and never would support reagan telling us what reagan thought. craig shirley the search for reagan, why did you write this book and how would it impact us today. >> i wrote it because there's so many lies about reagan over the years and napoleon once said histories lies agreed-upon i want to refute about his compassion in his handling of gorbachev and so many issues but also i wanted to write it because i wanted to explore reagan's considerable intellect and compassion both of which he had a great deal of. >> how do we apply this today, i feel like a lot of republicans and conservatives think the world began with them and by the way that's how marx's used to think but we conservatives believe history is crucial the ronald reagan to biggest landslides in the republican party history and he was a conservative, how did he do th that. >> he was a democrat for many, many years, long before he was a republican so we spoke to democrats, cultural democrats and economic democrats in a way they never heard for a republican not from gerald ford or richard n

ronald reagan.uiet? -- why? guest: good question. i have to do something. i worked for reagan, i worked on the 1980 and 1984 campaign. i was a munchkin in washington in the 1980's. they always have respect and deference for the american presidency. both democrats and republicans especially fdr, jfk, andrew jackson. there was a lot of things that were not true or being said about ronald reagan about aids and gays in warmongering. i've written a number of books for certain periods in his life, the 1976 election, the 1980 election, his post-presidency, the time between the 76 and 80 campaign which was important. i decided to write this because there are so many misstatements about ronald reagan. i wanted to explore and make people understand how intelligent this man was. his old aid was a friend of mine, marty anderson. he had degrees from m.i.t. and various ivy league schools and was an intelligent man and he once told me that he rated reagan's iq at 175. reagan read one book per week. he wrote letter

: and essentially not a shot was fired.st strong at home, strong abroad, the big reagan lesson reagan tried to drain the washington, d.c. swap, he wasn't always successful but the eastern establishment and the elites didn't like him one bit, listen to this one. >> the nine most terrifying words in the english language are i'm from the government andr i'm hereom to help. larry: sound familiar, working folks flocked into the reagan led party he not only with the soviets but filled their lunchr pails tolu overflowing. i was an associate director and reagan's omb in his first term, i loved it limited facetime with a couple of cabinet presentations and is sitting of thehe back wall some cabinet meetings and they gave me a metal when i said goodbyesd to them in the oval. one thing above all he taught me about optimism. america's greatest country in the history of history. when it occasionally seems broken, if you get fixed very fast with the right principles in the right policies. i say happy birthday s mr. president reagan. now back to regularly scheduled program. joining us georgialarl co

ronald reagan. and then peniel joseph discusses his book on malcolm x and martin luther king, jr. "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning. monday, february 19, president's day. we will mark the federal holiday coming up with a conversation about president ronald reagan. we will also discuss today black history month later on. in our first hour, we want your views of vice president kamala harris. here is how you can join the conversation. if you are a republican, dial in at (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can also join us in a text with your first name, city, and state, (202) 748-8003. or on facebook.com/c-span and on x with handle @cspanwj. a look at recent polling done on the vice president's approval rating. she shares the same number with president joe biden, 40%. disapproval rating is at 58%. in a recent "wall street journal" interview, she said she is ready to serve. this morning, we want to know your view of the vice president. on abc's "

larry: it was ronald reagan. >> ronald reagan.six trillion dollars of spending i regard it as a snake swallowing a bowling ball and trying to make its way through the system and we will be for decades paying for this excess. of course the second chart is one of what the fed did which was raise the amount of money on its balance sheet it owns. it was buying up assets which pumps more cheap money into the economy. larry: that right there. >> went from four trillion to nine trillion. now it has come down you see a little bit by a trillion. that is a lot of money slashing out in the economy. i don't like it. i want the federal reserve reduce the balance sheet and congress cut a trillion out of the budget. larry: they should do it right away. ej, inflation has come down, yes, but government spending i would argue is inherently inflationary. you're not producing goods, producing temporary demand, stimulus. larry lindsey, distinguished economist, former fed chairman, former nec director, is writing about this. if you took out the governm

