and reagan reagan saw, this. and he said, look, i need to restore morale, because for the first time in history, in 1980, parents did not think they'd always thought every time, ever since been polled, parents always thought the future would be better for the children than had been for them until 1980, when that stopped. people not think that anymore. so the idea that joe biden is a great president is, just nonsense. it's poppycock. ridiculous. name one thing that he's been successful at other than spending money. and by way any more on can spend money. well, i also think that just you know reagan watched a few john travolta movies in the white house. i'm sorry. i think reagan. a few john travolta movies. yeah. he probably did. well, just to clear vulture, travolta was three. screen was no travolta. i really like him as an actor. i just said there's a joke. but travolta was a guest at, the reagan white house several times, and he actually danced with princess di there. that's right. all right. i think we have mat

reagan's kicking reagan under the table. stop, stop stop. and. and then reagan.l, i also do what jimmy stewart? and of course, it sounds like reagan doing jimmy stewart right now. everybody's everybody's sick of it. right? and then finally, look and i also do truman capote. and so richardson triggered let me hear you. truman capote. you ringo's all out. oh, you know, and rich says, mr. president, it's pretty good. but you don't have a material. and reagan's says, well, do you have any ideas? so, rich down the cocktail answer to. reagan. reagan looks at his eyes right up the reads. he says, well, they said, i wrote in cold, but actually i wrote in ink ink. well, we could go on with more of these great stories, anecdotes. i mean, anyone who worked with reagan certainly has a few of them. yes. and i know we have a few veterans, the administration in the audience today that. hopefully, we'll get to hear from them, too. but please, let's fielding some questions from the. and i'm sure there's inquiring minds and about. i believe maggie or my wonderful colleague will br

reagan was easier to forgive than mrs. reagan. in 1980, the issue of reagan's age came back a lot. he was too old for the presidency and this and that and it was jon stewart's false, the campaign manager, in 80 before he was fired by reagan, took reagan off the road for the year, wouldn't do anything, what happens in the vacuum, reagan making news is interesting, the gossip mongers take over, reagan is too old, things would be better, nasty stuff. a lot of this came from the bush campaign. they are animated, they were establishment whereas reagan was antiestablishment. it was always going to be a clash. i will tell you when example, bush was chairman of the republican national committee asked to buy a reporter, tell me, ambassador, are you a liberal, moderate, or conservative and bush disdainfully says labels are for cans. reagan would have knocked that out of the park. he would go into a long dissertation on libertarianism being the basis of american conservatives, he would refer you to books and events in history. there was always that and he attacked reagan's tax-cut plan, that

i don't know if i would say that was because of reagan, but reagan was like everybody's dad back thent for my boomer generation he was our dad. that was for better or for worse. if you were for him, didn't want to hear his discipline or wherever you were in life back then, he was the dad of the nation, people had strong feelings just like they do about their dad. there are people out there that still carries those strong feelings with them. overwhelmingly more great feelings than there are bad memories about him with people. a lot of those student protesters, dropouts of society, drop in and all that, they round up on wall street and made a bunch of money. reagan had a slow acting affect on people. he grew on them as well. >> to the front row. >> congratulations, wonderful film. as you were studying for your roles, what did you learn about the character you were playing that surprised you the most about them? >> what surprised me the most was the great communicator, so many people that knew him always remarked how there was a private place in reagan that you could not penetrate and th

let's talk a little bit about the young ronald reagan and his mother, his mother nelly reagan and amanda i'd invite you to -- what was it like preparing to be ronald reagan's mom? [laughter] >> they're really big shoes to fill. there wasn't a lot about nellyto to -- in terms of -- i think for dennis there was plenty on youtube to search for ronald reagan and be able to embody a physical attribute and then work from the outside in and for nelly, there wasn't that kind of -- >> she died in 1962. she was not a public figure. >> correct. >> so most of my research and most of the things that i found out about her were from reagan's hand, it was -- reading autobiography and some biographies that were written about reagan that mother found her ways into the story. god and ronald reagan actually was the most poignant part of the researching because it was most information about her and also really the impact that she had on his life and what she instilled in him as a young boy she really carried with him for his life. >> so what were some of those things? did you start out with essentially a bla

