how effective are the obamas? high minded by bipartisan appeals to our better angels at a time of rampant ugliness, dishonesty and extremist ism in american politics. joining me today are two distinguished scholars who have written extensively about the obama administration and are thus well-placed to comment on obama's activities since he and first lady michelle obama departed the white house on andra gillespie and claude clegg. and we want you in the audience as well. and also viewing online to be part of the discussion to. we look forward to your questions and to dialog with you. andra gillespie. entrepreneur gillespie is associate professor of political science and director of the james weldon johnson institute for the study of race and difference at emory university. her teaching and research are on african american politics, particularly the post-civil rights generation of leadership and political participation. she is the author of the new black politician cory booker. newark and post-racial america, which

that's the obama he and his campaign want to center and that's to obama. i think that that was so inspiring to many first time voters who went out and voted for him. race and too much. talking about race. focus on race fractures. that narrative a possibility. he understood that well better than anyone. and again, he didn't think that the country was in a post-racial moment. but he did think that the country could be in a post-partisan moment, although he was wrong on that score as well. but the whole premise of obama was that he was going to help us think optimistically about the country, the whole hope and change and yes we can was about that. i think think in transcendent ways about our connectedness as americans, as and as human beings to talk about race again sullies that that vision of of the country and his potentiality as a president. you know, you mentioned obama as a pragmatist. and i think that segue ways to our our next question, which i hope we can have some discussion of obama's role as an elder statesman in the democratic party. joe biden, of

obama said absolutely. jeffrey goldberg said what more can be done to see this through, to make it happen sooner? obama says essentially, i tell you but i have to kill you. as i can't play jeffrey are classified clearances in high enough. what he meant by that was the united states had already launched a covid action campaign in coordination with saudi arabia, qatar, turkey, jordan, and israel to support al qaeda in iraq in sierra. they called the moderate rebels. they were nothing about the head chopper suicide bomber enemies from iraq or two. and so that war ended up leading as john kerry explained in a secretly work corded discussion with syrian rebels, led to the al qaeda forces and isis which split off from al qaeda deciding not to march west to damascus but instead to go east and conquer all of western iraq. leading to the islamic state which in the days of george w. bush was the wildest war propaganda of liars like glenn >> who said there is a fax just out there that's coming to get us. we are nothin

david: and what did then-senator obama say about that?laughter] brian: the good news was, i was junior enough in the campaign that senator obama was, i don't think, particularly aware of my transition to his campaign. [laughter] david: ok. so, he got elected. then you got this position as special assistant to the president for economic policy. and what was the biggest thing you accomplished in the obama administration, in your view? brian: my first project upon coming into government was to work as part of the team that did the restructuring of general motors and chrysler, as well as the finance companies. so that was basically from -- many of you will recall november, december of 2008 right through to the summer of 2009. that was my overriding focus. david: so after the obama administration you joined the dark side of money management and you worked for blackrock, but in charge of global sustainability. so what does that really mean? what were you doing at blackrock? brian: two things. one was trying to actually do financial research to

president obama must seem to be in a direct dialog with ronald reagan, that obama was arguing for more government and responding to reagan's famous comment that in this present crisis, government is the problem. government is, not the solution. so you can draw a line between fdr in 33 to arguing more government. the new deal as the solution to. ronald reagan in 1981. and then to barack in 2008. respond ing to that. it is because of the importance of the ideas in 1982. in this speech that there are two different books about the reagan and reagan's time. one by a very conservative scholar. one by a very liberal scholar that have the age of reagan, their title. they're simply question that begins in 1980. there's an argument that reagan had begun to get these ideas to the nation before 80 that what reagan's in this inaugural address changed american politics and moved it into a different direction. until obama and then again until trump took a very different perspective. so for writing in 2006. new york times columnist conservative david brooks that reagan's view that less government equa

these guys wanted to start in -- moe grabs these guys fought under zarqawi and obama take their side in a nine-month air war and special operations were to overthrow gadhafi who was murdered on the side s of the rd in the country was plunged into absolute turmoil and violence in the civil war has been ever sincenc that time. and thence they took the guns ad ship them off to syria for the next regime change. after barack obama explained to jeffrey goldberg in the atlantic in 2012 and goldberg said you know the iraq war has empowered iran. i don't you think if we got rid of assad in syria thatot would help ring iran down and obama said absolutely. jeffrey goldberg said what more can be done to see the servant to make it happen sooner and obama said essentially the old line of i tell you. i'd have to kill you but i can't tell you jeffrey because you are classified cleared and what he meant by that was the united states that our day launched a covid action campaign in coordination with saudi arabia qatar turkey jordan and israel to support al qaeda and iraq in syria. they call them moder

