i have asked for years about ronald reagan, and you never quite get what ronald reagan was like up close. tell us. how many times did you meet with him? >> practically every day for most of the time i was there. >> start with the woodshed thing. when you were taken to the woodshed because you had been talking to bill, what did he say? >> first of all, as i laid out in the book, and it is no secret after all of these years, that was a photo opp. it was what the gamblers at the white house came up with. actually, when i had lunch, i went to the same explanation of the story that we just talked about, and he was totally sympathetic, and the two of us were in the oval office, no one else, having our lunch, soup, whenever it was, and he said, "you know, that reminds me when i was president of the actors guild, and we were having what i thought was an off-the-record meeting with executives, and there was some press in there, and all of a sudden, i had a firestorm in my hands. i know what happens when you get betrayed by the press." we had a very amicable lunch, and then looking to do something

reagan couldn't have made it. >> reagan couldn't have made it. reagan. >> i agree with bob dole. i don't think reagan could have made it. it's not because reagan was not a conservative. he was a conservative. but he also was willing to compromise. and compromising is something that is -- ronald reagan wanted tax cuts. he fought for tax cuts. when it came to tax reform in 1986 he compromised with tip o'neill and got the teal dodeal that he wanted. it was the deal he needed to make to really go forward with his principles. it wasn't a perfect deal. it wasn't everything he wanted. but it was the best deal he could get and he wanted to govern and deliver something for the country. that doesn't happen today. republicans cannot compromise now. there is no compromise. there is a budget impasse right now going on between -- actually not democrats and republicans, but long serving republicans and new republicans just about going forward with the budget debate. not even with the budget itself. and i think that is an example that this is a party that will n

. >> heck, ronald reagan wanted to help those hostages, but it spun out of control and reagan by the end was surprised at some of the things that had happened. he had bad luck in iran-contra. the rawa iran-contra was unluck. >> jon: reagan was just in the wrong place at the wrong time-- specifically, the white house during his own administration. ( laughter ) ( applause ) this iran-contra wasn't a-- it wasn't a scandal. >> it was a mistake. it was not a disaster, but it was a mistake. >> jon: mistake, like writing the wrong date on a check or writing the wrong address on a box marked "weapons." ( laughter ) so how about obama? is he off the hook then for his mistake? >> ultimately, these are executive agencies which are proving so deeply problematic. is he president or not? >> jon: it doesn't matter if obama knew with the wrongdoing or if it was the people around him. hhe is the president. the buck stops with him. what about reagan, as she wrote in, "when character was king," the people around him simply failed and hurt their president. the only thing he was guilty of was trusting to

ronald reagan wanted to overthrow the government in nicaragua. congress passed a law saying he could not do that and he did it anyway. since he couldn't get legal money, he used the illegal money he earned from illegally selling missiles to return. the congressional investigation into what happened was considered to be fairly stacked in reagan's favor, but when it came out, it was scathing. the big bipartisan congressional investigation into what he did said that the reagan administration had undermined a cardinal principle of the constitution, they had undermined the constitution's most significant check on executive power. the congress an investigation said reagan administration officials said officials viewed the law not as setting boundaries for their actions but raising impediments to their goals. it was just a scathing conclusion that this kind of law breaking by an american president was outrageous. it was a bipartisan consensus. it was almost a bipartisan consensus. there was a dissent filed, a minority report that said actually everythin

the children of reagan he's calling himself. would ronald reagan fit in with this crowd? reagan used to smile once in a while. don't wait for the smile. you'll never see it. anyway, this is the place for politics. you know, from our 4,000 television commercials. yep, there i am with flo. hoo-hoo! watch it! [chuckles] anyhoo, 3 million people switched to me last year, saving an average of $475. [sigh] it feels good to help people save... with great discounts like safe driver, multicar, and multipolicy. so call me today. you'll be glad you did. cannonbox! [splash!] >>> nbc news has officially declined, by way, to attend attorney general eric holder's -- "the new york times" and the "associated press" also won't be attending that scheduled briefing. there's been growing concern among journalists about the justice department's seizure of an "associated press" phone record list. earlier this week president obama announced holder would brief news executives in an off-the-record briefing. anyway, we'll be right back. >>> welcome back to "hardball." last week lightning rod senato