and people around reagan. so it's very shrewd analysis. so as we began to analyze the 1980 campaign, it came upon the 80 campaign. i realized that the book was finished and nixon restless and it was time him to go to new york. and that meant i was going to be out of work and and so i was looking to him for some advice and. so he he gave me some pretty good advice. he told me visited a fellow named stu spencer, and i was that's when i was looking for work. and stu, who's sitting there in the front row and stu was in newport beach at the time he was a handsome client ace. and so i went to see stu and and we made an acquaintance with each other. and i actually i think i wrote a small speech for stu and then the time came around for. the 1976. later on, when the campaign for 1980 came and stu was putting the campaign together. he chose me to be a speechwriter for reagan's campaign, but that didn't happen automatically because stu got in trouble in 76 with the reagan's because ran gerry ford's campaign in 1976. so

and people around reagan. so it's very shrewd analysis. so as we began to analyze the 1980 campaign, it came upon the 80 campaign. i realized that the book was finished and nixon restless and it was time him to go to new york. and that meant i was going to be out of work and and so i was looking to him for some advice and. so he he gave me some pretty good advice. he told me visited a fellow named stu spencer, and i was that's when i was looking for work. and stu, who's sitting there in the front row and stu was in newport beach at the time he was a handsome client ace. and so i went to see stu and and we made an acquaintance with each other. and i actually i think i wrote a small speech for stu and then the time came around for. the 1976. later on, when the campaign for 1980 came and stu was putting the campaign together. he chose me to be a speechwriter for reagan's campaign, but that didn't happen automatically because stu got in trouble in 76 with the reagan's because ran gerry ford's campaign in 1976. so

cards that that ronald reagan sent to reagan. you know, every every valentine's day, every birthday, every thanksgiving, every christmas, every new year. how much loved her. very, very sweet to read. and you know what? he was a wife. she was away for even a few days. he would be writing in his diary how desperately he missed her. and so had a very close bond. but it wasn't. and and, of course, their marriage was primarily about love. and in a way that almost made even their kids like they were left out because she really his top priority but she was also a very effective political partner for him although she did not and want to again this is another myth. some suggest that she pushed him to the or she pushed him into politics. neither of that is true, as far as i can tell. nancy didn't really have any political belief. she didn't really have much political ambition. but what she wanted was whatever was the best for her, ronnie, and she understood that her husband wanted to be in politics. so she was going to be make that as succ

the only weakness he saw and reagan i didn't think reagan was a hard hitter. did not think he was tough enough. later on i think he conceded he could give a punch when he needed to. he also made observations about nancy reagan. i think i w put that in the book as well. what a strong personality she was. she was also as he called her, a classy lady. he believed she was a strong asset to reagan but you have to understand these are very strong perceptions by nixon. and people around reagan. as a very shrewdd analysis. as we begin to analyze the 1980 campaign i realize the book was finished. it's time for him to go to new york that meant i was going to be out of work. and so i was looking to him for some advice. he gave me some pretty good advice he said there is a fellow named stu spencer. neptune is looking for work. she was sitting in the front row. he was at newport beach at the time but he had some clients i went to see stu. we made an acquaintance with each other i think i wrote a small speech and then when the time came around for the 1976 -- mike later on

so the reagan administration, some senior officials in the reagan administration went about a an enterpriseo raise private funds and channel those funds to the contras to support their effort to overthrow the nicaraguan government and the way they raised those monies was to sell arms to iran and also raise money and get money from other countries and private sources. this was in contradiction to the reagan administration stated policy of not negotiating with terrorist regimes or regimes that supported terrorism. and in the case of iran, of course, in the early eighties, iran had been, as it still does, sponsoring terrorist organizations in the middle east. and one of them was called in is called hezbollah. and it had taken hostage --, american hostages in beirut. so this complex scheme where the reagan administration officials were negotiating with iran, agreeing to sell them arms in exchange for the release of these hostages, some of the funds from those sales and other fundraising activities would then translate to the support of the contras. so this that's that's that's what the iran con

but the last one i mentioned is the reagan library and the reagan library. when it first opened, it didn't much information about carter, but for some reason that i know not what someone convinced and nancy reagan to open the papers on the 1980 election the election where when carter was defeated by reagan and where the october surprise took place the time it took place. i don't think nancy reagan knew was in those papers. i think somebody's food, because that was a vast collection of papers and of them weren't very complimentary of ronnie. and so it was he had there was a lot of have which had said that i'd like the reagan people not been i had not been totally honest about jeannie went with me as she often did but have friends in dallas that we were we had lived for a while. we had friends who wanted to go to we sometimes travel together. one of them was an attorney. the other one was i was a medical doctor. they were people who knew a lot research and i never forget it. the archivist on duty was a young woman named amanda. i don't remember the rest of her

