we actually called michael beschloss to ask if there's anything like this. has there ever been a single day in the news for any u.s. president that held similar explosive political force to the criminal court news that president trump got today with his campaign chairman being found guilty on eight felony counts. eight felony counts which should put him away on prison. and at the same time, on basically exactly the same moment, his long time personal lawyer and long time employee at his business also pleading guilty to eight felony counts which should put him away for years in prison. in the case of the president's long time personal lawyer, his deal with prosecutors today not only included his own guilty pleas, it included detailed descriptions and evidence of the president's own participation, the president in fact directing felony criminal behavior.

michael beschloss, that was a difficult time.in, his first wife, had worked with the reagans, worked in the white house. it was very sad. i recall a year ago when asked about opposition research, trying to get her to say something unkind about john mccain, she said, why would i, i love the guy, present tense. >> never happened. and she knew that he was a great man as well as a good man. so you couldn't really manufacture that. but, you know, one word on arizona. we were talking about it a little earlier, as we were pausing to think of john mccain as an arizona an todn today, i thought he went back to arizona because he married cindy mccain, whose family had deep roots in the state, but it was almost heaven-sent, because for john mccain to go to arizona, with which he had not had a past history, this was the state of barry goldwater and mavericks and people who have made their way in the west. it had only been a state since 1912. almost humanly, it was a perfect match. it tells you how far our politics have traveled that by the ti

michael beschloss, u.s. historian. presidential historian. you've been around. you've seen a lot of different things happen. this is not one of those good days, right. >> these are not the sort of headlines that we enjoy talking about. and yet, at the same time, how do we put this into could ntext? where will this brick us on this sad moment today as john mccain dies? >> well, richard, this great american life, john mccain who was the -- as has been said the son and grandson of these great navy figures of world war ii in the time of vietnam. growing up as this hell raiser. this almost loutish figure as he described himself at annapolis becoming a great figure in american history and certainly in the history of the senate. we've talks a lot about his senate years tonight. something else occurs to me. exactly ten years ago, next week, john mccain hasse was nominated by the republican party for president of the united states. and we sometimes think of this as inevitable that barack obama would have been elected and that john mccain was never really in contention. b

we called michael beschloss today. has any u.s. president ever gone through anything quite like this when it comes to the criminal law? michael beschloss today told us, the only rough equivalent he can come up with in u.s. history would be march 1st, 1974. that produced this headline the next day. march 1st, 1974, was the day a grand jury publicly indicted richard nixon's campaign manager who he had named attorney general and the president's top two aides in the white house and a bunch of other top white house nixon staffers. the critical catastrophe for nixon that day, march 1st, 1974, is that nixon himself was named as an unindicted co-conspirator by the grand jury in that criminal behavior. and those findings of criminal activity by president nixon, those were ultimately handed over dong gres for them to impeach him. tonight president trump is not facing impeachment. he is doing a rally in west virginia. but his campaign chairman and his long time personal lawyer are both convicted felons, as of tonight. and there is tremendous

michael beschloss, nbc presidential historian, has known john mccain well and for long and michael, earlier you were pointing out how in september of 2008, before the lamin crash before the meeting in roosevelt room where john mccain came and the white house was bringing in both obama and mccain and he didn't seem to have policies for the economic crisis. that seemed to be whether he his campaign went -- took a downturn frankly. but you were pointing out before the lehman crash at the beginning of september in 2008, he was ahead of barack obama in the polls. >> that's exactly right. and that would have been a very close race and i think john mccain later on said that his own reaction to the economic collapse of september of 2008 was not his finest hour but in retrospect, i think you would probably agree, andrea, that there were very few republicanss who could have won presidency that year after the, the twin difficulties of timberwolf or one or two very unpopular wars, plus a very big economic collapse, plus a two-term republican president, very lard as you know for any president nominee in

with me here is michael beschloss and bill crystal both knew and covered john mccain. >> this is presidential level, you know? since reagan and 2004 which was about a week as you remember, both of the ceremonies, this is something we used to do with presidents and this is the presidential level. mccain is the 13th senator to lie in state of the u.s. capitol of rotundrotunda. this is a large send-off. you have the scene of john mcca mccain planning each one of the ceremony and intending every moment of them to send a message to americans beyond life. >> bill crystal. you have seen all of the weeks within the fraction of the republican party, it was so worthy to see united republican party, mike pence and mitch mcconnell and paul ryan leaving washington at the end of his term. all there to honor john mccain whom they -- some of them did not honor in life because he was always scold and calling upon them in his last great speech last july 27th, a year in some weeks ago, calling on them to start doing their job and getting things done and not being the senate of today in s