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>> well, this is the thing is he actually claims to be the direct of ronald reagan although ronald reaganot recognize him or his policies. he's basically trying to get medicare, trying to shrink the irs and shrink federal programs. that more or less, though ronald reagan in work did not, you know, was against it, in practice he actually increased the federal government. it doesn't make any sense. >> it doesn't make any sense to you. anna maria, as i said earlier, the night was filled with bad irs jokes. listen to him. this one takes the biscuit. >> i'll give you the simplest solution to this irs scandal which is abolish the irs. >> abolish the irs, anna marie. i feel like this is a solution that only benefits the trust fund children of ronald reagan. is that true? >> well, you know, i'm not sure exactly how ted cruz is like ronald reagan, but he certainly can pander with the best of them. and that's really the only way he kind of reminds me of reagan. reagan would be a moderate by some of the standards of this gop. ted cruz is one of those people who maybe like reagan is actually a pretty

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now he thinks it might circle back to ronald reagan himself. it's all to do with that 1986 -- well, it was the immigration act. he calls it the amnesty act which greated amnesty to immigrants. >> there is something like 15 million people in this country, not discounting deaths and those that might have gone back, that were the beneficiaries of the 1986 amnesty act. so i just pose this question. does anybody think that barack obama would be president today if the 1986 amnesty act had not become law? i don't think president barack obama would be president today if ronald reagan hadn't made the most colossal mistake of his career in signing the 1986 amnesty act. he let me down that day. >> a guy who thinks barack obama is an illegal immigrant himself, came here after being born in ken kenya. that's what he thinks. when outreach goes awry at an event put on by a spanish news organization last week, pennsylvania republican governor tom corbin was asked if he had any latino staffers himself. >> do you have staff members that are latino? >> no, we do

into california these days but back then it was a great spot and this was immediately post ronald reagan. california's economy was booming and it was one up -- he said why would you want to start a new one when you've been involved with heritage since the first day why don't you just take over heritage instead of moving your family to new york or the rest. so that's kind of how it evolved. i think linda was happy we didn't get to move although she is a native new yorker and would give me hell for telling the best insights three -- >> it's here instead of washington, d.c.. [applause] [laughter] >> the funny thing was, and you recounted this in the book, anthony fisher's attorney was a very prominent new york attorney in the old building and his name was william jay casey as and ronald reagan's head of the cia. i actually gone up and met them. we were pretty close to signing on the dotted line. come five or six years later, the president of heritage, the founder and i go out and call that bill casey in the super secret office of the cia and asked casey if he would make a major gift for the

also, why one republican congressman thinks barack obama has ronald reagan to thanks for him becoming president. he blames him, of course, for that. >>> and let me finish with ted cruise's within for an all-out political war. this is hardball. the place for politics. the power of the "name your price" tool. only from progressive. it's time... for aveeno® positively radiant face moisturizer. [ female announcer ] only aveeno® has an active naturals total soy formula that instantly brightens skin. and helps reduce the look of brown spots in just 4 weeks. for healthy radiant skin. try it for a month. then go ahead and try to spot a spot. aveeno® positively radiant. naturally beautiful results. mommy's having a french fry. yes she is, yes she is. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] could've had a v8. 100% vegetable juice, with three of your daily vegetable servings >>> well, senator rand paul's looking stronger and stronger as >>> welcome back to "hardball." that's how long it's taken the white house to regain some footing on the issue that's an honest assessment. instead of getting out in front of

since ronald reagan departed the white house having set up decades of re it reagan omics the number of startup jobs per thousand americans has decreased by nearly thirty percent as a share of the population the percentage of americans who are self employed fell by more than twenty percent between one thousand nine hundred one and two thousand and ten and according to the u.s. census bureau our economy lost more than two hundred twenty thousand small businesses during the bush great recession in addition to student loan debt there are numerous other parts of reaganomics that help explain the decline of small businesses in america over the economic collapse blog michael t. snyder a political commentator and drudge report favorite gives his take on why small businesses have experience such as its decline in america he points to things like ridiculous regulations and obamacare as the main culprits behind the death of small business snyder senator argues that corporate taxes are hindering business creation but are effective collected corporate tax rates in america are the second lowest in t

do you see reagan as fitting into this story you're telling? >> guest: well, would contend he doesn't really -- wasn't really a player in 1979. he was starting to campaign against carter and was a very important domestic american politician but i think his moment came later and that's why i didn't include him in this book. there's some very important events that presage his sierra. for example, 1979 was the year the moral majority was founds here in the united states. that was the start of evangelicals, born-agains, intervening directly in american politics in a way they hadn't before and that was crucial to reagan's 1980 victory. but this moment that i'm trying to capture here is i think a slightly earlier moment. and for that reason i haven't really brought reagan into it.ie belongs to a slightly later era. >> host: tell me about where you think 1979 fits in on those years that are the hinges of history, that pivot points of history? the 1789 and 1917s and 1989, and most recently, the arab spring revolution of 2011. where is 1979 on that spec