and obama said, absolutely. jeffrey goldberg says, what more canut be done to see this throu, to make it happen sooner? and obama said essentially the old white about i would tell you but i have to kill you. i can't tell you jeffrey because your classified clearance isn't high enough. what he meant by that was the united states had already launched a covert action campaign in coordination with saudi arabia, qatar, turkey, jordan and israel, to support al-qaedada in iraq in syria. they call them moderate rebels but there were nothing but the head chopper suicide bomber enemies from iraqbo war two. and so that what ended up leaving as johned kerry explaind in a secretly recorded discussion with syrian rebels, led to the al-qaeda forces and isis were split off from al-qaeda the siding not to march west to damascus, but instead to go east and conquer all of western iraq leading to the islamic caliphate, which in the days of george georga wild is war propaganda of liars like glenn beck who said there's islam a fascis

obama's lead on this. i mean firstly, he was such, so on the cutting edge of using social media to reach audiences. you know, she wanted to meet people where they were. so, she was always, you know, getting to young people through whatever social media channel they were using. she went on ellen all the time. she knew that those were the audiences of women who watch ellen, people that she wanted to reach with her policy ideas, and to also shift to culture around issues like a college access, you know, healthier food for children. so, she was really good about that. she wasn't above any of that. and, i think that helped, kind of, also inspired the presidents to get more bold about social media, too. so, he did the between two ferns video, which some of you might remember, you know, to encourage people to sign up for a health care. but then, he also did things like, he did a facebook live video to encourage young people to sign up for facebook. and then, it turns out young people aren't on facebook. so then,

obama's lead on this. so on the cutting edge, she was always getting to young people through whatever social media channel they were using. she went on alan all the time because she knew those hit audience of women who watch alan were people she really wanted to reach with their policy ideas. and often to shift the culture around with college access. healthier food for children. she was really good about that. she is not above any of that. i think that helped also inspire the president's team to get more bold about social media two. is between two funds a video some of you may remember it. [laughter] encouraging people to sign up but we also did things, he did facebook live video to encourage young people to sign up for facebook. then it turns out young people are not on facebook to than he is snapped at her kimber what it's called now something like that. remind young people to fill out the fafsa form pretty went to places where they were. at one point we had a day were here's interviewed by bunch of yout

and obama said absolutely and jeffrey goldberg says what more could be done to see this through and obamaays essentially i would tell you but i would have to kill you i cannot tell you because you are a class of eyed clearances and high enough so he meant the united states saturday lunch day covert action campaign in coordination with saudi arabia qatarat jordan israel to support al qaeda in iraq in syria and they call them moderate rebels. and then and then to the al qaeda forces. in the days of bush was the wellness war propaganda like glenn back. and that was part of the wildest dreams. in the war in syria they succeeded of the islam a fascist caliphate and the total casualties in iraq and syriaer and barack obama and then that would help to coordinate september 11. and then to attempt to detroit over christmas day and then i skipped the politics but by the end of 2014 a shiite group friendly with iran came out of the north you can read this in "the wall street journal" there was a great piece in the monitor. the current secretary of defense lloyd austin was a four-star general of cent

and the big story of that second two years of obama's presidency were the confrontations between obama john boehner and the republicans in the house. the early months of that relationship, that governing relationship were marked by efforts on both sides to show an attempt of compromise, the grand bargain. there was obama and john boehner. they took golfing trips together. but that didn't really get anywhere. and meanwhile, there was then as there is now a clock ticking down when it came to the debt ceiling and a potential default on the debt. and there were attempts, all sorts of attempts at negotiations. there was a lot of tension within republican party, the tea party side calling for pretty dramatic cuts. john boehner trying to balance their interests with the potential compromise with obama. the democrats came all the way down to the wire in the summer of 2011, right to the brink of a potential default on the debt. and this is what happened. >> all right. >> reporter: just seeing that tired look on house speaker's john boehner's face captured the grueling end game of this debt ceil

the process is ensuring that any obama biden administration records are appropriately in the archives. that statement coming from the special counsel president biden yesterday area and as we said, those documents are getting a lot of attention in the wake of the rate of former president trump's mar-a-lago -- the raid of former president trump's mar-a-lago home. it was posted on his troops social account yesterday where it said that the many homes of joe biden -- these documents were not being classified. president trump and his social account yesterday. we show more action around capitol hill and washington but we want to hear your reaction to this story about the classified documents being found at the private think tank here in washington dc ending back to the obama administration. democrats independents (202) 748-8002 and we have a democrat from florida. go ahead. caller: i'm curious to see if there hypocritical yet again. joe biden cap documents in his house, trout cap documents in his house but we see so much democracy in democrats democrats accused trump of trying to subvert the