. >> and with us tonight for more author and presidential historian michael beschloss. we badly need your brain because i've racked mine. i cannot think of a parallel figure in american political life when you think about it, he was a hero of a war that didn't yield heroes deeply unpopular in realtime. came home and bass unable politically to grab the proverbially brass ring, unable to comb his own hair forever 50 years because of torture, and he was a product of that torture, make no mistake. >> absolutely. he would go to political rallies and someone standing next to him would try to hold his arm up in the air and he said i can't do it. don't you realize i'm not able to do that? this is something that was with him every single hour of his life after that ordeal in vietnam and brian, had john mccain not gone on to do anything in politics after he returned from vietnam in the spring of 1973, i think we would be talking about him tonight because of those five and a half years he spent being tortured in captivity in north vietnam at a time when he could have taken their o

thank you so much, michael beschloss. thank you, john weaver.will be lying in repose tomorrow as well. of course, the services on saturday. and my colleague katy tur in new york, katy, these are emotional days for all of us who cover politics, who loved john mccain. the vibrancy, the humor, and the prayerful moments today all so meaningful. >> i think beyond those of us who cover politics or had deep admiration for senator mccain, i think it's an emotional day for the entire country as we're watching one of the very few men or lawmakers left in congress or in american government who was willing to put country over party. and we heard it so eloquently put by joe biden saying that, expressing shock that he and mccain would get an award for being bipartisan when that is what they are sent to washington to do. to compromise, to make deals, to get government running, and how that almost seems laughable in 2018. i mean, this whole service, andrea, has been such an emotional ride. and it has shown us, i think, some of the better parts of americans and

we'll get to that in a few minutes with michael beschloss tonight. in this case in 2018, this president, there is no grand jury here and no indictment because michael cohen pled in open court rather than being on trial. and he apparently wants to talk about everything he knows. no less so than in 1974, because of michael cohen this president has been named as an unindicted co-conspirator. there are constitutional questions whether or not any president can be indicted while they're still serving as president. but there are no such constitutional issues of indictments coming down this road for entities not specifically named donald j. trump, indicted for the trump campaign, people who served on the trump campaign, the trump organization, people who work at the organization, the trump foundation and importantly people who are on the board of the trump foundation named donald j trump, donald trump jr., eric trump and ivanka trump. nothing in the constitution protects anybody but the president while still serving as president. nothing protects his family o

joining me now, nbc presidential historian, michael beschloss.to see you and i love your perspective in these moments and poignant times. and when you think of senator mccain and his character, certainly being known as a maverick, being known as an independent voice, is there another historic figure that comes to mind that's like him? >> oh, alex, theodore roosevelt, whom mccain admired very much. and in certain ways, they really were alike. they were both fighters. they loved conflict. like the founders of this country, they felt that, you know, fighting and conflict and intense debates, that leads to the best policies. but at the same time, even though mccain, like tr, loved to fight, he never demeaned his opponents. he always, you know, at the end of the day, the founders always thought they wanted the senate to be a place where people would have big debates, you know, big fights, but at the end of the day they'd have a tankard of ale together. that was very much mccain's view. and when you look back on mccain, you can list the things he did i

on the phone is chris matthews host of "hardball" and michael beschloss. a lot of people are playing back the moment in the 2008 presidential campaign where people that was his finest hour. >> i have to ask you a question. i do not believe in -- i can't trust obama. i have read about him and he's not -- he's -- he's an arab. he is not -- [ laughter ] >> no ma'am. no, ma'am. >> no? >> no. no, ma'am. he's a decent family man citizen that i just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign is all about. he's not. >> andrea, that campaign was singly nasty up to that point. it was a difficult campaign but what did that moment tell you about john mccain? >> that he was not going to play the kind of dirty politics that were rising up and which have threatened to overwhelm the senate and the rest of the country right now. he would not play that game and the fact that he took the microphone away from that woman and at a very critical point. he could have let the rumors fester against barack obama. not that there's anything w

that's where michael beschloss comes in. he is a long time friend of this broadcast and truth be told of this broadcaster. he's one of the great presidential historians and authors of this time. michael's twitter feed does not disappoint. just in the last few days he has given us richard nixon jumping off a limo, mid town manhattan 1956, general ford's cue card from when he took the oath of office and an early selfie taken by young jackie kennedy. but then today there was this from michael and we couldn't help but notice this it said the 11th hour from this week back in 1974. indeed, for richard nixon it was the proverbial 11th hour as articles of impeachment were marching towards him. nixon announced his resignation august 8th. he remains the only president ever to do so. michael remains one of the great sources of history on social media, good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. >>> tonight on all in. >> it is a witch hunt hoax. >> the president tells his attorney general he should immediately end the investi