was that reagan's decision to do that?uest: yes, it was president reagan's decision to withdraw the troops. as you could tell from what i have said about it so far, it was a messy process. the american troops were stationed in beirut as you saw in his oval office address and he decided to keep them there. we are not going to back down. a number of months go by and the problems continue with the following year the american embassy annex was bombed again, and eventually president reagan decided it would be safer to redeploy the marines to offshore ships to keep them out of harm's way, but that also hurt their peace keeping mission in beirut and eventually he withdrew the troops. he didn't just lob military, or artillery shells into beirut as the troops were withdrawing. but he did make the decision to pull the troops out. host: given all we know about what happened around the beirut bombing and president reagan's response to it, what lessons can the current administration and president biden take from president reagan's expe

president reagan. back to regularly scheduled program and marjorie taylor green and francey miller founder of america first legal and former trump senior policy adviser. welcome back to both of you. congresswoman green greene, i hope you didn't mind a little reagan birthday and someone has to do it. let me ask you current events, what's going to happen on the floor of the house? senate border bill looks like it's dead in the water. the speaker said it's going to be dead on arrival and in what's your forecast? will anything come out of this whole episode? >> i can tell you right now, larry, it is dead on arrival. as a matter of fact i've told the house hill press to stop asking me about the senate border surrender bill and we could careless anything about it. we passed hr2 strongers border security bill out of the house and the senate should take up hr2 and take it seriously because that's the only way we can secure our border at this time. that's what we're doing right now. the floor debate is happenin

was that reagan's decision to do that?uest: yes, it was president reagan's decision to withdraw the troops. as you could tell from what i have said about it so far, it was a messy process. the american troops were stationed in beirut as you saw in his oval office address and he decided to keep them there. we are not going to back down. a number of months go by and the problems continue with the following year the american embassy annex was bombed again, and eventually president reagan decided it would be safer to redeploy the marines to offshore ships to keep them out of harm's way, but that also hurt their peace keeping mission in beirut and eventually he withdrew the troops. he didn't just lob military, or artillery shells into beirut as the troops were withdrawing. but he did make the decision to pull the troops out. host: given all we know about what happened around the beirut bombing and president reagan's response to it, what lessons can the current administration and president biden take from president reagan's expe

but he's all in reagan's face. you know, you criticize the mistakes, the past of democrats for our big deficits. do you take any of the blame for the deficit? and reagan is not his says, well, yes, sam, i do, because for a long time i was a democrat. but told me i asked about that since that my i had many humiliations at the hands of ronald reagan but that was my biggest one. so it takes some art and deliberate. you know craftiness to think how to do that and sadly say a lot of politician just don't think about that in practice and then think it through a little thing. but not. but i'll make a perhaps slightly contrarian, which is i think we need more, not less politics. and i think perhaps one of the things we should be looking at more is less about coolidge's presidency and more about his governorship, which is say that what strikes that we need today, which coolidge understood at the federal level, where you have a more limited constitution at the state level, where you actually have powers at the constitutional

president reagan called me mitch o'donald. close enough, i thought. my wife elaine and i got married on president reagan's birthday, february 6. it's probably hot the -- not the most romantic thing to admit, but reagan meant a lot to both of us. for 31 years elaine has been the love of my life and i'm eternally grateful to have her by my side. i think back to my first days in the senate with deep appreciation for the time that helped shape my view of the world. i'm unconflicted about the goodwyn oush country and -- the good with isin -- with our country -- with in our country. that's why i worked so hard to get the national security package passed earlier this month. believe me, i know the politics within my party at this particular moment in time. i have many faults. m misunderstanding politics is not one of them. that said, i believe more strongly than ever that america's global leadership is essential to preserving the shinning city on a hill that ronald reagan discussed. for as long as i draw breath on this earth, i will defend america's exception

