he became very attached to richard nixon long before nixon iran for president. that was kind of his downfall because he became too close and he changed his views to nixon's views and started to defend the nixon administration so that when the vietnam war came to its terrible climax he was part of one of the people to be blamed for it. and later for watergate which he did not denounce early enough. >> as i read your book, i thought of billy graham as a foreshadow, he was foreshadowing what happens after him. he was one person, a larger-than-life figure but by the late 1970s, you have an entire organized movement to make a marriage happen between conservative and fundamentalism and the republican party which we know is a christian right hand a lot of the figures that we saw back on tv, all of them larger-than-life characters, we talk about the birth of the christian right and kind of its trajectory. >> i think it was preceded by an upsurge of fundamentalism in the south. it was the second upsurge but it was the first upsurge in the south. it happened have virtually

nixon? you know? iran/contra happens, reagan, who's still with reagan. the difference with trump with, all of that stuff happened during theexactly. >> i feel the folks still with him on election day, all the base and just barely enough but were enough to get him elected president. >> most of these controversies been new. remember during the course of campaign feuded with a gold star family after the convention. what i'm looking at is, not only his base of supporters but what republicans in congress are doing. facing a situation they are going to be the one the held accountable for a lack of perceived progress. you can argue they're on the ballot, trump as well, of course. you listen to the congressman you just talked to and we all talk to republicans on the hill and elsewhere, it's very difficult to see how this president is able to be held accountable by them, because they are intertwined in such a way. not only on legislation, but on the same voters, too. their voters. >> i feel and maybe saw it in the interview. i feel in general, a lot of republican

iran then to restart its nuclear program. yes i think if the u.s. gets out of the nixon in agreement it would be difficult for the iranian government to a say in it because after all the major sanctions that we have are u.s. sanctions and because of the snapback mccann ism and the un us will have the ability to bring the u.n. sanctions back as well so this is not going to be acceptable for you and there are some people in iran that are saying that iran not only should get out of the new can in agreement you don't should get out of the n.p.t. nonproliferation treaty because after all being part of n.p.t. should have some benefits for the countries that have signed the agreement and from the one nine hundred sixty s. up to now nobody can present any evidence that n.p.t. has been good for iraq so this is going to be something very serious for the future if you don't see their program you know he's not interested in making a nuclear weapon but iran does not want to be. following saddam hussein in terms of allowing different inspectors generally generally some of them at leas

. >> reporter: president reagan was destrtrayed by his staff ine iran-contra affair. what about nixonot a crook. >> reporter: his most trusted aides were guilty and went to jail. the president insisted he was innocent. it was not until the supreme court insisted he turn over tape recordings that the republicans said it is time to go. and so, he did. in fact, in this latest scrum, president trump still has the upper hand for now. senators flake and corker were in trouble at home. other republicans that, within their own party, they know they have to stand by trump because they've got re-election coming up next year. so, in politics, two against one, doesn't mean much when one of them is the president, even under these circumstances, still has a lot of power. and you have a great ally in breitbart and steve bannon. >> you touched on it. but there for some that flake and corker's public criticism would be the first crack in the ice. that hasn't happened at all. the senating senators have supported the president. >> flake and corker were not powerful at home. especially corker in the sena

they were going to be the ones who reopened relations with iran and established friendly relations. essentially they wanted to do the nixonn this case we opening to iran. steve: but it simply was not a good deal. that's why the presidents is probably going to decertify it later today. you say good. it's been too long anyway. right? >> i think the deal should be renegotiated or we should walk out of it the iranians told us they were not going to end the enrichment of uranium. and there is no reason for the iranians to enrich uranium other than to have a bomb. and evidently, at the very first negotiating session. the iranians told the u.s. that ending enrichment was off the table. and we should have walked out of the room right then. steve: right. so the way it works is if the president does decertify the iran deal and we're expecting the decision later today, is then congress would have 60 days to come up with something else, maybe impose new sanctions. but there is a lot of people who say that's a good idea. then there are our european allies who say, you know what? we're not so much in the sanctions business. we're okay

iran"" malign behavior,." saying it's time for them to "go home." tillerson's trip includes stops in qatar, pakistan and india. >> sreenivasan: after creating the environmental protection agency in 1970, president richard nixon announced a vision for energy independence that included building 1,000 nuclear power plants across the country. that didn't happen. the nuclear industry's plans to expand were stymied over safety concerns following the accident at three mile island in 1979, and over disputes about how to dispose of spent nuclear fuel rods. today, 99 commercial nuclear reactors are operating in 30 states. in tonight's signature segment, newshour weekend's christopher booker reports that climate change is giving some nuclear power plants a new lease on life. this story is part of our seri"" peril & promise-- the challenge of climate change." >> reporter: at the 48-year-old r.e. ginna nuclear power plant, in the upstate new york town of ontario, the next generation of plant operators is running a drill. >> ready! >> reporter: in this replica of a real control room, they're practicing how to add water to the nuclear reactor, one of the oldest in the country reactors that were built to last around 40 year

