we all know about strom thurmond's career. i was disappointed at the wall street journal thought that this man, who had a close relationship with thurmond, had been employed by him. he had missed that in the review. they thought he was the best person to evaluate the book for their readers. >> who had no knowledge that you had no knowledge of that being done at a time, they didn't tell you that, that he was going to be the person. do you have any other papers, like the new york times or anything? prof. crespino: the washington post and washington monthly. google "strom thurmond's america." you should. [laughter] >> was next? -- what is next? prof. crespino: i just finished this one. i'm still trying to figure it out. thank you all for coming out. it has been a real pleasure. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> i see enjoying the fabric of our country and how things work. i had no idea they did history. it gives you

that was the 100th birthday of strom thurmond. he is the only united states senator to live to the age of 100 while serving in the senate. the senate wanted to pay special tribute to him. there was a large birthday festivities in here, which, in itself, is a nice occasion. trent lott came to pay homage to senator thurmond. in his remarks, he praised senator thurmond's career in the senate and recalled in 1948, senator thurmond ran for president against harry truman. >> i want to say this about my state. when strom thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. we are proud of him. [applause] >> if the rest of our country had followed our lead, we would not have all these problems. don: which seems a relatively mild statement except that senator lott forgot senator thurmond ran as the segregationist candidate in 1948 against truman, who wanted to integrate the armed services. as a result, there was a huge amount of pressure within senator lott's party for him to step down as the leader of his party. eventually, he did resign as majo

best example of the change in parties was an influential politician from south carolina named strom thurmondnow he started his career in the 1930s as a democrat and he was a huge racist. in fact, he was so racist it was almost funny. >> not enough food for the army! the breakdown in segregation and admit them into our theater, our swimming pools and homes -- >> trevor: okay, sure, black people wanted access to your theaters and pools, but white churches? you think black people were lining up to get into white churches? church is the only thing black people have always had better than white people. like who is thinking, yeah, yeah, bad music and uncomfortable seats! i got to get me some of that, man! i got to get me some of that! sign me up! (laughter) but thing is strom trom was among the most racist in his generations and in the '60s he switched to republican to feel more welcome. they're trying to link the klan to modern-day democrats, everything's changed since then. so many people are pissed off about the argument that the klan is aligned with the democrats. because it used to be doesn't

south, louisiana had the laws, georgia had the challenges, south carolina had pitchfork intel and strom thurmond. i would say we can say and put ourselves up against theirs. >> later we will go inside the home of f scott fitzgerald to learn about the importance of montgomery. >> we show you a house that was the turning point for scott and zelda. you will find out f scott fitzgerald is more than just a writer. he is not a genius who can come up with everything on his own. he needed a partner, someone to give him a life full of ideas that he could write the great american novel. that was elza. >> we speak with fred gray about the montgomery bus boycott changing the system by the system, the life and works of fred gray". >> montgomery's pattern of segregation touched all forms of the city's life, long frustration with negro citizens erupted, riding in a bus, refused to honor the traditions of segregated seating was a protest movement headed by doctor king, then an obscure pastor of a baptist church, took the form of a boycott of the city's buses. >> if you look at the cases that i have handled sinc

senator strom thurmond, the ranking republican on the judiciary committee at the time.re is what he had to say immediately following joe biden's remarks. [video clip] president.rs of the as head of the executive branch. section two of this article grants the president power to nominate persons to fill judicial vacancies and point them -- and appoint them following advice and sena -- advice of the senate. this is a two step process. the president nominates an individual to fill a vacancy and then the senate approves before their official appointment. i am aware that they have been -- there have been administrations in the past that sought confirmation with members of congress and party leaders prior to the actual nomination. that is understandable but not mandated by article two section two of the constitution. it is my belief that the role of the senate in the confirmation process is to provide advice and consent following the president's nomination. this does not preclude a president who is so inclined from discussing a potential nominee with members of the senate. it

in the henry wallace, going back to 1948, or the strom thurmond mold, where you have someone in a establishedty that has moved out and end up running and a third party. this is the first recorded case of a hijacking of a plane being reported by the passengers in many cases. senator clinton is, to her credit, in the past 10 days or so, talking about the fact that she is not a natural candidate. that kind of his interesting, it goes a long way to helping her. it is undoubtedly the case the electorate is as unhappy as a has-been and even more so since 1992, which we forget was a rough year. buchanan challenging george bush, per wrote 19%, bill clinton elected with 43% of the vote, which is what richard nixon got in 1968. so when you have a president coming in, the winner of a general election out of 43% number, it is a sign of a deeply unhappy republic. charlie: and the indications for general election now? al: it is going to be a race to the bottom, a very negative campaign. the nbc, wall street journal poll had donald trump at 25% positive, 29% negative. pollsters that you need to go back to r