. >> and michael beschloss, the presidential historian tweeting about 1973, heading into the watergate investigation where the big concern was john dean would end up giving testimony to the president of the united states. as we go through this you made a key point, a very important point. the president is transparent, actually. he shares it with us. i read one of his tweets off the show attacking "the new york times" and the story. the failing "the new york times" wrote a story made it seem like the white house counsel -- and he spelled counsel wrong -- had turned on the president when in fact it is just the opposite. >> if the president committed obstruction of justice the person who might know better than anyone else would be his white house counsel, who was a party to all the major decisions the president made when he was considering to fire james comey, fire jeff sessions or the fire the special counsel himself. so the fact that don mcgahn is spending 30 hours speaking to bob mueller it means mueller knows what's happening inside the oval office. he has a better view what was happe

i want to bring historian michael beschloss and contributing editor at the weekly standard charlie sykes. thanks to you for being here. michael, this falls squarely into your department because john mccain was never a president. it was his greatest goal, his wish to be one. but in a lot of ways he will be treated by historians as someone whose impact was great enough to be talked about the way we talk about presidents. >> yeah, exactly right. couldn't have said it better. there are some senators in history they probably don't quite have the impact of even our less consequential presidents but they have so much impact on american history that we remember them well decades or even almost centuries later. it's not for nothing there have only been maybe 12b dozen senators or so who were asked -- whose families were asked to let them lie in state in the rotunda and here comes john mccain on lincoln's catafalque. one thing that went through my mind as i was watching all those senior republicans who spoke were straining to say nice things about john mccain but very aware of that cleave waj dona

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and that's where michael beschloss comes in.of this broadcast and truth be told of this broadcaster. and more than that, he's one of the great presidential historians and authors of our time. michael's twitter feed does not disappoint. just in the last few days, he has given us richard nixon jumping off a limo, midtown manhattan, 1956. gerald ford's cue card from when he took the oath of office and an early selfie taken by a young jackie kennedy. but then today, there was this from michael and we couldn't help but notice it said "the 11th hour" right there on the cover of "newsweek" from this week back in 1974. indeed for richard nixon, it was proverbial 11th hour as articles of impeachment were marching toward him. he announced his resignation august 8th. he remains the only president ever to do so. michael remains one of the great sources of history in social media, in print and on this broadcast on a regular basis. that is our broadcast on a wednesday night. thank you so very much for being here with us. good night from nbc n

optimism, that shining city on the hill that you know, of course we think of ronald reagan, i think michael beschloss said last night, if the happy warrior had not been termed -- had not been coined to describe hue bert hum free, that john mccain would be the happy warrior. warrior and a fighter always but always with so much optimism and joy and passion. passion because he believes so much in his country in the people of our country. and he believed in a greater vision of america. >> tom, there's every generation has this handful and it is literally a small handful of people that don't become president but become bigger than life. john mccain is one of those people. patrick moynahan was probably best representative of the generation previously. how did he achieve that status in your mind? >> i think you achieve that by sailing against the winds that are prevailing. for example, now, both parties, they are more ideologues than they are authentic people in terms of looking at a problem not just through the prism of being a democrat or republican but what needed to be done. john mccain would do that. n

at the age of 76, historian michael beschloss tweeted out this picture, aretha franklin receiving an award from martin luther king in 1967. we're commemorating the 50th anniversary this year of martin luther king jr.'s assassination. coming up, an event marking the speech that martin luther king jr. gave the night before he was it's shot. it's known as the mountaintop >>> a >>> a look at how white people responded to civil rights marches and protests, including fbi surveillance of white southern students in the 196 ors and an interview with former philadelphia mayor frank rizzo on concerns of white working-class voters at the that's time. that's followed by a conversation with the medical historian, researcher african-americans and eugenics. >>> my service in the agricultural committee and even my members' resistance to me, but finally their acceptance of me. and they did. they did, i earned -- i wasn't on that drafting committee, only because i was a ranking member. i was on there also, i made a contribution. also, also, they the acceptance of an equal and many of them, the acceptan