there are the generals: robert e. leeraveler; "stonewall" jackson; and jeb stuart; the president of the confederacy, jefferson davis; and finally, matthew fontaine maury, a somewhat more obscure figure who tried and failed to start a confederate colony in mexico. >> hayter: those monuments, in many ways, are part and parcel of what we call the lost cause. >> cooper: the lost cause, what does that mean? >> hayter: the lost cause, quite frankly, is just the confederate reinterpretation of the civil war. it's created almost immediately after the war ends by confederate leadership. it was hard for a lot of people, in my estimation, to believe that their ancestors died and-- and fought for an ignoble cause. 600-and-some-odd-thousand people died in the civil war, which is more americans than died in the second world war. and people had to make sense of that. >> cooper: believers in the lost cause who raised money to build monuments in town and cities across the country were often veterans, or their widows and children. lost cau

it might be robert e. lee in this war or that war, winfield scott. >> guest: most people have never heard of winfield scott which is a tragedy. first of all he was born in 1788. he's been around a while in the war of 1812 is a general and starts the war of 1812 in 1807 and it causes a big diplomatic staying and they have to play to down but the anecdote by the 1840s the commanding general of the united states army when the mexican war begins, scott is the leader of the troops in the field and what that means in history is who those troops in the fieldd or all of these lieutenants right out of west point are all the names you know, ulysses grant, thomas jackson longe before he was stonewalled, louis armistead, james walk straight, on and on and then one in particular, robert e. lee in a blue uniform and its winfield scott who teaches him how to be a soldier. that is a fun story to tell because it is a story nobody knows. >> host: and i think i picked up, the politics. >> guest: i don't like politics. i am not p

this is quite the case with robert e. lee. i spoke at a lot of medical conventions about civil war medicine and it does not take a genius to do because was so little was known. in march, 1863, lee suffered a heart attack, no question it was some form of a serious heart attack. and what did the physicians do? nothing. they did not know about the workings of a heart. if a man gets sick, he was start -- he is going to start feeling death. when you run into epidemics, like measles, which would take out 10% of every regiments, but you get measles, smallpox, and if you get around water, you are going to get typhoid fever sooner or later. with all of that sickness, these soldiers are scared. him him i will add another to that, my own beliefs, i think another reason soldiers were afraid of water was few could swim. they see a big stream there, and he they are frightened. so water is not your great ally in the civil war. it can be your great enemy. the fear of sickness will reside in these men constantly. man begins to feel a little bad

one of the few men who recognized this was robert e. lee. they had nothing to do with him. this came largely because on two or three occasions when lee was trying to conduct a secret movement, one of the richmond papers with take it up and give you a day by day schedule hour the army was. in my opinion, where robert e. lee gained his greatest achievements, after the war, he fought so hard for reconciliation. newspapers are good for opinion back then, and i use them for opinion, but they are short on fact. they were exaggerated. -- y's tendency was there much on african-americans or other unrepresented groups? >> the legacy project did not, and that was our greatest disappointment. it did not contain views from african-americans, other minorities were ethnic groups. it did not. manyan probably guess americans were not writing or sending letters, and in certain areas, especially in the northern areas, that was blocked off. other books controlled the atomic river, and you could put two cavalry regiments, but it is only 10 miles between the business, and you walk up the peninsul

, casting robert e lee of engineers in a blue uniform and its winfield scott who teaches lee how to be a soldier. that is a fun story to write because it's a story nobody knows. >> host: another theme that i picked up, lots of politics in there. >> i really don't like politics. i am not political in the sense that, i've had people say to me it bothers me. people say it's sort of a nudge nudge, wink wink, are you really talking about today when you talk about whoever? dwight eisenhower or somebody. no, not at all. yes, in every war there is politics. who makes the war?the politicians. who fights the war? the people fighting it have little to say about it but the mexican war is a perfect example. winfield scott perfectly cut himself off with any communication with washington. he and the president pulled can't stand each other so scott wants nothing to do with it. he's not going to take his orders from washington so he cuts off all communication, march is in and could care less what anybody in washington is saying. it's a little harder to get away from that now that's as a little bi