chris lew, who ran the transition for president obama, then senator obama, he was a longtime aide to. and he and obama asked him to run the transition and he said what's the transition? so what did he do? he went to jim johnson who ran the transition? mondale and johnson. i've been waiting for someone to call for four years. and he took them to his closet and handed him a box and said, here's all my documents and that was it. so partnership for public service said we're going to actually create a system and records to have lessons learned from presidential transitions and allow future transitions to study the past. so i think that post 911 the experience of the bush administration findings of the 911 commission accelerated focus congress passed a few laws and now there's a hole in history of transition planning. so what has been the worst transition, would you say. it's history yeah in history the trump transition. should we take that one out and so to lincoln for sure during that period of time, seven states seceded. they the buchanan government was paralyzed. half of his cabinet sup

information they came to obama' defense. they said no 30 million they turned everything over to us we are in charge we own lock and key and everything they lied. these documents are obama administration documents. the documents in the office the documents in the garage the got documents and bidens library th national archives did not have those. we have no idea how many classified documents to this da that biden has appeared what about the unclassified documents ? did he to classify documents with them? to this moment, the fbi is not investigated all the properties to look for information that we are aware of. it not to this moment because garland wanted to keep this hidden human went to sweep it under the rug until it got hot the republicans are calling hearings there gonna call witnesses and garland reluctantly today appoints a special counsel and who does he appoint? the right handyman to fbi director christopher ray. the same kind of special counse that donald trump is facing. at is one thing stinks to high heaven. now i

becoming the face of foreign obama policy. >> are you truly incapable of shame. >> she's leaving what may be her most difficult mission yet. ♪ ♪ >>> let's start with ukraine. the big issue. your agency, usa id provided more than $12 billion to that country since russia invaded. what is that money going for and how are you doing in keeping up with the destruction that vladimir putin unleashed? >> well, usa's job is to work with our ukrainian partners when the energy grid is hit to get it back up as quickly as possible. we work in the food sector to try to ensure that grain that has been backed up because of russia's blockade of the black sea and even now it's kind of temper mental relationship letting grain out, we need to diversify and make sure the ukrainians can move grain into europe by river, by barge, by road, by truck. >> are you keeping up with vladimir putin's -- >> i think so. i do think so. it's not us keeping up, it's the ukrainians and we're there to support and make sure they have generators and boilers and transformers and the substations to replace. so we go hunting and

. >> i voted for obama. i liked obama. >> he is now a proud boy.being initiated into a far right extremist group went viral. >> i'm a western chauvinist. >> got 30 million views, i think. >> i'm a proud boy. >> and gained thousands of followers on social media. on january 6th, video would capture him again in the first wave of rioters storming the capitol. >> we didn't storm any capitol. okay? we did protest. we peacefully protested. >> you call january 6th a peaceful protest? >> i do. >> you don't feel any responsibility? >> i do not. absolutely not. i don't feel i did anything wrong. >> took over the capitol. overran the capital. >> we're in the capitol. >> donovan crowl was a member of extremist group, the oath keepers, was in a column of the right-wing militia marching into the capitol. he refused to speak to cnn. his sister and mother describe him as an ex-marine who went from being a little league coach to becoming an alcoholic. >> he was just a genuinely good person. he was always someone that i looked up to and that i was extremely proud of

they would merely dismantle the coalition established by obama already to show about obama. outnumbered, the 2 israeli were forced to back down. oh, bama, however, remained uneasy. if he was to get a deal with iran before netanyahu could convince his cabinet to follow him down the road to war, he needed to wrestle back control. at the end of 2012, in the utmost secrecy, he entered into direct negotiations with iran. a succession of meetings, both in and out of the public eye ensued an agreement was on the way. ringback thus, on march 3rd 2015, netanyahu made one final attempt to derail the process. he went to washington to address congress and launched into a tirade against the policies of his most loyal ally. it was unprecedented in the history of relations between the 2 countries. ladies and gentlemen, i've come here today to tell you we don't have to bet the security of the world on the hope that he won will change for the better. we don't have to gamble with our future and with our children's future. so this deal won't change you on for the better. it will only change the middle eas

