nixon's vice president was spiro agnew.onger forgotten, but now that we're having another first election after a new president was sworn in and the president is trying to make this election about the fear of leftist mobs and also hatred of the news media, sometimes it's tempting to think that reincarnation might be real. >> spiro agnew chose alabama, george wallace country, for his latest assault on the news media. it was the newsom people said would help republican fortunes, not only in alabama but throughout the state, where demonstrators for civil rights and peace and the so-called eastern press have never been popular. the nixon administration has denied that it's pursuing a southern strategy to build a power base in the south. the republicans know that one reason why the election last fall was close was because wallace carried five southern states. there is much support in the south for president nixon's policies in vietnam. agnew, speaking at gop rallies, isn't hurting a bit with his outspoken attack on the anti-war m

been -- spiro agnew had tremendously troubled during the riots. watch spirod me to agnew's speech. nixon sat watching the tv. , ion turned to me and said think we have ourselves a hanging judge. [laughter] >> can i interject? but yout have a slide alluded to this. when we were writing our memoirs, he talked about his big concern about reagan making a big run at the end. he was concerned about it. that is where strom thurmond came into play, the long, gray line that didn't break. >> we have three solid conservatives. , tower, andldwater strom thurmond. given his loyalty to us. at the convention they said, what do we do with thurmond? they said kick him out on a boat offshore. we have a picture of all of us in the room with nixon. the idea of breaking nixon at the convention, nixon had one thing all the primaries. a lot of conservatives stayed with reagan. it was a reagan-rockefeller effort to break nixon on the first ballot and hope the whole thing broke open. i felt that the convention started to move to reagan, the rockefeller people would come to us. if it moved to rockefeller, t

back spiro agnew, replacing him was gerald ford a well-meaning congressman. ford in 1974 finds himself thrust into the position of the presidency. ford will try as far as inflation goes on the economy, he tries to continue on the diplomatic front the work that nixon had begun dealing with the soviets. but he pardons richard nixon, which cost him some of the electorate. and under his watch in 1975, television viewers watched their tvs as the last of the refugees now are removed from saigon as north vietnamese forces take over the entire south.>> the 1976 campaign. gerald ford finds himself pitted against a fellow by the name of jimmy carter. another southerner, not just a southerner, but a southerner from georgia. jimmy carter, and this is a time magazine cover from 1971, he had been in the united states navy. he was from plains, georgia, grew up on a farm. in the navy, he had been an engineer, done submarine duty. and he would do when he gets back, he decides he has a responsibility to run for office. his early campaigns are notable. first, he runs for state

. >> so in 1968, richard nixon and spiro agnew are elected and overwhelmingly in 1972 and three intervenes when vice president agnew resigns and all of a sudden they're going to have to nominate a vice president. now, you knew your dad was on the shortlist. there was a list of about 10 names circling around andyou were away at college at this point . >> graduate school. >> did you think your father was going to be named as vice president? >> i didn't think that was goingto happen. my mother did not either . she was not feeling like that was in the future there. if you remember back then, the name that was being circulated was john conley from texas. everyone was saying he would be the new vice president and low and behold, richard nixon pivots to this general form frommichigan. and it rocked our world . >> so all of a sudden, we going to deafen the book about this about how this happened and the phone call and everything and that is just overwhelmed because she didn't expect this and thenin december 1974, , am i getting my years right? 73. he is confirmed as vice president. and he plants a

. >> even spiro agnew didn't go further. >> i go a step further. i take this very personally. a refugee from a country that obliterated the free press, killed many of them. and as a result, they led a desperate takeover without public opinion being in effect. so i don't like where we're headed in this country. i like free media. i like people who agree with me or disagree with me. but i like the fact that i live in a free environment where people can make their choices. i take this kind of line of situation very personally, chris, and i see dangers that perhaps others in this country don't see. >> i fear what you just said because when we talk about the evils of the saudi arabian royal family, and i say, well, all those guys had those romantic notions of the castro brothers and all that crap, oh, they're great, romantic heroes. i said wait a minute, they killed the people who disagreed with them. they killed them. let's go to the next issue, the question about the race down in florida. tell us about this race between desantis and the mayor of tallahassee. >> fascinating. democ

spiro agnew was the attack dog.hey would unleash him to go against the national press in a way that was shocking at the time. it was jarring to the press at the time. there are parallels with donald trump today. two or three weeks into his campaign, it was that rally down in mobile, alabama where jeff sessions was on stage. that is where he said we are bringing back the silent majority. host: you brought up west virginia in the book. it was a state that went for michael dukakis. it has since been viewed as a republican state. also in 1988, the governor of arkansas making his debut with a speech nominating michael dukakis. a speech that went on and on. after that speech, he appeared on the tonight show. [video clip] >> thank you for coming here tonight. my first question is how are you? [applause] >> fine. >> it is great to have you here. i mean that sincerely. the first time we met, he walks in and says, -- i thought it was great that you came on the show. host: steve kornacki. bill clinton receiving a lot of flak f

relationship with the press and, i think there was a feeling among the press that when the vice president, spiro agnew, resigned, ford was appointed vice president by nixon. there was a theory that nixon knew he was in trouble and he thought he would appoint ford who would be more protective of him. so i think that is one of the things that happened. then, about a month after ford became president, nixon resigned, ford became president and then ford pardoned nixon. what he said was, he was spending 25% of his time and the staff was running 25% of its time on leftover nixon matters and he needed to spend 100% of his time because the vietnam war was going on, big depression in the country and so forth. i think there's always been this view that there was a deal , that if nixon would appoint ford his vice president, then forward promise to stave nixon -- >> and did the question about your resignation -- >> the way that it affected me was -- >> you didn't resign . >> know it's the other way around. >> jerry terroir's resign because he disagreed with the pardoned. i was covering the white house and i cover

the resignation of vice president spiro agnew -- >> i will have nothing more to say. >> reporter: the congressman gerald ford of michigan. >> reporter: and that same day, a fateful court ruling. >> the u.s. court of appeals has ruled decisively against mr. nixon's position on his secret white house tapes. >> reporter: the white house tapes, potential evidence of a watergate cover-up. nixon had been fighting to keep them secret. now, a federal court ordered him to turn them over. but nixon had other plans. >> president nixon announced he will neither appeal nor comply with a federal court order to turn over the watergate tapes. the president said he will supply a summary of the tapes to the watergate committee. >> reporter: archibald cox responded in a news conference. >> in tend, i decided that i had to try to stick by what i thought was right. >> reporter: cox rejected nixon's plan, saying it violated the independence promised him by attorney general elliot richardson. the prosecutor and the president were on a collision course. >> the country, tonight, is in the midst of what may be

spiro t. agnew. after nixon picked agnew, the press went wild. why did you do this? agnew had been tremendously troubled during the riots. and so nixon invited me to watch agnew's speech. where he accepted. and it was just next him and i and -- and it was just nixon and i and nixon sat watching the tv. nixon turned to me and said, i think we've got ourselves a hanging judge. [laughter] >> can i interject here? you don't have a slide but you alluded to this. to reagan, we should have had a slide in there. when we were writing our memoirs, he talked about his big concern about reagan making a big run at the end. and then he was concerned about it. that's where strom thurmond came into play, the long, gray line that didn't break. >> there were three solid conservatives. goldwater, john tower, and strom thurmond. he had given his loyalty to us. at the convention they said, what do we do with thurmond? they said take him out on a boat and take him off where reagan can't get to him. [laughter] we have a picture of all of us in the room with nixon. the idea of breaking nixo