robert lee? >> guest: i knew this was coming. it's a hot button topic today. robert eee the man to write him as a character and get into said on a very personal level this is a man with seven children and get advice constantly to every one of them. his letters are almost telling his children what you should and should not do because he's never home. his wife is a tragic figure. very lee is an unhappy woman who hates the fact that her husband is never home and she lets him know that which is interesting. as a general in the field lee is i wouldn't say he's unparalleled. i think grant is a better general and i think sherman was a better general but only allows the confederacy to survive for as long as he does because he knows how to retreat. that is not a slam. he knows that he doesn't have the manpower and doesn't have the arm especially when he's up later in the war against grant and he knows. he knows that i use it as the title of the third book from abram lincoln's gettysburg address but lee understands is meant to give the last full measure if they're going to survi

[laughter] >> guest: i agree about robert e lee. it is not that simple cut and dry good guy or bad guy i start off talking about him saying as a human being as a man of integrity it is hard to fault him but he just ended up clearly on the wrong side of history but johnston is a character in the fourth book of that series that deals with sherman's march actually april 9, 1865 johnston offers a surrender to sherman in north carolina and people don't realizen' that. but he understands as he backs up toward atlanta and is driving jefferson crazy. he isn't socking sherman in the job and instead master of the tactical retreat. because it is a joke in the richmond newspapers he is so good at retreating eventually he will have the army in bermuda. i am not making that up. the people just can't read about another retreat. johnston understands and backs up so sherman is a better general and johnston knows there is limited resources sherman knows exactly what he is doing at the end of the day johnston is relieved of command no unfortunately hi

perspective of an african-american mother or father trying to explain to their fifth grade daughter why robert e. leetop of our city. can you do it? can you do it? can you look into the eyes of this young girl and convince her that robert e. lee is there to encourage her? do you think that she feels inspired and hopeful by that story? do these monuments help her see her future with limitless potential? have you ever thought? have you ever thought that if her potential is limited, yours and my potential, my limitless potential as well? >> powerful stuff. now mayor landrieu's book about his journey to this decision is being published this week. "in the shadow of statues, a white southerner confronts history." the mayor joins me live from new york. welcome to the program. >> thank you so much. that piece that you just did was so powerful and it brought back so many memories for me. >> it's quite amazing to see you standing there. remind us of the context in which you made that speech. because there was an enormous national crisis around that. >> well, the context was that, as you know, katrina destroyed

i think it is a matter of time, before thomas jefferson gets put inam that same place as robert e leent including fdr hailed as one of the greatest generals and christian gentlemen, that's fdr commemoration of robert e lee. it is a wild territory. i don't know where it ends. >> i would have to disagree it is a slippery slope if we continue to put these individuals these confederate generalon as thomas jefferson. they are not in similar categories as thomas jefferson. you have individuals who really founded our country, christian principles and robert e lee democrats who look to destroy the fabric of our country. and african-americans. >> he didn't own slaves his wife did. >> african-americans see this as a problem, because you see many that celebrate this and not put it in the proper categorization if you put in the museum by all means. we can't erase our history certainly not. we should not celebrate in public squares and allowing for people t to think there is nothg wrong. >> laura: should we rename washington, d.c. >> you know, just going back to. >> he owned slaves not too far fro

yet, but i think it's a matter of time before thomas jefferson gets put in that same place as robert e. leesidents including fdr hailed as one of the greatest generals we have ever had. one of the greatest christians gentlemen we have ever had. that's fdr's commemoration of robert e. lee. this is a wild territory we are in. i don't know where it ends, guys. >> i would have to disagree with that. i think it's a slippery slope if we are continuing to put these individuals, these confederate generals in similar categories as thomas jefferson. they are not in similar categories as thomas jefferson. you have individuals who really founded our country, christian principles. you talk about robert e. lee, democrat who lived to destroy the fabric of our very country. yet. >> laura: he didn't own slaves his wife did though. >> african-americans see this as a problem because you see many that celebrate this. and not put it in its proper categorization. if you want to put it in a museum by all means. we can't erase our history. i understand that. certainly not. we shouldn't be celebrating it in public

union, the first to call for ending slavery, every american knows the name of his great revenue, robert e. lee, who tried to shatter the union. few americans know the name of richard henry lee, who spent his life creating the union. how could that be? after you read about him in this book you'll be as shocked as i was after i wrote it. several factors beyond anyone's control came into play. first of all, lee's home. his plantation. was on a desserted stretch of -- deserted stretch of lan on an isolated cliff over the potomac ure if. downstream from neighbors, schools, churches or town. and mt. vern mon was and is only about ten miles from alexandria. jefferson's monticello in charlottesville and the university of virginia. both homes were centers of political and social activities during washington's and jefferson's lifetimes, and became the targets of vast restoration efforts after the deaths of their owners. jefferson's daughter formed a foundation that exists to this day. preserving and protecting monticello. washington's home was sold to a group of ladies, patriotic ladies from the south w

