hey! hey! >> low key minnesota democrat senator eugene mccarthy entered the race against his party's incumbent president with the express purpose of giving the voters a voice in the vietnam debate. >> campaign '68, the new hampshire primary. the big surprise of the first primary of campaign '68 has been the strength of senator eugene mccarthy. the volume with which new hampshire's voters today endorsed his effort signals trouble for president johnson's yet undeclared re-election bid. on the republican side, richard nixon entered the race to shed that loser's image he acquired in 1962 and '62. >> seems to be quite apparent from the early returns that we won't have to have a recount tonight. >> nixon, the only active campaign, ran far in front, even farther than expected, with 81%. >> mr. nixon, which

lyndon johnson, next, ragan, george w. bush.963, an interesting story to tell us why he closed the border. >> the assassination of jfk, there were things going on with russia back then that we only recently learned from the release of the warren commission document. that was lbj. jillian: richard nixon, operation intercepted. >> very interesting, 1969. what interests me about this is there was great praise, bipartisan praise when nixon shutdown the border. the washington post had an editorial praising him. it was a crisis the country recognized. rob: the washington post praise the republican president, that was not dissimilar from what we are facing now. the jfk assassination was one thing, this is more in line with what we talk about today. >> that is right. 1985, ronald reagan, the drug epidemic, was out of control, and kiki camarillo was murdered. the mexican authorities, state authorities covered up for the killers and reagan wouldn't have it. he shut the border down. we are not going to take them. jillian: talk about the dr

do you know that when we did med-- when medicare was done by the congress at the time, under lyndon johnson, ronald reagan said medicare will lead us to a socialist dictatorship. this is an ongoing theme of the republicans. however, i do reject socialism as a economic system. if people have that view, that's their view. that is not the view of the democratic party. >> stahl: speaker pelosi is now the most public face of the democratic party, its most successful fund-raiser, and the agenda-setter. >> pelosi: what are democrats for? we are for the people. >> stahl: she works tirelessly, always on the move-- in three- inch heels-- at 79. >> bella: i like that. that one's a corgi. >> stahl: even when she takes time to visit one of her nine grandchildren, as she did recently with bella and her mother christine, nancy's 2nd, it's brief. >> pelosi: this weekend, i came from washington to san francisco. on sunday, i'll be in los angeles; monday, st. louis, and then chicago, and then new york, and then boston. and then florida. and then back to california. and then back to washington. >> stahl: that

if i may say, to me the most underrated at least until fairly recently is lyndon johnson. because we still give kennedy the credit for all of the civil rights legislation, but it really was lyndon johnson who pushed that. we should give him a lot more credit. brian: he is seven, not 43. edna: that is true. how he managed to get that -- [laughter] brian: richard? richard: the most overrated president, and i am very specific, talking about the president is thomas caps on. people tend to forget the second term was a disaster. he imposed something called the embargo. which was designed to prevent war with europe's warring powers. it pretty much blew up in his face and had to be repealed subsequently. brian: can i ask you about the embargo act? did they really tiedown all american ships in this country for some 18 months? richard: in effect, they did. new england was the maritime part of the country. was already an area of suspicious. unintentionally, but it also contributed to some real divisions, fundamental divisions in the union. the most underestimated, in some ways i woul

this thing about lyndon johnson used social security, did not look at the record. he balanced it and we didn't spent social security until during the 1970's with the chairman of the ways and means committee started giving [indiscernible] we started draining the greenspan commission in 1983. greenspan commission came out inordinately high tax to take your of the baby boomers in the next generation. don't us understand me. have to act like all the baby boomers coming along, there is inething -- we foresaw that 1983 and we have said as a result of this high tax, section 21 of greenspan commission report says do not spend this money on any but social security. tiger, weike a finally got in 1990 george herbert walker bush on november -301gned into law section 13 that says the president and for budgetnnot use purposes social security moneys. just talking a moment ago by my distinct colleague from south carolina, he will try i guess to raise taxes and everything else and i would support it so long as we are not using taxes for any and everything but social security. you w

lyndon johnson said something lyndon johnson said something like, castro knew that kennedy wanted to kill him so he wanted to kill kennedy. there was a lot of speculation that castro may have ordered this himself. castro denies it. he visited mexico city short by turnover assassination and perhaps got some sort of signal or communication there. what we know for sure is that oswald, he was in the soviet union when the bay of pigs happened and was infuriated by it. he thought he was doing fidel castro a favor by going after john kennedy. indirectly, yes, i do think the bay of pigs definitely leads to the assassination of kennedy. it may have had a more direct link but that's very difficult, maybe impossible to prove. >> over here, please. i'll come to you in a second. >> yes. >> what's confusing to me is, if after the first day of the invasion, it became clear that the u.s. was behind it, and then if it was known after secondary air strikes on the 17th the invasion was doomed, are you basically saying that because kennedy was afraid of lighting the match against the soviet union, that