i started with reagan sound bites. the issues that reagan deal with that were big issues when we are dealing with the debt so it kind of all works out pretty well to say hi to my friends and i know i have friends in the audience. we are here to talk about grant. years ago you wrote your first book in the challenges you had with your son paul, remarkable but please tell me he's okay. >> he's doing great. that book is called special hearted journey of hope and courage. oh my gosh courage and love. i'm thinking grand and i'm thinking, anyway bottom line he is doing fantastic. he's had four open-heart surgeries and 10 angioplasties in this last one was in december and paul is now an inch taller than me. he's 6 feet tall. he is a golfer and a basketball player and he's doing fantastic so thank you very much. [applause] >> bret in your book you chose presidents to study that are oftentimes at an inflection point in their presidency. a moment in time in that particular president uniquely change the course of history. is that

ronald reagan is his president. and i'm not just that, because i'm at the reagan library, which is obvious. it's he chose that bible. but mike started out as a democrat and when he was in high school, he was like democrat youth coordinator in bartholomew county. and when he went to college, he majored in history. he took classes on the constitution portion and he started listening to ronald reagan. and that's when he became a republican. and he loves tell the story. it might in his book. it's not in mine, but when we were running in 88, we went to a candidate school in washington and we must try to pay very good attention i guess we didn't win but we had the honor of going to the white house and all of the candidates got to sit down for like you know 20 seconds with the president get their photo they could take back to their campaign and mike said you know i i just want to tell him how grateful we are for what he did our country. and that's what he said when you sat down with him. he said, i just you to know how gra

>> ronald reagan running, the ronald reagan that i knew and voted for in 1980, wouldn't recognize how do even run in the primary we had. i can't imagine that ronald reagan would've raised his hand at the first debate as six of the eight people dead and say i would support donald trump even if he were convicted felon. i think ronald reagan would've taken donald trump on directly. >> in the book you said many republicans abandoned their common sense and jumped into a shabby cult, ignoring, facts promoting conspiracy theories, and pledging allegiance to a blustering loser who can't remotely be called a conservative and who cares solely about himself. it's about as far as you can get from ronald reagan. >> i like that. that's pretty good. >> and yet this is the party you want to head. >> look, when i want to do is change it. listen, anderson, if you took those words and you went to any number of leaders of our party privately and asked them if they agreed, the problem is they don't want to do the hard work that is necessary to lead and change the party. it means if you don't raise your ha

term reagan no,e. reaganomics i think that we -- the only way we're going deal with frustrationings in these communities and by the way the congressman i worked for when i first came here in 1980s one of theman was alec and jim mart, and they were all over the -- textile bill, and i can't even recall what the actual title of it was but we were scrambling all over the south -- i thinkve of some of my manufacturers like in south carolina who have -- who have navigated through all of that, and they're quite successful and by the way, they're exporters of their product. there are success stories and then there are stories that are frustrating that folks about gray on to and they refuse to see the bright, bright silver linings that do occur when you expand opportunities for trade around the world. andhe i'm going to go right back to what i think is our obligation as business leaders is to tell that story betters. oftentimes a lot of my companies yongts blame them trying to deal with the day-to-day work and

the days of reagan are over. reagan has more in common with bill clinton's presidency or barack obama's. ronald reagan always despised russia and the soviet union because he saw it as totalitarian. he bet on that as a governor in the 1960s, giving speeches, democracy will prevail. famously went and gave his speech at normandy, peggy noonan speech, among others over there and said we liberated the first half in world war ii of europe and now we have to liberate the second half. the breakup of the soviet union happened under bush 41 in 1991, that's the kind of thing ronald reagan loved and reagan would be ill and his former great secretary of state george shultz to see this militarization and space that russia is trying to do to come up with new satellites and nuclear things. reagan and schultz wanted to start reducing nuclear weapons in the world, not increase them. >> foreign policy also an issue for president biden. i remember he would be up on capitol hill in recent decades covering him when he was chairman of