ronald reagan said. that he still treated them with respect and the one he engaged.maybe the most thing is linkage. we link their willingness to their behavior. the behavior of the soviet union with equally bad if not worse and what happened there was secretary shows decided instead of linking our willingness to talk, we have to say that these guys have me they do something wrong in refusing to talk did not deter an enemy. standing up to an enemy does potentially intermixed hakim are possible. i believe that we sat link in their willingness to to conduct, seductive and, we would be more effect are they talking to them and they would be more willing to talk to a sincerely. then the fourth thing is a broad agenda. we know the iranians are interested in talking about a lot of things that we care about a lot of things, particularly human rights. always talk about is what we want, the nuclear concession. they feel i am sure they are right that we don't want to give them anything until they give us what we want and that's not the way we negotiate. we negotiated including n

and reagan goodna made. the next and so that made it because he had ideas. so for us i'm not going to pick on a man that's bebe down like that look our already not the only man saying that they can chafee switch from being an independent used to be republican he's the governor of total became a democrat but all that he did was tell the truth about what he believed in where he was all along and i'm wishing him well you think that's true the former governor of florida as well absolutely i do think that but yeah but that's not my point here my point is conservatives are looking at what's going to happen in two thousand and fourteen and we're very optimistic in that so if your vision of taking advice from some of these folks is what we ought to do i predict we won't do that and that will go in a different direction and that we will succeed in two thousand and fourteen in a way that we haven't really quickly about was shocked when i wish her well i hope that what was said about her decision to go was as she said i suspect the justice department is agreed to drop

tc reagan as fitting into the story you are telling? >> guest: i would contend that he wasn't a player in 1979. he was starting to campaign against carter and he was aided port and domestic politician but i think his moment came a little bit later and that is why did include him them in this book. there are some very important events that predated the era. the moral majority was found in the united states of that was the start of evangelical, born-again entering directly in american politics and away they had before that was crucial to reagan's 1986 race but this moment i'm trying to capture here is a slightly earlier moment. for that reason i haven't really brought reagan into it. i just felt that he really belongs to a slightly later era. >> host: tell me about where you think 1979 fits in on those years that are kind of the hinges of history, the pivot points of history, 1789 and 1989 and most recently the arab spring revolution of 2011. where is 1979 on that spectrum in terms of importance? is it going to be one for the long-term bo

like days 52 degrees is our temperature at reagan national this morning. lot of us are in the upper 40's. it is a little cool to start. looking at a satellite picture, over the delmarva and pushing into southern maryland it's a little cloudy. to the south of d.c., partly cloudy. nothing to be concerned about. we expect mostly sunny conditions throughout the day. your forecast of 55 degrees and partly cloudy 9:00, 66 and mostly sunny at noon. by 5:00 this evening, mostly sunny and miles, 71 degrees. another outdoor kind of day. thisstly sunny and mild saving. >> let's go to amanda meadows for traffic. >> thank you. dry roads mean quite the conditions -- whiteout conditions. we do have construction coming into annapolis along the bay bridge. we're monitoring that. that has cleared out. so that's good news if you're headed across the bay bridge toward annapolis. 95, looking at the roadway that has had problems the past few mornings. from moving smoothly stafford this morning and towards the beltway. 95 northbound and southbound, light to moderate traffic. 14t

gone to the reagan library. if we want to go to conservatives are always wondering how to get back to reagan, back to that glorious time, what we could do is look at coolidge because coolidge that influence reagan's thinking when he grew up of a noble way, and to get his message out. and between abraham lincoln's day, i do know that coolidge made them a politically incapable of his ties to lincoln. in 1924 campaign the people running the campaign, and a list of civil war -- and the endorsement of the campaign. when coolidge thought of himself, reconstruction -- a desire by number of people not to go back for reviled fights and it was poor education by the republican presidents the followed. and lincoln and coolidge. i don't know if that helps. >> george bush mentioned to the declaration of independence many times, but it was a living declaration of independence so it was used in ways that did not relate to the limited government notion of the declaration through the notion of government of consent makes quite cl

