. >> reporter: speechwriter michael gerson helped address both of president bush's speeches. he says a successful speech would inaugurate a period of national healing and national purpose. >> make america great again! >> make america great again could be a theme that could be made more aspirational, show his team at its best. >> reporter: for generations, inauguration addresses have inspired us for generations. >> ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. >> reporter: and offered a presidential vision of america. >> government is not the solution to our problem. government is the problem. >> we have chosen hope over fear. unity of purpose over conflict and discord. >> reporter: now it's trump's turn to take center stage in american public life where his words and actions will help set this nation's course. >>> coming up, saying good-bye to the ringling ♪ hi, i'm frank. i take movantik for oic, opioid-induced constipation. had a bad back injury, my doctor prescribed opioids which helped with the chronic pain, but backed me up big-time. tri

michael gerson is a column must for the "washington post" and david frum is a senior editor at the atlantic. jeffreyly start a with you, and i want all of you to 0 take this assignment, i will start a with you because it is your job. >> what did i do i don' wrong? >> in the new year, if you want to target -- i will target you with this question, you are an assignment editor and you have to assign coverage for the year 2017, how do you deploy your forces? what is the story? >> well, the story is there there is one overarchingly huge story, the story is -- the story is the upending of american politics, the story is of the outs coming in and the ins going out. the story is trying to explain to the american people what happened to their two main parties, and the deeper story also, i don't want to forget this, the deeper story is globalization and technological disruption and anxiety born of rapid change, rapid destabilizing change, the fragility of institutions, all of that is there undergirding the larger, more immediate story which is how did donald trump become president of the united state

the race card project, jeffrey goldberg, editor of the atlantic, "washington post" columnist michael gerson and atlantic columnist david frum,

i'm joined by michael gerson and janelle chief political correspondent. start with you. next week the work begins looks like donald trump will wait for the heavy stuff until monday. what does that week look like for him and congress how do they get their steps in order? >> i thing i think they have lot of the ground work done is reversal of executive order. actually working groups, feder federalist society on this top topic. environmental regulations. he has a choice, does he go after the dreamers. does he do the -- undo the executive order which changed enforcement allowing young people to stay in the country. it would be a sign of aggression if he were to do this. we'll see.

i'm joined by michael gerson and janelle chief political correspondent. start with you. next week the work begins looks like donald trump will wait for the heavy stuff until monday. what does that week look like for him and congress how do they get their steps in order? >> i thing i think they have lot of the ground work done is reversal of executive order. actually working groups, feder federalist society on this top topic. environmental regulations. he has a choice, does he go after the dreamers. does he do the -- undo the executive order which changed enforcement allowing young people to stay in the country. it would be a sign of aggression if he were to do this.

the race card project, jeffrey goldberg, editor of the atlantic, "washington post" columnist michael gerson

[applause] >> please welcome the human rights and security nexus panel, moderated by michael gerson, columnist for "the washington post." michael: good morning. i'm honored to be with you at this forum on freedom in north korea, and to be with this distinguished panel. there is a portion of president bush's second inaugural address that leads, we are led a common sense to one conclusion. the survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. the best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world. america's vital interests and deepest beliefs are now one. north korea is really the test of this assertion, and could be its demonstration under the right circumstances. can freedom really grow in the rocky, assaulted -- rocky, salted soil of north korea? but what long-term solutions to the problems of a peninsula can even exist without that freedom? these are some of the questions we are going to explore today. by way of background, historically, there have been two groups of north korea watchers, those that focus more

. >> pelley: michael gerson of the "washington post" and former speech writer for george w. bush. you were talking to me earlier ttout the cultural setting, if you will, for today's inauguration speech. >> a little feeling of 1968 when nixon-humphrey, in that electi election. it was deep cultural controversy. now we're debating about cultural touch stones like guns, like sexuality, like political correctness that seems to be one of the main things that divides the camps here. it's hard to get agreements when you have deep cultural divisions. these are not ideological arguments to some extent they are coming from different worlds. i think that that presents a real problem in a problem of owlreach of legislation. problem of positive politics eventually. >> pelley: kim, when you were hearing the speech we didn't get advance copy it was new to us as we were hearing it. nkat did you think? >> of the speech. >> pelley: yes. as it rolled out. ng i began with his opening lines being very gracious to president obama and michelle obama. we had heard that he was writing ehis himself, it was

>> it was awkward because i guess i expected a little bit more of an effort to -- i thought michael gersondled the john lewis situation. i was listening to that speech today and somehow it felt di connected a little bit from the american story and i understand. i thought door mace maris made point. you can't forget who you're running against and that was in that inaugural. if he was looking to build political capitalism i don't think he did. >> tom brokaw, any of those uncomfortable with a president trump? anything they can take as a -- >> you'd have to talk to them. i think what he did was this was the core donald trump. i mean, he reached out to those people who were in mika brzezinski -- mccomb county, michigan. but america is different than that because of its voter tapestry. the auto industry is charging along. oil price as low as in the past 25 years pen there is a recovery underway and no question about that. the republican majority he has in the house and senate now, he just turned around and kind of head slapped them because ed these politicians in washington, they just want to ta