. >> robert e. leee from the army when, all of a sudden, news comes in that you have this raid in harpers ferry. robert e. lee's around. "okay, let's get him to do it." >> take the marines from the naval yard. put an end to this. >> yes, mr. president. indistinct shouting ] [ gunshots, >> remember, remember what you're fighting for! remember our cause! you will fight as free men! >> how many? >> it doesn't matter how many. just fire at them! >> outgunned and outnumbered, brown's last resort is a truce, sending aaron stevens and his own son, watson, to negotiate. >> watson. stevens. take this. tell them we will trade the hostages for our safe passage out of here. >> hey! don't shoot! don't shoot! don't shoot! coming out! >> [ coughs ] >> forward, march! halt! about-face! >> give him surrender terms. >> yes, sir. >> if you surrender now, your lives will be spared. it is to be an unconditional surrender -- >> there shall be no surrender! >> [ coughs ] >> we have but one life to live and once to die. but if

. >> robert e. lee the army when, all of a sudden, news comes in that you have this raid in harpers ferry. robert e. lee's around. "okay, let's get him to do it." >> take the marines from the naval yard. put an end to this. >> yes, mr. president. indistinct shouting ] [ gunshots, >> remember, remember what you're fighting for! remember our cause! you will fight as free men! >> how many? >> it doesn't matter how many. just fire at them! >> outgunned and outnumbered, brown's last resort is a truce, sending aaron stevens and his own son, watson, to negotiate. >> watson. stevens. take this. tell them we will trade the hostages for our safe passage out of here. >> hey! don't shoot! don't shoot! don't shoot! coming out! >> [ coughs ] >> forward, march! halt! about-face! >> give him surrender terms. >> yes, sir. >> if you surrender now, your lives will be spared. it is to be an unconditional surrender -- >> there shall be no surrender! >> [ coughs ] >> we have but one life to live and once to die. but if we lo

tthony, does this mean th white house is going to change its approach and strategy to the robert e. leegation? anthony: it is possible. john dowd has been the top lawyer since last summer, and he counseled that they would coerate with robert mueller's investigation, that they should go abondeyond because the quicker they get this over, the more they can get this all behind them. growg tired of that advised, iwhich is why the reportsth are john is leaving. ti'onalm,donald trump say, io'fa lawyer, i fbir conspiracy against donald tthis a chfge o from the go alongavget along webeen seeing. irectid be taking? anthony: i think it does. we know that robert mueller has been looking at donald trump's businesseangs with russia, and is looking into other countriesti influ -- .nfluence jane: former vice president joe biden getting into a strange verbals that thatnvve threats and violence. what was that about? [laughter] anyony: joe biden said if t were both in high school and he heard donald trump talking about women that he has in the past, he would take him behind the gym and beat him up. donald

>> well, in the sense that-- that robert e. leea message to the rest of the country, and to all the people that lived here, that the confederacy was a noble cause. and that's just not true. >> cooper: this is incredible. mayor landrieu agreed to show us

and he said i'll help you but you need to do something for me, i think you should take down the robert e. lee. my first reaction is why would i do that? he said, well, do you know who put him up or why they're there? and he said can you imagine them from my perspective and what i think about them and how they made me feel? the next thing he said was lewis armstrong left the city because of those statues and right away i felt very silly, my head felt like it exploded because that's the explanation of the great diaspora, 500 million americans left the south. can you imagine how much we lost with all that raw talent, people who were doctors, lawyers, musicians left and took their tall don't new york, detroit, chicago and los angeles and we're the worse for it. the message of the book is really an invitation of people to be open to the fact that because we made the mistake and can't admit it that we are the ones losing not just african-americans who have been sent away because the country is better when we understand and go towards diversity because diversity is a strength not a weakness, it adds