reagan did and saved himself. the pros were bacon and ken duberstein.president obama has to stop taking advice from fans who keep telling him he's right and only they can be trusted. he needs to act. he needs to fire people. he needs to grab control of his presidency. he needs to surround himself with people ready to fight on every front. the three problems he faces now, benghazi, the irs and the fbi are less likely to be two problems by this time next week than there are to be four and counting. why? as i said, it's not just that he's under attack. it's that he's vulnerable. that is obvious to everyone this side of the white house gates. joining me right now is nbc news chief white house correspondent chuck todd and ron, editorial director at "the national journal," also a former national bureau chief for the much selected "associated press." let's begin with the scandal de jure. the administration has been desieged with the department of justice's controversial and sweeping use of subpoenas to secretly collect phone records from more than 100 journali

media system is to get government out of the way. >> in order to restructure media ownership, reagan removed regulations. >> driving the bears back into permanent hibernation, we'll turn the bull loose. [applause] >> that whole model was the idea that if you removed all controls and regulation and allowed the free market, then everything would be fine, everything would be wonderful. >> in reality, what it allows is a handful of giant corporations to come in and gobble up everything and these conglomerates don't see journalism as actually being essential to the functioning for democracy. their main interest is making profits. >> one merger symbolized the takeover of mass media by conglomerates seeking ever higher profits. >> for general electric, here is ronald reagan. >> good evening on this last sunday before christmas. christmas season is a time for the family -- >> people need to remember that ronald reagan was funded by large corporations and so suddenly we saw a radical transformation of the media system in the united states. >> general electric and r.c.a., two of america's bigg

in large part it helped get ronald reagan through iran contra. night and day differences, i grant yo but because the economy was as bad as it was and we're dealing with inflation and oil embargoes and the rest as 1973 ensued, it was the wind facing richard nixon, not his back. i'm wondering if this relatively improving economy, not gangbusters economy, could help this president no matter how these hearings evolve. >> well, i don't disagree with anything you said. i'd make a stronger statement. >> neil: i thought mne was pretty strong, but that's okay. [ laughter ] >> nixon even probably could have survived if it didn't rn out that his fingerprints were on the problem, and i think that's the critical difference, you know. present reagan was never flas terred directly -- plastered directly with iran cora. clearly president obama is not directly involved in any of the quote, unquote scandals yet. >> we don't know that yet. >> neil: we don't know that yet. >> benghazi is not a scandal. it's inat the a incompetence anl mallfeasance. the irs has low le

former reagan adviser karloff former reagan adviser karloff for on what the future h h h h h the capitalne cash rewards card gives you 1% cash back on all purchases, plus a 50% annual bonus. and everyone but her... no. no! no. ...likes 50% more cash. but i don't give up easy... do you want 50% more cash? yes! yes?! ♪ [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card gives you 1% cash back on every purchase, plus a 50% annual bonus on the cash you earn. it's the card for people who like more cash. ♪ what's in your wallet? why? and we've hit the why phase... ♪ lou: good news in the market. the s&p 500, again, a new record. the economy seems to be stuttering by. two and a half%. we will see whether or not that is upheld in the next revisn. reagan economic adviser joins us in moments. looking for to talking with one of my favorite economist. first among let's see what happened on the street. a better than expected jump in consumer confidence. 9 percent over the past year. the dow up 21 points. now fewer than 30 points from another record. the snb already at a record. a sixth record high.

and there's a picture of reagan and right now good buddies you know during during the height of these atrocities you know he also was trained at the school of america's of course as an organizer to spread awareness about the school why does it produce so many dictators and what is it you know that's an interesting question and it depends on who you ask so the school of the americas is a combat training school operated by the united states army it's located at fort benning. and since the school opened in one thousand nine hundred six over sixty four thousand soldiers from latin america and the caribbean have walked through its doors eleven of them going on to become dictators. as well as auto put as money as well as predecessor old male lucas garcia and manuel noriega panama were all considered among the school's most notorious graduates and what is the stated purpose why or why is the us government training these people with such brutal tactics of them and then employ against people of their country while the language has changed certainly in previous decades it has been you know cold

government in fact president reagan was close allies but the month and once referred to him as a man of great personal integrity totally dedicated to democracy landmark case was the first time an ex head of state has ever been tried for genocide by their own country's judicial system so could this set a precedent for trying and charging war criminals in the future and might this help bring in the attention needed to close the schools america's once and for all to discuss all that and more i'm joined by dominique do you go cash organizer for the school of america's watch thank you so much for coming on thanks perhaps so the fact that he was even brought on trial is unprecedented and i mean how was he actually brought to trial here. i think it began in one thousand nine hundred ninety three you were in fact truth commission which found that it was genocide extermination of the chill my own people. and the trial proceedings began in two thousand and eight with people doing research and finding all of the suspects and the fact that. it actually happened you know he was the first he was t