here is strom thurmond talking about him in 1968. he did not make it. [video clip] >> i did not support him when he became an associate justice. i have seen nothing since then to cause me to change my views. i believe i am strongly opposed to these legalities. writingosed to congress in the defense branch. i'm strongly opposed to this teaching in schools and colleges. i'm strongly opposed to the supreme court, the federal government invading the rights fortisstate, and justice has done these decisions. brian: similar to senator kennedy's speech. slicing and burning. really attacking him personally. in all your conversations about the court, do you ever here anything about those? gabe roth: absolutely, the fortis nomination and the bork nomination are definitely two flashpoints when you think about how the nomination process has become politicized and what chief justice roberts was talking about at the new england school of law just a few minutes ago. the folks i feel like on the cry., bork is a rallying fortis was different given his close political all

here is strom thurmond talking about him in 1968. he did not make it. [video clip] >> i did not support him when he became an associate justice. i have seen nothing since then to cause me to change my views. i believe i am strongly opposed to these legalities. i am opposed to congress writing in the defense branch. i'm strongly opposed to this teaching in schools and colleges. i am strongly opposed to communists teaching in schools and colleges. i'm strongly opposed to the supreme court, the federal government invading the rights of the state, and justice fortis has participated in decisions that do the things i just mentioned. brian: similar to senator kennedy's speech. slicing and burning. really attacking him personally. in all your conversations about the court, do you ever here any people talking about those days? gabe roth: absolutely, the fortis nomination and the bork nomination are definitely two flashpoints when you think about how the nomination process has become politicized and what chief justice roberts was talking about at the new england

less noted by the republicans is that a short time later, strom thurmond, the ranking republican on senate judiciary came to the floor and said, no, there shouldn't be an election year exception. >> i just love the way these rules come up. the hastert rule, the biden rule. it becomes cemented into history, because somebody said something. >> well, the hastert rule was actually employed. i don't think the biden rule has actually ever been employed. at least since he enunciated it in 1992. >> now it's been voiced as if it's part of the bible. thank you for coming on today. >> you bet. >> with the battle lines already drawn, there's no question it will be a struggle for president obama to get this senate to vote on and improve its nomination of merrick garland. joining me now is another veteran covering the supreme court, nbc's kelly o'donnell. kelly, this is fraught with so much effort at finding precedent. first of all, there's the biden rule. the first time the republicans have ever taken joe biden's voice as the rule of the day, but they certainly have here. i think we lost -- i guess we

he can name drop, ronald reagan and strom thurmond because he served in washington when they were bothround. so far the voters haven't taken to that argument. he's won one state, he's behind in the wisconsin polls so far. that should be a state that he would think he might be able to win. >> but if we're going to label this tough criticism, really, we've all seen 5-year-olds on the playground wage tougher criticism at each other. >> well, he said he's unmoored and not qualified to be commander in chief. that's pretty tough. >> i don't know that given what we've seen between trump and krouz in the last several weeks -- >> not as personal but he's basically saying he could not support this guy to be president, that he's the republican front-runner right now. >> i think if we're going to draw a contrast, he's going to have to draw blood at some point. >> kasich has no mathematical chance of getting to 1237, the number of delegates you need to be the republican nominee. his only hope is that if there's a contested convention it goes to round two or three, all of a sudden he could emerge as

biden saidr joe day, senatorme strom thurmond came the floor and responded to what the senator had to. kinds --ots in our art archives and you can go to our website, c-span. of -- c-span.org. ellison in bristol, connecticut, independent caller. i would just like to talk about the national election. and the lack of coverage given to bernie coverage. acumen and aas his plan for getting the country back on track, not back from whoever stole it but back and track for what america really stands for. if you leave in those things you need to vote for bernie sanders. i agree with his message, that it has to be a revolution. congress has to be stripped clean. i encourage everyone to vote for the independent and the freethinker and the guy with the plan. why waste your vote on someone you can't even consider having at your house for mail -- for a meal, a.k.a. donald trump. the financial times, the whatngton cartel, which is ted cruz has referred to, call the republican establishment in washington is now endorsing him. marking a big shift in the republican race. , who endorsedh him yesterday, mi

here is strom thurmond talking about him in 1968. he did not make it. [video clip] strom: i did not support him when he became an associate justice. i have seen nothing since then to cause me to change my views. to loose ly opposed legalities. i am opposed to congress writing in the defense branch. i'm strongly opposed to this teaching in schools and colleges. i'm strongly opposed to the supreme court, the federal government invading the rights of the states and justice fortis has participated in decisions that do the very things i just mentioned. brian: similar to senator kennedy's speech. we call it slashing and burning, really going after them personally. any -- in all your conversations about the court, do you ever here -- hear people talk about those days? gabe roth: absolutely, the fortis nomination and the bork nomination are definitely two flashpoints when you think about how the nomination process has become politicized and what chief justice roberts was talking about at the new england school of law in the clip you played a few minutes ago. the

to you about my book "strom thurmond's america." i want to begin by telling you a story, my strom thurmond refuted -- story. people down there say "let me tell you my story about strom thurmond." you cannot so a stone without hitting somebody that talks about strom thurmond. the time he did something crazy or that kind of thing. my