in early september 1862, as robert e. lee's army of northern virginia marched north ward abolitionists continued to question lincoln's fitness to the president. then the union field battle victory on september 17th, gave lincoln the opportunity to issue his preliminary emancipation proclamation. in it he proposed only to free slaves in areas under federal control. and he proposed federal government aid for gradual emancipation combined with ex pateuation of african-americans in slave labor states to either return to the union by january 1st, 1863 or had remained loyal to the union. therefore, abolitionist reacted cautiously, at least two of them characterized a preliminary emancipation proclamation as a design to bribe states to return to the union rather than to achieve urin achieve universal e man patient. lincoln's december 1862 annual message produced a more thoroughly abolitionist reaction. in the december message, lincoln called on congress to provide a plan for gradual compensated emancipation combined with ex pateuation

in early september, 1862, as robert e. lee's army of northern virginia marched northward, abolitionists continued to question lincoln's fitness to be president. then the union battlefield victory at antietam on september 17 gave lincoln the opportunity to show his emancipation proclamation. in it he proposed only to free slaves in areas under confederate control and he proposed federal government aid for gradual emancipation combined with the ex-patriot rati -- e e ex-patriot united nations or who would return to the union. therefore abolitionists acted cautiously. two of them characterized the emancipation proclamation as a designed t to bribe the seceded states to return to the union wrath earn than achieve universal emancipation. lincoln's december 1862 message provoked a more thorough negative reaction as they worried he would back off from issuing a final emancipation proclamation. in the december message, lincoln called on congress to provide a plan for gradual, compensated emancipation. it's likely that abolitionist conta

this used to be the home of robert e. lee jackson's hon. >>> rescuers on the scene of a plane from bangladesh crashed and burned. it was carrying 71 passengers. >>> a helicopter crash in new york city, five people died when the health considerate i think up in the east river right off manhattan. all passengers died the pilot survived. tom costello on the scene to tell us more about it. >> reporter: imagine the terror of being inside a health court harnessed in. suddenly the chopper crashes into the water, turns up side down and sinks and your strapped in and trapped inside and to have all of it captured on video. it happeneding over night, a deadly helicopter crash in new york city's east river. the incident caught on a bistanner's cell phone. the pilot reported engine failure moment before bringing the chopper down into the water where it suddenly turned up side down. >> the call of a helicopter did a dive those into the river. >> reporter: the helicopter sunk with five passengers and pilot on board. emergency response units

he recently took 60 minutes where the statues of general robert e. leetle of liberty place monument. that statue commemorated an attempt by white supremacists to overthrow the government after the civil war. mayor landrieu discusses the path towards removing the monuments in his new book "in the shadow of statues, a white southerner confronts history." he joins us at the table. hello, white southerner. >> good morning. how are you? >> i was so moved by your book. i have to say -- i was. i was very moved by it. there were so many things in it i didn't know, didn't really think about until i was reading your book, but this all started from a conversation with quinton marcellus, who is an old friend of yours. >> it was. a portion of the city was destroyed by katrina. thank the rest of america for helping us stand back up. as we were being the city back and reconstructing it, the mantra was don't put it back like it was. put it back the way it should have been if we got it right the first time. as we began to prepare for our 300th anniversary, which is in a

was respected by many people in the south because of his generous treatment that appomattox of robert e. lee and the other confederates. in some ways, expectations were so high, grant had achieved so much during the war that the expectations were high when he became president. it would have been impossible for anyone to meet them. any failure, any falling below those expectations turned out to mill.st for his enemies' assetr institutional working in's favor was that for the first six years of his ministry, he did have a majority in congress held by his political party. two years, the democrats have the house of representatives. having republicans in control for six years did not afford an -- did afford a greater opportunity to achieve his legislative goals. thater power he wielded other presidents had used was patronage power. tont realized he was going have to forge alliances with men in congress. one way was to grease the wheels using patronage, honoring senators in congress recommendations for appointees to the bureaucracy. they used that kind of recognition to build up their own politica