i mean reagan, he did that stuff, people forget reagan was not a pure free trader, i give you last wordanted was them to lower their barriers rather than us to raise ours, he wants them to join us with not to be against us. larry: i like it all right good stuff, art laffer peace through strength. >> i love it larry, i just love it. larry: great vivek ramaswamy coming up, he is in favor of deporting illegal immigrants and of tenured bureaucrats. i'll call them. to be polite, she'll join us next to talk -- he will join us next to talk about it i'm kudlow we'll be right back. benes and retirement savings. voya provides tools that help you make the right investment and benefit choices. so you can reach today's financial goals and look forward to a more confident future. voya, well planned, well invested, well protected. emergen-c crystals pop and fizz when you throw them back. and who doesn't love a good throwback? ♪ now with vitamin d for the dark days of winter. billy: one second, grandma. this guy is going to buy my car. okay? grandma: you need carvana... entering plate number... grandma

library all of the reagan library. how did that kind of shape your worldview, your, you know, political view growing up. yeah, you know, i grew up in a home of lower income. latino, mexican-american, catholic catholic and was kind of imbued with sense of the world in many ways. it was not unlike the trajectory of a lot of ethnic catholics at the turn of the last century through ellis island. but we were imbued with a very strong sense of of looking out for the least among and having an obligation to the poor and and dedicating our lives to doing that. and politics became my parents were not politically involved but they were very politically aware and so very political discussions were part of that conversation and the more i listened to my father the he didn't sound like a democrat to me. and and i would point that out as a young son sometimes does and and your brother. yeah well no pretty directly and you know may desert time tough because by the time we got there the conversations were pretty heated but but that enc

i want you to listen to president reagan thanks to the reagan library in march 1983 where he makes theent. go. >> america does possess, now, the technologies to attain very significant improvements in the effectiveness of our conventional nonnuclear forces. proceeding boldly with these new technologies, we can significantly reduce any incentive the soviet union may have two threaten attack the united states or its allies. as we pursue our goal of defensive technologies, we recognize our allies rely upon our strategic offensive power to deter attacks against them. their vital interests and ours are inextricably linked. thethere is an hours, are one. no change in technology can or will alter that reality. we must and shall continue to honor our commitments. i clearly recognize defensive systems have limitations and raises certain problems and ambiguities. if paired with offensive systems they can be viewed as fostering an aggressive policy and no one wants that. but, with these considerations firmly in mind, i call upon the scientific community and our country. those who gave us nuclear

what is the inspiration because i know it was written for reagan but it could be for trump.. it's about a fight theme. what did you make of that? >> well i think so. i think, you know, i'm not a republican or democrat, i'm just trying to be a better american and i think that our country is so divided right now that we fight about a lot of things. i'm an entertainer, i like to entertain, that's what i do. i see entertainers that talk about it a lot, better get back in your lane, you know, but i think this song just talks about us getting together and fighting the world. >> trace: are you saying this song is to unite the country? is that the whole thing, to unite? >> exactly. do we want to fight or do we want to win? we don't want to fight. i'm tired of fighting. >> greg: >> trace: have you met this country? we like to fight a little bit. >> i know and i wish they didn't. i think it's time to come together. no matter what. i mean we all have different tastes but, you know, i think there's only one way to go with this election that is very important this year. but i'm an entert

look -- and in many ways people forget this about reagan.e a strong economy, but you can't tolerate unfair trading practices. you can't tolerate china, india, europe that have tariffs, art, that are five times what the united states tariff is. now, i want to say this, people criticize mr. trump left and right. i don't think they should because i don't think there is free trade left anymore. i just think he's going to use tariffs to negotiate. reciprocity is the new free trade. but remember, reagan used something in those days called voluntary restatement agreementt agreements. in those days japan, which had very unfair trading practices particularly with electronics but also to automobiles and so forth, i mean, reagan knew -- he did that stuff. people forget reagan was not a pure free trader. he believed in rest processty. i'll give you the -- reciprocity. i'll give you the last word on reciprocity. >> you're totally right. what reagan wanted was for them to lower their barriers rather than the us the raise our barriers. larry: yes. >> he wa

