robert s. mcdonald is a professor of history at the united states military academy where he has taught since 1998. he is a graduate of the university of virginia, oxford university, and the university of north carolina at chapel hill where he earned his phd. a specialist on thomas jefferson and the early republic, he has published several journals and other essays. and is the author and editor of several books on jefferson and including founding west point, light and liberty, thomas jefferson and the power of knowle

please give a warm welcome to robert mcdonald. [applause] >> thank you also much for coming and being here tonight. thank you, andy for your wonderful introduction, but he has blown my cover somewhat. i would like to stand before you as the objective historian without a dog in this fight, but i have to admit i have a warm feeling for thomas jefferson. jefferson andd the story thickens. my wife and i met at monticello. [laughter] where she was employed as a research associate. we started working on a project andther and started to date i decided i wanted to propose marriage on jefferson's birthday. which is april 13. the only problem was the year we got engaged, 2001, april 13 fell on a friday. i'm not a particularly superstitious person, but i thought maybe that was not a good gamble to take, so i propose on saturday, april 14, but the following year, we did get married on april 13 and a couple of years after that, our son was born and we named him jefferson. then two years and one week after that, our daughter was warned and we c

robert s. mcdonald is a professor of history at the united states military academy where he has taught since 1998. he is a graduate of the university of virginia, oxford university, and the university of north carolina at chapel hill where he earned his phd. a specialist on thomas jefferson and the early republic, he has published several journals and other essays. and is the author and editor of several books on jefferson and including founding west point, light and liberty, thomas jefferson and the power of knowledge, and confounding father. copies of which he will be happy to sign for you after the lecture. he recently accepted an invitation to serve on the editorial advisory board of our own virginia magazine of history and biography. we are happy to have him. he currently lives in caldwell on hudson, new york. with his wife christine and their children, jefferson and grace. please give a warm welcome to robert mcdonald. [applause] professor mcdonald. thank you all so much for coming. blown my cover

secretary robert mcdonald as head of the veterans health administration. after being nominated by president obama. and may i add, he left a lucrative private sector job to take a huge pay cut and join the v.a. it is no surprise that a number of veterans service organizations actively support his nomination. although progress has been made in recent years, there are still challenges at the v.a. we need to continue to address. i worry about the veterans' health care, education, homelessness, accountability, and a host of other issues, and i look forward to working with dr. shulkin on these matters. but we must not forget that overall in terms of health care the v.a. has consistently found to provide care in key areas better than or on par with care in the private sector. it is significantly more cost-effective as well. and most veterans across the country prefer their veterans-centered health care that they receive at the v.a. despite what some may claim, most of them do not support privatization, and i want to clear that this includes a myriad of efforts un

murray mcdonald calling the "comedian" it sputters along with little spark and jesse has singer writes robertre of a dirty grandpa than a king of comedy. >> oh, really? from the little tease we saw there, it looked good. >> apparently those were the only comedic parts of that entire flick. >> that is the news for this half hour. >> remember to follow us on facebook at wnnfans.com. it's friday. friyea. >>> this morning on "world news now," the president's tough message to iran. >> abc news has learned that the trump administration intends to place new sanctions on iran as the president says nothing is off the table, including military action. meanwhile, the white house is changing its stance on another key issue in the middle east. >> and over on capitol hill, a rare early morning vote is set over the controversial education secretary nominee, the polarizing figure barometering a flood of phone calls urging congress to deny her that position. this as the house votes to overturn a law barring some mentally ill from buying guns. details ahead. >>> foul call? a junior high school student hoping t