literally in charlottesville, virginia, protesting fans to remove statue of confederate general robert e. leet satellite into space, nearly the size of a bus. the rocket blasted off after cape canaveral in florida. the falcon 9 rocket carried a massive communication satellite that provides television, broadband and other service ts new york, europe and africa. space ex did not attempt to land the rocket back on earth as it normally does because of unfavorable weather conditions. >> time for a boost, hoda morning boost. >> let's idot. something unique about bond between young athletes and coaches who push and inspire them to excel. that was on display. final season for the university, the last college game for all-time scoring champ tyler nelson. in the final moments head coach calls him over and there was a beautiful tearful embrace in front of the crowd. that hug brought back hours of practice, road trips and lessons learned in victory and defeat. it was a beautiful moment. like a rudy moment. >> heck of a hug there. >> we've got a lot more ahead, including did she ace it? savannah will tell

he said,'ll help you but you ought to think about taking down the robert e. lee statue.ut who put i there and what impact it has. and the next thing that exploded my brain was, you know, louis armstrong left here because of that statute. after that, i realize they fled the civil war and it troubled me greatly and i told him i would look into it and i did. >> tell me. put it in context why it is so painful. >> when you see it from whenton's eyes or the eyes of a young african-american girl that's 60% african-american, those monuments were put up by people for a reason, which was to send a message that notwithstanding the fact that the confederacy lost the war, that that idea was still in the control of the south and much like jim crow law, just like separate but equal, much like laws that prohibited african-americans from following whites in cars on the highway and passing them, these were put up for the simple purpose of revering the confederacy, which, atz you know, was designed the destroy the nation, which >>> well, this morning on "the dish" chef and food writer davi

lee is here with us. national political reporter, the co-author of our exclusive nbc news report from just last night on robert mueller asking witnesses if trump knew with these hacked democratic e-mails before they were released. also back with us, jeremy bash, former chief of staff at the cia and pentagon. and we welcome back to the program, a federal prosecutor and a justice department veteran. welcome to you all. carol, about tonight's story, what is its central impact the your view? >> well, as you mentioned, this hacking and leaking strategically is the worst part. so this is significant that we knew this was happening. if mueller decides to move forward with an indictment, to me the key question is whether or not there are any americans that are tied to this. it is one thing to indict lugss will probably never be extradited and stand trial in the united states. it is one thing if there are americans named or unnamed, should he decide to do an zpimt there could be strategic reasons why he wouldn't necessarily name an american who was part of hacking and leaking campaign. >> it could give away, he could want to hold back on that to try to pressure somebody, to try to cooper

robert mueller is asking witnesses if mr. trump had advance knowledge about e-mails stolen from the dnc and the clinton campaign. that reporting comes from our own colleagues, katy tur and carol lee. "the washington post" reporting tonight mueller is also looking at trump's apparent efforts to oust attorney general jeff sessions from his post. just today, the president said his own attorney general was disgraceful. and then tonight, the attorney general, jeff sessions, the very man, shows up in a very public, high-end d.c. restaurant, and he brings along a very special guest. axios describes it this way, a show of solidarity with deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, who is overseeing the mueller investigation. then late this evening, "the new york times" is on the board with reporting that jared kushner's family real estate business received hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from citigroup and apollo global management after those two companies' leaders met with kushner at the white house. we'll have more again on each of these stories as we span across the next hour. we will begin, however, with a big change involving the president's inner circle. hope hicks, easily the

e parton, but ts celebrating her love of books. >> ♪ in my tennessee >> chris: it's a story that begins back when s w 1 of 12 chy mounds of east tenness daughter of robert leehad an education. a-determiner >> chris: fast-forward to 1995 when the country to start the imaginatieeon books tn in her hometown. over t has spread across the country and ov who sign up from birth until they kindergarten. what does it mean to a child to them in their own name? feel sp. but of course it makes them want all about, learn to read it. >> chris: local communities pay book but dolly square pays for sending out more than a million helps cover through our companies and concerts and even a children's >> millions of dollars. >> chris: it's not important to you? >> it's veryof the many things , this is the one that is nearest and dearest m heart. >> chris: dolly has been performing for morear she's won a grammy's and is in the country musicbut she shows f slowing down >> it's my gift, it's my joy, it's my job, and it's do. i never think about that i should quit it. c us back to the imagination library. i undgotten a nickname from this program. >> on the book lady. know? >> we ar