and so the pride of seeing the rise of the first senator obama, and then president obama, you could feel the electricity on the south side of chicago. and i remember those moments, and the pride around him, it also a lot of that mirrored mayor harold washington, he was the first black mayor of chicago. what i find fascinating is that he became mayor i believe in 1983, and it was a very polarized time. chicago is one of the most segregated cities in america. a lot of racism, i believe dr. cain once said, after he left, there and paraphrasing, but if you want to know how real racism looks, you can look no further than chicago. so the energy that it took to get maher washington elected in the 80s, it really take a coming together of communities organizing. this is also the era of kind of post fred hampton assassination in the city, and it builds what was called the rainbow coalition of different groups coming together, that had their identity interests, and came together through a shared economic agenda or even things like this, and so the leftover, the hangover from those groups, combined

and then to see the rise of senator obama and then president obama. you could feel the electricity on the south side of chicago. i remember those moments in that pride. and what i find fascinating is that in 1983 it was a very polarized time chicago is one of the s most segregated cities. but iff you want to know and then went to mayor washington to get elected with that community organizing it is the era of assassination in the city and he built a coalition of different groups coming together to have those identity interests thatic have come together to shape the economic agenda. so the hangover from those groups work around the local black media infrastructure, all of that was core to get the mayor of washingtonam elected and a lot of also think right now it is an issue people know him as the first black mayor but they may not realize he was elected as a populist and also highly surveilled by mayor daley one because of the activism and and then to realize beginning to challenge thehe daley machine in the ways he rose to power and was a populist but

to negotiate with obama was because obama accepted that he was iran right, to enrich uranium. so then the negotiations began, when trump came, he basically revived obama, the maximum pressure sanctions ever since obama started those sanctioned those, those sanctions were targeted to kill people. they were targeted to destroy the economy, to destroy families, to destroy jobs, to prevent people from accessing medicine, food, and trump, revive them. and despite the fact that bite and when he was campaigning, he spoke against the trompe and policies. he continues with those policies as we speak. however, what has happened is that iran has grown, use the sanctions and even though they do hurt, but they hurt much less than they did before. and now you're right is also pursuing great, especially under this administration. much stronger relations with the global south with asian countries. they joined the shanghai cooperation organization. they plan to join the bricks. they're exploring possibilities of central asia with russia, the north south core door. and of course, china and indi

these records that biden has are obama administration records.ional archives lied through its teeth or not kept track of all classified material, but felt necessary after making a referral against department to department of just -- against donald trump to speak out. to intercede. and to say obama was perfect. everything he has is under our control. that is a lie. because in three locations, at least, obama records were found. i don't know if they were per onlied or what. they were found at the biden-penn center for god knows what. find in the biden garage, in wilmington and another room in his house, another document, that raises a question. we have a timeline now, ambiguous, but a timeline nonetheless from garland, these documents were discovered by biden 's lawyers who were picking at his papers. it was two days later that nara contacted department of justice prosecutor, saying that office would classify markings were found on the biden center, and november 9 fbi began an assessment. and a investigation, garland outrageous triggered appointmen

obama's 2008 finance committee. 80% of the money spent on solyndra in that era. virtually all the projects went bankrupt as i detailed the projects that failed. solar, wind solar and wind will largely up junk. they're going to be out there spinning around. nobody's going to want them. if they were halfway sensible and the all projects built huge fields of solar and huge fields of wind turbines, they failed economically. the people kept the money. these obama cronies and the projects are gone. one went to jail. no one was prosecuted for this. and when you put john podesta in of the money, you know, one of my top climate scientists, john, who if you if anyone, read the assange release of emails from podesta, you'll know what kind of an he is. i can guarantee you that money is going to go to friends of john podesta. well for example the white house rolled out plans for stations in the different states, alaska, minnesota they have many charging stations. but as anybody knows, are very, very cold places and battery. the batteries run down to zero in those areas. there

plus, wh.y hasn't the doj obama' searched obama's properties for classified documents? answers,lassifie moments? retirn financial choi go better together and fairly simple. sounds likcee a workplace benefits and retirement savings with booya considering planned l your financial choices together can help you make smarter decisions. >> boy, well planned, well invested, well protected. and he's been suffering from ugly yellow toe fungus for years. >> toe fungus is embarrassing. i was afraid to take my socks off. i had my yellow crumbly toes from everybody. >> toe fungus is a stubborn condition that won't go away on its own and usually spreads and gets worse. introducing crystal flush the new and different at home treatment that flushes out fungus fast. i tried everything every drugstore product, every home remedy prescriptions for my doctor. nothing worked. but crystal flesh is different. the secret is it's breakthrough two step system. it's non-prescription serum contains the maximum strength fda approved ingredient and the unique capsule helps balance the body's natural