of the federal government power to regulate interstate commerce here but with the advent of lyndon johnson's great society, congress began a wholesale assumption of the states responsibilities. this was a done, it was done through a proliferation of programs that offered states and their subdivisions regulation written grants money for purposes that are acknowledged to be the sole responsibility of the states. congress found its authority to great such programs in an unfortunate supreme court construction of the constitutions spending clause, which empowers it to spend money, quote, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the united states. mischief lies in the words general welfare. during much of our history, the feeling was that phrase did no more than place a limit on congress' authority to spend by requiring the federal expenditures that serve national, as opposed to state or local purposes. beginning with the 1957 case of steward machine company versus davis, however, the supreme court has held that in its pursuit of the general welfare, congress is a

robert caro, on the four decades of work he's done on the multi-volume biography "the years of lyndon johnsonow, when i was a newspaper man, i remember i hao ted havingite an article while there was still questions i wanted to ask. when i started to do books, i just started to say, i don't want

and what's ironic about this is -- lyndon johnson didn't want to go to war in vietnam, i don't hethink, but every decisio made led, what seems to be in retrospect, inexorably toward that end. o of the things you're most noted for in your tenure as national security adviser to president trump was putting together a national-security strategy that was comprehensive within the ainistration. it included our economic strategy. it included all elements of our defense strategy. was that a lesson you drew directly from yo research and your writings about vietnam? >> i do think it was, in large measure, based on the research i had done on vietnam but, really, the research i had done across the cold war period as a historian and then the experience i had in the '90s. and then, i think, in the early 2000s, the experience associated with precipitous withdrawal from iraq and the unenforced redline in syria, i think we actually swung from over-optimism in the '90s to almost, you know, pessimism or defeatism, even, in the 2000s and the belief that our disengagement from these complex problems oversea

it will make lyndon johnson change the change that. the law requires for these jobs bill moving if he does. well when you're. really focusing on the many good ideas and some very concerning. absolutely. thank. you to tell me what's happened with unit manager sununu meetings over these last five weeks in a way again when we didn't have a deal in the litigious meeting week of the general meeting which was held on in the city and it. lives in a wooden toys held on they had to get off the floor quarreling and anything to do nothing to think there's some reason why you didn't have it usual next month you manage just meeting hundred unit managers first. isn't about every month it is supposed to be every month and. yes it is supposed to be every man. but then i don't have any excuse for it really that. we work with gleason's just to say that though there was so much to do and did we can all focus on those cold we didn't learn to he said point you know it's one of the wanted to do it right on the other hand you didn't want to disappoint me thi

legendary biographer robert caro has written a new , bod it's not his long awaited final volume on lyndon johnson. ll ask him why this book now. >>> and another writer probes the consequences of power on the psyche. i speak with israeli author and psychologist ayelet gundar-goshen. >>> who is us? >> then america's forgotten poor rise up in "the public," a new writer emelio estevez., and ♪

maybe vietnam were when we started seeing the collapse of lyndon johnson in the vietnam war and then was the gerald ford pardon of nixon and he didn't finish the second term, so there's kind of some churning going on. but i always find the incumbency is a benefit in the modern times just to have air force one take you around and have that much around you.re and then barack obama inheriting a great recession that we worked our way out of and started seeing signs for it by the time they ran for the three election but alsagreed electionbut also a bin laden was a big deal. he was outlawed de number one. things that are forgotten the little bits now that helps in michigan and. toledo ohio. some of them moves he made that he didn't have coattails. hillary clinton didn't have the gas in her tank because of the fatigue factor. i don't six to seven years people started tiring of the president for short and even ronald reagan with all of the great breakthroughs with mikhail gorbachev and diplomacy started trailing off. people kind of had their quota. >> do we have cards where they are? i want

and if i may say, to me the most underrated, at least until fairly recently, is lyndon johnson. because we still give kennedy the credit for all of the civil rights legislation, but it really was lyndon johnson who pushed that. and we should give them a lot more credit. >> by the way, millard fillmore is 37, just in case, not 43. >> that's true, but how he managed to get that is really amazing. [laughing] >> i was in the most overrated president, and time very specific, i'm talking about the president, not the entirety of his life, his thomas jefferson. people tend to forget the second term was a disaster. he and post something called the embargo, which was designed to prevent war with europe's warring powers. it pretty much blew up in his face and had to be repealed subsequently. >> can ask you about the embargo act of 1807? did they really tied at all american ships in this country for some 18 18 months? >> in effect they did. of course the reason, new england was a time part of the country. that was already an area of suspicious of jefferson. so unintentionally obviously, but

but president lyndon johnson took over after that and bought two solution some of the bills that president kennedy had introduced. >> before working, before going to columbia university you had worked for the black press right? >> i work from us for years in the black press. >> what was the difference now, you said that you wanted to go to what we call the white press, the mainstream because you thought that is the beach true you could help seein change the perception to african-americans to white americans for you that you can make a difference in how african-americans were perceived. what was the difference in how you approach your work as a journalist ? >> the black press really help me understand the role of journalism in a deep way. and that was because the way black reporters for the black press actually covered the south. they were willing to risk their lives to go behind the cotton curtain and they often did risk their lives. for example, they would hide their old part of her typewriters and all close and make it look like as if they were hammering along with all close on. some of

