margaret chase smith took on joe mccarthy early on. even though mccarthy and his classic charming side had promised margaret chase smith that he had put her name up for vice president for whoever got the nomination in 1952. and margaret chase smith had enough conviction that she authored what was called the declaration of conscience, condemning mccarthy for his un-american activities in the way he had grilled witnesses and ignored their rights. everything about his campaign was offensive to her. she takes to the senate floor, she finds six moderate republican sign onto her. mccarthy tried to do to her what he did to millard tydings. first he was the master of the name-calling. he dubbed her snow white and her seven dwarfs. her fellow senators. then he took to maine and tried to beat her. and smith was strong enough as a candidate that he couldn't beat her. but she lost and ran a much closer election that she had the time before. and lastly, i don't what i want to say about margaret chase smith issues a rather unexceptional senator. the

margaret smith because she's a favorite of mine. she was the only woman in the senate, the senator from maine and margaret chase smith took on joe mccarthy only on an even though mccarthy in his classic charming side had promised margaret chase smith would put her name up for vice president for whoever got the nomination in 1952. margaret chase smith had enough conviction that she often what was called a declaration of conscience condemning mccarthy forced un-american activities in the way he grilled witnesses and ignored the rights, the way, everything about his campaign was offensive to her. she finds six moderate republicans to sign onto her tongue and mccarthy tried to do to her what he did to try to. first he was the master of the name-calling and he dubbed her snow white and her seven dwarfs come her fellow senators. then he took to maine and try to beat her. smith was strong enough as a candidate that he couldn't beat her she lost gumshoe rant on a much close election then she had the time before. lastly, i went to say that margaret chase smith is, , she s relatively unexceptional senator. the one thing we remember about her today

and it is clear she adores margaret chase smith her apartment and the senate race in maine doesn'tdo that and then to say because susan collins role model says you have that down margaret chase smith. and the voters will vote on the selection. >> so the documents that you have got from those hearings and the materials you have access t to. >> we were lucky to have that material and you know it wasn't because i got that material recently opened a up and i had an incredibly important ally with urban ancestry his daughter and the tv personality and those that were helping me to make sense of those documents and they were as surprised as i was in them to be open and generally the open to the time now back under lock and key again. >> you what the hell out of the them. >> so tell me be your questions come in looking at the hearing hearings, what was the most striking thing of those documents? >> the shocking thing to me was normally we expect a politician to be more outrageous when the cameras watching what they are doing and in closed session nobody is watching you can be reasonable. h

jesse sumner is on the phone and taking care of business but over here we have margaret chase smith who is tending some flowers. and she has a wonderful, fascinating long career. this is a visitor pass, a gallery pass that's signed by margaret chase smith in 1941. and gallery passes were often collected as souvenirs, of trips to the capitol. and this was perhaps someone from maine visiting and would have been signed by one of the few women in congress at the time. >> this is a transitional time period and margaret chase smith really kind of embodies that. women in congress in the 1940s and 1950s, as a group, they're really kind of serving an apprenticeship. they are slowly working their way into positions of influence and seniority. they're getting better committee assignments. they're serving longer careers. by the end of this period some of them are moving into leadership positions, or at least further up the leadership rung. margaret chase smith comes into the house via the wide dose mandate, succeeds her husband clyde who passes away in 1940 and there's a special election that's hel

margaret chase smith really embodies that. women in congress in the 19 forties and 19 fifties, as a group they are really kind of serving in apprentice ship. they are slowly working their way into positions of influence and seniority. they are getting better committee assignments. they are serving longer careers. by the end of this period, some of them are moving into leadership positions, or at least further up the leadership wrong. margaret chase smith comes into the house through the windows mandate. she succeeds her husband clyde, who passes away in 1940, and there's a special election held. she served in the house for about 9 years. she has a very influential career. she manages to get on the naval affairs committee, which was a plum assignment. prior to the reorganization of the armed forces in the late 19 forties, he has had a naval affairs committee and a military affairs committee. naval affairs, if you are from maine with the big shipyards, was one of the assignments that you would really look out for. it really gave

and margaret chase smith embodies that. women in congress in the 1940s, 1950s, as a group, they're really kind of serving an apprenticeship. they're working their way into positions of influence and seniority. they're getting better committee assignments. they're serving longer careers. by the end of this period, some of them are moving into leadership positions. or at least further up the leadership rung. margaret chase smith, she comes into the house via the widow's mandate. there's a special election that is held and she serves in the house for about nine years and she has an influential career. she manages to get on the naval affairs committee which was a plum assignment. prior to the reorganization of the armed forces in the late 1940s, the house had a naval committee. naval affairs, if you're from maine, with the big shipyards was one of the things you would look out and it gave her a position of influence and allowed her to speak on the topic of women in military service. in 1948, she's a prime mover behind the bill

>> well, he's becoming the margaret chase smith of the transition crisis of 2020. member margaret chase smith was the senator from maine who stood up in 1950 and said that mccarthy was using un-american methods. she gave a speech called the declaration of conscience. she was four years ahead of all the men. it took them until 1954. she only got six senators to join her and mccarthy dismissed them as snow white and the six dwarves. but right now you'd rather be talked about as margaret chase smith than mccarthy. this is kind of a republican hedge fund because they don't know how powerful trump will be. will he be the "wizard of oz"? will it be all over, or will it continue to be this ambient and fundamental force? they don't know, so they're hedging their bets. >> and jason, how would you advise democrats in georgia, these two senate races which as we said are ball game for senate control, not only how to proceed, how to communicate with the voters -- lessons learned from what we've just been through -- but how to capitalize on what we can see are errors in realtime