nixon didn't care for it so much until he put henry kissinger over there. john kerry able to execute president obama's foreign policy on iran calling shuts. he is running foreign policy out of national security council and department of defense. rex tillerson is something of an outsider. the problem because trump has non-stop battle going on with the press, any distance perceived between tillerson and trump will be elevated and used as a wedge between him and donald trump's foreign policy. >> okay, but you have put this in the context of trump and his cabinet. he publicly attacked jeff sessions, mary. publicly fired tom price after humiliating him in public. he is two or three times at least, at least two, contradicted tillerson publicly, most recently in the tweet on north korea we talked about. tough to work for a guy who does that. >> yeah. i would say that they could kind of patch that up if they can fix the, what you would call strategic communication, sort of get on the same page but there's north problem that tillerson has which is that he came into the state department with this idea that he would overhaul the place

nixon if not prior. what the president providing foreign policy in north korea and iran and how to move forward.e back and forth nastiness between the two has raised questions as to whether tax reform could ever get done if the president alienating his ace on the hill. adam shapiro has been trying to keep up with them on capitol hill. what are you hearing? a the important thing to remember is people like senator corker are not his base. they are in a bit of a verbal back-and-forth. both have said they still have some like for the other person involved. senator corker has been on board of tax reforms to this point, you know, hoping the budget committee get the budget resolution ousted the senate will vote on that hopefully when they come back into session next week. but you can't ignore what is going on between the president and senator corker and the treat this morning. i will read it to you. i won't put any voice inflection that. the president treated, and the failing "new york times" said little bob corker up by recording his conversation, was made to sound before and that is what i am dealing

iran, health care, puerto rico. joining me now to discuss this is patrick healy, also the new york times deputy culture editor. also with me former director of the nixon presidential library. does he have a point? >> yeah, this is a strong argument from the democrats, they can look at a record right now, that president trump has failed to assemble in terms of legislative accomplishments, every time the president sort of sets the goals and agendas, whether it's repeal and replace obama care, draw red lines with north korea, sort of suggesting that the iran deal at least he did during the campaign is going to be ripped up, he's not able to move congress in the direction he wants. now this latest with obama care, you know, the moves he's making are not just going to bother democrats, but their moderate republicans like susan collins in maine, who's going to look at this and say these subsidies he's talking about are subsidies that benefit 6 million americans. they have real world effects for millions of americans. >> it and it may impact many of his base that he's speaking to in terms of trying to carry through on his campaign promise. tim, you know, gen

iran. jonathan: i'll pick anyone is thinking about this morning, but we had richard nixon when he tried theonald reagan joked about the same kind of thing. maybe trump is playing the card. alan: i find it very difficult to understand the way the president operates. it's a must like he's trying to be a shock jock. day after day, trying to surprise us with some shocking comments. david: you're right about richard nixon and ronald reagan, but they did not play that card this often. this is less than a year into the in menstruation. jonathan: there's probably one man who listen to those comments and crunched a little bit and that's rex tillerson. what is rex tillerson thinking random? right now? david: there's a report about mike pompeo. jonathan: maybe that's the storm. alix: that has the wild rex rexerson -- to wild tillerson because he takes his job very seriously. david: this is a career. krishna: it's a lot of fun for the news business, isn't it? the speculation around all these things. jonathan: i come in this morning and the most read story on the bloomberg was clients like yourself. it'

>> reporter: president reagan was betrayed by his staff in the iran contra affair and his party stayed with him. what about richard nixonng i've got. >> reporter: his most trusted aides were found guilty and went to jail as the president continued to insist he was innocent. prominent republicans had their doubts but they kept them private. it was not until the supreme court insisted he turn over incriminating tape-recordings that his fellow republicans said it is time to go. >> and a final wave -- >> reporter: and so he did. >> let's turn to author and nbc news presidential historian michael besh losh. michael, we are racing towards the end of this legislative year. the smart money would predict, even though you never know what's going to happen because these republicans are desperate to get a tax bill done, but the smart money would predict that they're not going to be able to do it because they're not going to be able to close $4 trillion in loopholes and pass all of these -- let's just say tax increases on middle class americans so they can have the corporate tax cut. would there be any precedent in recent american h