reagan gorbachev communicated. and as a result, the markovic summit the world went from its high point in sanity. yes, 70,000 nuclear weapons in the world to the almost equally divided between the us and the soviets need 70,000. that is just astonishing. yes. and now 12,500 approximate today. yes right. many people would say that's or some people say that's 12,500 too many. but my god that is a big shift and that's where we need to go now. yeah one of the benefits of your book is talk about what happens. you use those 12,000 weapons, what happens to the planet to human. and so you you really realize that even that number is enough destroy in 78 minutes, everything that humankind has created over millennia right. so you can do that. and you think back to 70,000 you want what we. well it's very interesting that you give me that anecdote. reagan's response to the day after, because i think the day after was in 84, 83, 83, and then in 85, gorbachev is elected. we get new leadership. we have an opening. reagan sees it a

but what was like living through the reagan era? and what does ronald reagan mean to you? well, i think he's the shining example of what the presidency should be and what its priorities should be. um, why the republican party to a fairly large degree kind of lost track of that during intervening? i've never been able quite to figure out, but there was a lot of misplaced post ronald reagan. so i think he is correctly a role model for us going no the exact he did we don't have to do all over there is berlin wall but there is the equivalent of berlin and walls all over the place that need to be dealt with. we don't exactly have wars but we're getting there and so there's a real life similarity between that challenge and and his. he to pioneered workforce development and and things that led to an improved workforce and his social policies to not go in direction that we've seen more recently particularly on the democrat side. this notion of paying people more not to work then they ever got paid when they were working strikes me as death knell for the american dream. and in fact

i think they were hoping on a ronald reagan, but they they knew that reagan wasn't battle tested yet in 68 hadn't run a national campaign. he hadn't had a lot of national scrutiny. so i think the agreement that nixon and reagan had was if reagan didn't have the nomination largely sewn up by oregon, the next big primary was california. and reagan was free to move in. but we never got there because nixon kept it going. and you think that was a a in formal agreement between nixon and reagan? well, i can't point you to, you know, hard records or evidence, but there were there were interviews at the time reagan was meeting with represen natives of he was talking to the rockefeller side. and, of course, the media had this idea of a dream team of rock of fellow reagan campaign. and i think, you know, that might have been unstoppable during a general election. there's just one problem. you know, during the primaries, the liberal supporters of rockefeller really disliked the conservative supporters of reagan. so it's very unlikely a while it seems like a dream team to us that they ever would

reagan had such a huge heart here. you see in his diary entries and his remarks that were never shared before hand. it was real anguish for these guys in these families. he met with them there. that was camp lejeune. he met with them privately. he hugged a lot of the family, nancy did as well. they just had tremendous heart. just reading that speech, that night, that was hard to get through. it was the first time it had been uttered aloud. it was written in a diary, with notes that were never really used. it was hard to just get through it, all those years later. there's so much emotion in the words. it is hard to say out loud, that night. is:my next question you may not be able to answer, i don't think you covered in your book. i was curious, we learned so much from 9/11, that those that went in, the firefighters and first responders, to do the recovery, years later, they are dealing with cancer, or other things from all the concrete and dust that they inhaled. i was curious if you had any interactions with family mem

the reagan reversal. reagan wrote in his presidential diary that he felt greatly depressed after watching it and those are his words. as you know, before then, with the fbi and all, reagan's position was american supremacy no matter what, he was pro nuclear weapons and pro buildup. he was for more power, more nuclear power. >> absolutely. >> and he changed his position after seeing that. he reached out to gorbachev and because of that, the two leaders communicated and if there's a takeaway on the book, it's about communication, right? learn to communicate. learn to communicate. that's the best. don't learn to fight. learn to communicate. reagan and gorbachev communicated and as a result the summit, the world went from its high point insanity. >> yes, 70,000 nuclear weapons in the world. almost equally divided between the u.s. and the soviets. >> and 70,000, that's astonishing. >> yes. >> and now, 12,500 approximately today. right. many people say-- some people would say that's 12,500 too many, but my, god