it wouldn't make sense to reagan. if there was parts he didn't like, he would get in there and negotiate and make it better. then ultimately, would agree on a compromise that if it didn't give him 100% of what he wanted, it would give him a lot and he would move the ball down the field. >> president trump talked about this is not a perfect bill, only a perfect bill is acceptable. there's no such thing as a perfect bill. >> not in my experience of being governor eight years in a state where i presided over divided government with a democratic legislature. we got great things done during that period of time. reagan working with o'neill, save social security. cut taxes. rebuilt the military. those things can be done if you want to. it's hard work. sometimes you have to make people unhappy. my view of our race and why this book is relevant even more now is that ronald reagan was a guy who lost at times standing on his principles. he was willing to stand up against ford when he thought ford moved too far to the left. he st

ronald reagan did not have any classified documents and that reagan read something already marked read by someone else that is classified. what ronald reagan did was every night, he went to bed with his wife nancy. he would write a couple of lines, not drawing up reports on just what he saw or felt that day. that became the reagan diaries. other presidents have different ways of doing these things. bill clinton had taylor branch come to the white house and a journalist, and they would make these tapes. taylor would go off with him. it was all of these presidents after watergate -- we are trying to find a way to keep some of the stuff read in regards to donald trump and joe biden, there should never be classified documents being taken out of the white house, whether stuffed in a notebook or stuffed in a briefcase. >> it is interesting. there is another section of the special counsel report that said that then vice president biden saw himself as a historical figure and that is why he kept these documents. i suppose a lot of politicians view themselves in that way. but he also went out of

but senator obama, when speaking, used ronald reagan, president ronald reagan as an example of change. now now, my view is i would never use ronald reagan as an example of change. i mean you think about what ronald reagan did to america, to the american people, to the middle class, to working people. he was openly open only intolerant of unions and the right to organize. he openly fought against the union and the organized labor movement in this country. he openly did extraordinary damage to the middle class and working people, created a tax structure that favored the very wealthiest americans and caused the middle class and working people to struggle every single day. this direction, the environment, you know, eliminating the regulation of companies that were polluting and doing extraordinary damage to the environment, whether it was damage to the union movement in the organized labor movement, damage to the middle class, the tax structure that favored the wealthiest americans and the biggest corporations in america, or the incredible devastation to the environment. while he was in p

i found these at the reagan library. and so one of the things that they did in the reagan administration was to pose these alternatives for people, you know, do you like x or do you like y in this case? they asked during the heat of iran-contra whether the president could still govern. so in one case, they say this sort of hypothetical. miller believes that the iranian incident shows president reagan may have made mistakes, but it does not raise questions about his ability to run the country. brown, on the other hand, believes the incident shows reagan's not in control of the presidency and therefore raises serious questions about his ability to run the country. well, you can see here that there's not much change overall. generally speaking, people believe like miller, that the president was still able hold the white house effectively and do their job realistically well. this is, again, of the way that presidents to game this. right. they try to see like what's the outcome here, what's the strategy that and, you know, to

of trumps last time in office, david stockman, the reagan administration's budget director joins me now from miami, florida. thank you so much david, for coming on, i suppose before we even go into the depths of the once an amazing tour to 4th of a book in terms of its analysis of i can say that the polls show trump uh, handles the economy according to polls best uh, uh, better than any other, uh, better than buying in the opinion polls. that's what people are thinking as he clearly is the favor, whether it runs from jail or where else 20 points. he's in the lead to what, why do you different from that huge lead of your fellow american public as well uh, compared to the by the period. uh, it is much to say that it was better, but the fact is, uh, there wasn't any great mega economy in 2017 to 2020. that is just one large and medicine balls. that donald trump and his mag a supporters of stock promulgated uh you know, month after month, year after year. it wasn't true. and of course he wasn't even remotely a economic conservative. he's the biggest vendor we ever had the over office. he wa