and for that reason i haven't really brought reagan into it. i just felt that he really, he belongs to a slightly later era. >> host: to me about what you think in 1979 hits in on those years that are kind of the hinges of history, the pivot point of history, the 1789 and 19 seventeenths in 1989 and most recently the arab spring revolutions of 2011. where is the 1979 on that spectrum in terms of import? will be one for the long-term books or are we going to be talking about as we still do about 1789 or 1848? >> guest: well, i would make a case that we should because i something to such an important turning point but i think it marked the really important moment when the domination of these ideas from the left, right, which really played a huge role in most of the 20th century. even if you weren't a common is our socialist or social democrat you invariably found yourself reacting to these ideologies. and i think what we see in 1979 is the rise of, how would i put it, finally made very, suddenly markets are no longer just -- islam becomes an ideo

reagan in many ways was a movement president. i say that with contempt for what he did in damage to this country. you need to see the pendulum has now swung. the tea party in many ways has lost a lot of this mojo because of overreach. it is out of sync with the values of so many people. we could have seen that in the summer of 2009. one of tea party people stood up and said "government, take your hands off my medicare." you see how internalized those programs are. >> who does not want to watch a car wreck? >> it has done a lot of damage.

and for that reason i haven't really brought all reagan into a. i just felt that really he belongs to the slightly later era. >> host: tell me about where you think it fits in on those years that on the hinges of history and the pivotal points of history, 1789 and 1970 and 1989 and the revolution of 11 and where we are in the spectrum are we going to be talking about a dozen still do in 1749 or 1840 it? >> guest: i would make the case that we should because it is such an important turning point it marks a really important moment when the domination of these ideas from the left played a huge role in most of the 20th century. even if you were not a communist or socialist or socialist democrat invariably you find yourself reacting to these ideologies and i think what we see in 1979 is the rise and finally a very viable alternative on the audiology suddenly markets are no longer just becomes an ideology and did the -- it turns out it isn't a socialist democracy and i was just talking to somebody the other day that read the book and he was he felt hims

conservatives always wonder how do we get back to reagan? to that glorious time? we could go back to look at coolidge because we know he influenced reagan's thinking as eager appeal listen to coolidge on the radio he was a very shy man who relied on radio to get his message out. that is something we need to consider as conservatives. i don't know what happened quite happen between abraham lincoln and calvin coolidge but the king made a big deal politically of his ties to lincoln. in the campaign in 1924 those were running the campaign were anchorage to go to every small town to get a list of every civil war veterans as the endorsement of the coolidge campaign so he thought of himself in line but part of it with reconstruction there was a desire by a number of people got to go back to fight the old site. some of that was a poor education of those that followed between lincoln and coolidge. and many were not as classically educated as coolidge. >> george bush mentioned the declaration of independence many times but i think the problem was it w

race to the bottom where we become like bangladesh that's what i'm worried about but you're blaming reagan obviously that hasn't happened we're not like bangladesh i guess when you can't blame bush you blame reagan you keep going further back and we are having a lot of these are you know we saw the massive mine explosion we saw the west texas explosion we're seeing worse now there's an investigation going forward that that may have been intentional and not an accident. all right well let's move out of here. during wednesday's house hearing holder was testifying for the house judiciary committee on oversight hearing and he was pressed by congressman steve cohen of tennessee on this particular issue take a look. one of the greatest threats to liberty has been the government taking people's liberty for things that people are in favor of the pew research group shows that fifty two percent of americans think marijuana should not be illegal and yet there are people in jail and your justice department continue to put people in jail for sale and use on occasion of marijuana you have continued what

. >> ronald reagan had the marine barracks blowup in beirut, the iran-contra, yet he survives, you saw him talking about -- tear down that wall -- which happens under george h.w. bush's presidency, he reforms the tax , and he is not snake bit. he survives. how does he do that? is it the power of his personality? was never any sense that he was as possible for the marine barracks. and he made the decision which was right at the time to pull them out and acknowledged that he had to. iran-contra, it happened on his watch, but the worst that you could say about it is that he appeared to was never any sense disengaged when that happened. he never came across as a vicious individual or a mean individual, he did not have that thing that richard nixon had. phrase.how to turn a he knew how to use the moment. >> people did like him. one thing about ronald reagan that he brought to the office which has been missing, frankly, is optimism. not unlike franklin roosevelt, kennedy to a considerable degree, americans look to a president for signs of optimism. as far as iran contra, i ask one of reagan'