i read the mail that came in to president reagan and help to prepare responses. samples of letters that went to him. i really understood the connection between the public being able to have access to their public officials. later went on to help write proclamations, something linda just alluded to as well. eventually i went into the personnel office which i did for 5 1/2 years through the end of the reagan administration and all of the george hw bush administration. that was an incredible opportunity to understand the operations of the white house, knowing what is happening from east to west and every inch of the 18 acres there. fast-forward to 2000, i went back to the white house to help in the transition. all of us remember the 2000 election was one that we did not know for 5 1/2 weeks who the president was going to be. the team around governor george w. bush asked if fueled hands who had worked in the white house to come back and help. i wanted to help set up a personnel operation and transition people that were coming off the campaign. i never intended stayin

have a great night, everyone >> on june 6, 1984 the 40th anniversary of d-day president ronald reagan came to the cliffs of normandy battalion of army rangers who had scaled those cliffs under enemy fire among the millions, who gave their lives to liberate europe these are the boys of when to hold these are the men who took the cliffs. these are the champions who helped free a continent these are the heroes who helped end a war to his fellow americans that day to give meaning to those heroes sacrifice by never turning their back on the world ever again we in america have learned bitter lessons from two world wars it is better to be here ready to protect the peace then to take blinds shelter across the sea america had been protecting the peace with powerful alliances for decades. we've learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments within expansionist intent reagan was expressing a hallowed american ideal a bipartisan value shared by every president since world war ii. from this day forward, it's going to be only america first unt

when we busted the unions, it was ronald reagan and the republicans. why won't you bring up the disaster when he ran up the rent? those people, when they came on here, millions and millions of them. they were competing with the workers who were already over here. they brought in slave labor from mexico and central america. that is what's the killer. it was because nobody could compete so they could fire workers and they had seniority and years on them. they shutdown those factories. it was way before nafta. host: james, we will get a response. guest: thank you for your call. it did begin before nafta. i think ronald reagan was such an important figure in destroying the labor movement. those of us who were alive then remember the breaking of the air traffic controllers union when he fired more than 11,000 air traffic controllers for going on strike. ironically, the union had endorsed him for the 1980 campaign. i agree that all of these forces were in motion before nafta. so, you know, it is part of a long story. both parties ultimately were responsible

michael reagan, everybody. >> with that, right on time. i want to thank the two of you, not just for coming, but for writing this book. i truly recommend everyone who was not purchased want to go to our store and purchase one. they will sign them for you. >> one thing, before everybody takes off, maybe we can do a photo? whatever we do next, before we move on, thank you for being here. i really appreciate you guys taking the time tonight. it means a ton to us. i also want to say something about those 18, 19, 20-year-olds , men and women who are standing in checkpoints around the world because the sun is going down here and it is coming up somewhere else around the world and there is that same 18, 19, 20-year-old kid and they are standing at a checkpoint right now and they're watching that truck approach and they have that rifle in their hands and they have their finger on the trigger and they are the final decision maker. let's keep them in our thoughts and prayers and thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> that was a great way to end

the bush administration, the reagan administration. and then you were in the bush to administer nation and then chief of to first lady laura bush and all of your work led to your creating and directing the legacies of america's first lady's initiative at american university. and you also serve as the executive in residence at the center for congressional and presidential studies. you on many boards. and i think for this organization, it's important that one of those is the white house historical association. you've been the author of two books and in fact, two of those books you have coauthored authored with our final panels, which we'll get to in just a minute. but of those text, which i just finished reading, is, remember the first lady's, but you also wrote a pioneering textbook on the first lady's, which is for college courses. now, you were selected to work in the white house, not once, but three times, and especially your responsibilities as the chief of staff for laura bush. how did you acquire position and did you see changes i

the reagan library. but in the past, it was always for his thriller or fiction novels. and today we're joined not only by him, but by coauthor james scott, because wrote their first nonfiction book together, the first in a new series on terrorism. they are here to discuss beirut, the 1983 marine barracks bombing and the untold origin story of the world on terror a book which provides comprehensive examination of devastating terrorist attack on the us marine corps in beirut, lebanon, which resulted in the greatest single day loss of life. marines since world war two's battle of iwo jima. the book examines the first attack on marines at the us embassy in beirut in april of 83. and then the more attack on marines at their barracks in the lebanon airport in october of 83. now the reagan library holds significant relevance for this event. president response to the 1983 beirut bombing underscored america's resilience and commitment to peace. his efforts to support the lebanese people and maintain u.s. diplomat