if i remember, lyndon johnson needed republicans to pass civil rights act in '64, the voting rights actse hillary's mentor robert the former clansman bird, was filibustering. a little history. take a look. >> how many years until the world ends again? we have 12 years left to cut emissions by at least 50%. you may laugh, but your grandkids will not. in the 1950's, 1960's, so just know that in the present day, there are a lot of people who hide the fact that their families and that their grandparents fought against principles of equal rights in the united states. while a lot of people can hide that their grandparents did that in the civil rights movement, you should also know that the internet documents everything. and your grandchildren will not be able to hide the fact that you fought against acknowledging and taking bold actions on climate change. >> you previously told us we may have to stop having kids altogether, but now we have to be worried about our grandkids. i'm a little confused. it appears that just like the unbuilt furniture in her apartment, the congresswoman's ideas are f

lyndon johnson, at 59, he was 59 years old when he decided not to run.as in terrible shape and would not have survived another term if he had lived. dwight eisenhower left office at 70 and not in great shape. it really depends on the person. and, let's not forget the first former president to live to 90 was john adams. john adams would have been a fine president, at least physically in his 70s and he was our second president. so, it's genes, it's nutrition, it's medicine and it's a little bit of luck. >> let's talk about the message that often comes with the younger candidates, that youth, that new generation, the message of change. look at obama in 2008. you have clinton in 1992. you have kennedy in '60. in this cycle, it's interesting that some of the younger candidates are making the experience argument against the 72-year-old sitting president. >> well, victor, first of all, this is a president who, despite his age, gives the impression of activism. remember the disruption, the theme of the trump presidency, is not something you associate with older

so did lyndon johnson. in fact, lbj helped create nasa in 1958.ur whole creation of nasa was a response to sputnik. in the late '50s, everything became nik. they put a dog out there and it became poochnik. so sputnik kind of motivated kennedy, and with the debate with nixon, kennedy charged nixon, if you're president, i see a soviet flag on the moon. if you elect me president, there will be an american flag on the moon. >> this calls for an assessment, but you're a historian, after all. how would lbj and jfk take the news on this very day, if we want to get our astronauts up to the national space station, our ride is the russians'. we don't have a spacecraft ready for the task. where did we lose it along the way? our jets still fly at the same speed as john f. kennedy and we can't build a spacecraft in this generation. >> i think we did big things, industrial mobilization, or the plants jimming up airplanes. obviously the manhattan project. eisenhower did the interstate highway project in the st. lawrence seaway. kennedy is part of that world war

nothing gets more local than a hard handshake, a hug or a kiss with the possible exception of lyndon johnson who routinely violated his personal space to win over people. joe biden perfected that technique like you politicians but times and cultural standards change, sometimes not so easily. >> what he did was appropriate -- it is not about malice or misconduct. >> perhaps he will be more thoughtful whether to be the person he has always been. >> iron carmen wrote a piece about how the washington post delayed and fitted two details and or expose of sexual misconduct by top cbs news producer. he opined it might be, quote, the legal squeeze, the close relationship between the paper and 60 minutes, the easy identification with a powerful executive in our industry and me too fatigue, growing sense and journalistic circles the movement might be going too far but the 24 hour news cycle moves with lightning speed. the first of biden's accusers is coming under criticism herself. >> mostly floor as, someone who is racist or implemented retaliation. >> and an earlier time this might've been fatal to b

bill clinton would not have been president of the united states, lyndon johnson, carter would not haveected either were it not for black women. i don't know if you can predict how they will vote based off of someone's demographic. back then we didn't have a lot of choices. now we have a lot of great diverse choices that they can consider but they do seem -- when you see women interviewed from the forum they are fou kcu on issues. they want to hear what they will do to create jobs. they are concerned about issues and things that will affect their own lives. it's something to see all the top of the polls being led by three white men. i have to say, i'm concerned that somebody who worked for a woman candidate last time that there's something that about the sort of bias we still hold about leadership and what that looks like. that makes us gravitate towards men and even white men. that it is something about how we -- this image that we still hold makes it harder for the women candidates who are really great to breakthrough. i think that maybe some of the rea reactions we'll see today will

but john -- president lyndon johnson took over after that and actually the kind of brought to fruition some of the bills that president kennedy had introduced. >> now, before working, before even going to columbia university, you had worked for the black press, right? >> i had. i worked for almost four years in the black press. >> right. so what was the difference now? you said you wanted to go to the, what we call the white press, right? the mainstream, because you wanted, you thought that in the mainstream you could help change the perceptions of african-americans to white americans, right? you thought you could make a difference in how african-americans were perceived. do you -- what was the difference in how you approached your work as a journalist? >> well, the black press really helped me understand the role of journalism in a very deep way. and that was because of the way appropriators, black appropriators -- reporters, black reporters for the black press actually covered the south. they were willing to risk their lives to go behind the cotton curtain. and they often did risk th