first lady nancy reagan, where she served until 1985. she then moved to germany where her husband was serving as u.s. ambassador. last but, certainly not least, is amy zantzinger currently the head of amy zantzinger interior design, which she established 1998. you can see some of the beautiful bleeding right of service and of design and, of care and of course, all with grace and civility. her interior design business was put on hold for two years when she in february in 2007 was asked by president george w bush if she would serve as his special assistant to the president and the white house social secretary and she did. with great through january of 2009 from 1993 to 1994, she zipped back to san francisco and was the chief officer for that fair city. amy also worked in the white house for president h.w. bush in the visitors office from 1989 to 1992. please me in giving a warm welcome to our incredible panel and our wonderful moderator. thanks again. for. all. welcome everybody. welcome to the stage. hello, everyone, again. this has been

but ronald reagan distraught. as long as breath on this earth, i will defend american exceptionalism to serve kentucky and the fact they my life. leave my republican colleagues the privilege. >> mcconnell's health and ability to serve has been under the microscope lately after the 82 year-old was filmed, kind of freezing up during speeches and public events. while mcconnell is stepping down as minority leader, he is not leaving the senate. he indicated that he plans to finish out his current term, which wraps up in january of 2027. lots of reaction to what some say will be big shoes to fill in senate leadership. kron four's catherine heenan is in the newsroom now with what our political analysts are saying about mcconnell's decision. catherine? >> well, it is big news grant not considered surprising go. mitch mcconnell turned 82 last week. he does have health problems. as you pointed out, equally significant. the traditional reagan style republican has found himself more and more out of step with the more isolatio

you also talked to kristie about his book on ronald reagan. bit about what he said about the republican party past and present. >> reporter: in the bookie right many republicans have abandoned their common sense and discernment and jumped into a shabby cult. denying reality, pledging conspiracy theories, and pledging to an abuser who cares solely about himself. it's about as forward as you can get from ronald reagan? >> i like that, that is pretty good. [laughter] >> reporter: and yet this is the party that you want to head? >> look, what i want to do is change it. and listen, anderson, if you took those words and you went to any number of leaders of our party, privately, and ask them if they agree with it, they say they did. the problem is that they do not want to do the hard work that is necessary to lead and change the party, it means that if you do not raise your hand at the debate in milwaukee, you are going to get booed. they would be willing to do that? >>> he is talking there about raising your hand on the debate stage, and saying that

the idea is a reagan, you obviously learned a lot of lessons for being in that administration. and they said it's no more for a, you know, arguable genocide in so many foreign policy areas. and for impoverishing the united states, you learn so much instantaneously as your books of, uh, change in their, in their ideas. when you, when you say, washington doesn't need nato to protect our allies in your a because they are not facing any threat that copy, handled by their own ways, means and going to say the whole disaster. and ukraine today is rooted in the will . bodies mind is expansion of nato. that is the same policy as cornell west. and that is the same policy as donald trump. and that is, of course, the policy of the present use, a boarding robot f. kennedy. why kind of all these different elements get together and defeat the wolf ivy? yeah, because they're all over the line. rigidity is there, and of course the list is there. but trump had the view that we all there. she knows. he didn't argue that the nato's combined defense budget of 1.25 trillion isn't necessary, was basi

[video clip] >> my career began in the reagan revolution. the truth is, when i got here, i was just happy anybody remembered my name. president reagan called me mitch o'donnell. close enough, i thought. my wife, elaine and i, got married on president reagan's birthday, february 6. probably not the most romantic thing to admit, but reagan meant a lot to both of us. 31 years, elaine has been the love of my life, and i am eternally grateful to have her by my side. i think back to my first days in the senate with deep appreciation. to the time that help to shape my view of the world. de replaceable role that we play as the leader of the free world. it is why i work so hard. believe me, -- i have many faults. but politics is not one of them. that said, i believe more strongly than ever that leadership is essential to preserving the shining city on the hill that ronald reagan described. as long as i am drawn breath on this earth, i will defend american exceptionalism. host: mitch mcconnell on the floor yesterday announcing that he will no longer s