this is trent lott.e united states senate in the '90ss and early 2000s. represented mississippi. he got caught out on tape praising segregation, specifically he said if strom thurmond had been elected president in the 1940s when he ran for president, we wouldn't have had all of these problems over all of these years. now see strom thurmond would have fixed all these problems with a dose of good old apartheid. that would have been bet -- trent lott apologized and started off with a normal terrible political apology. i apologize to anyone who was offended. then he kept doing it over and over. he essentially decided to do over his apology. he went an an extended apology tour. he offered a thorough rejection of his own views at length. this was an interview with tv network b.e.t. >> the important thing is to recognize the hurt that i caused and ask for forgiveness and find a way to turn this into a positive thing and try to make amends for what i've said and for what others have said and done over the years.

. >> today, former senate majority leader trent lott, and former senate democratic leader tom daschle talked about issues in congress, including the affordable care act, immigration policy, eric garner decision, and the need for bipartisanship in congress. this event is an hour. hosted by the christian science monitor. [inaudible conversations] >> thank you for coming, everyone. i'm dave cook for the "christian science monitor." our guest are affiliate with the bipartisan policy center, tom daschle, trent lott, and jason grume. leader daschle was a guest speaker at the 241st and final break fast as host. the senator visit nine times before that. he is a graduate of south dakota state university, served as an intelligence officer in the air force, was a senate staffer, and won election to the u.s. house in 1978, and to the senate in '86. he became democratic leader in '9 4, serving twice. he left in the senate in 2005 and is now founder and ceo of the daschle group, a public policy adviseory, did i get that all out? >> perfect. >> senator lott managed to avoid appearing at one of our g

party trent lott arguably less than this. >> sure. >> so why would the party want to embrace -- and he was duly collected, but as its third highest member. some very high profile and face of the republican party given the party's support among nonwhite americans. >> look, foolishness does that erate to racism. harry reid said barack obama was arrestcticticulate negro. and robert bird was a recruiter for the kkk. when he left, everyone gave him a ticker tape parade leaving the is that the saying how great he was. so there has been a long line of people who said foolish things. doesn't equate to racism. and in this particular instance, the party itself of republican, we do have an issue of african americans going on nationally, but you how do we fix that. as we move forward, you'll see like for instance the 2016rd shal stage presidential stage, you'll see a complete diverse crowd. and when you're talking about the potential for hispanics for indian americans, for african-americans, for latinos running for president on the republican ticket, it will be a stark contrast to those on the

this is trent lott who are you you calling?at a disadvantage by answering the phone but i'd was interested in what they had to say. in that process i got three death threats. one from oregon and the third one so it was but remember we lost that vote on a procedural vote. the accounting i have been doing i was back this width i thought we would be able to win that bet over the weekend rush limbaugh labeled that amnesty and labor got ahold of the democrats and said no we don't want these workers coming in with visas. the democrats would come in and vote no because of labor and republicans would come in and vote no because of amnesty from rush limbaugh and i'm in the well of the senate with jon kyl, lindsey graham to notorious liberals, but also ted kennedy, diane feinstein and harry reid. the six of us were working on the boat and we lost. i was one of the most mind-boggling things i have ever seen. it is harder now i think that my attitude is why would he want to come here if all you want to do is to raise money and get reelecte

thursday, former senate majority leader trent lott and tom dashiell talk about the affordable care actic garner decision, and the need for bipartisanship in congress. this is one hour. >>ok. thanks for coming everyone, dave cook with the christian science monitor. i guess this morning are all affiliated with the bipartisan policy center. they are center co-founder trent tom dashle, and center president, jason grumet. then senate majority leader dashle was the guest speaker at bud sperling's final breakfast as host. the senator had visited nine times before that, he's a graduate of south dakota state university, served as an intelligence officer in the air force was a senate staffer and one election to the u.s. house in 1978. and the senate in '86. he became democratic leader in '94. serving both as minority and majority leader. he left the senate in 2005, and is now founder and ceo of the dashle group, a public policy advisory and baker-donaldson. did i get that out? >> perfect. >> all good. >> senator lot managed to avoid appearing at one of our intimate gatherings during his long and

if you lose the ability to keep the door open to people -- i remember one day, trent lott jumped aller me in a sunday morning talk show, said i was cting like a spoiled brat. i never will forget this in the second term. i called him on the phone. he said, my god, are you call had gone chew me out? i said, but not for what you think. he said, what do you mean? i said, you worked hard last week, didn't you? and you agreed because somebody suggested you do the sunday morning talk shows and you woke up exhausted with a headache, you were mad you had to good, they baited you when you had to go and you took the bait. he said, that's exactly what happened. how did you know that? i'm telling you this because it ade us better friends. i didn't care what he said. i cared whether we could go to ork the next week. those things i would like to help teach people. ow did mandela develop the strength to put the people who kept him in prison, 27 years, the leaders of the parties, in his government. he didn't just invite them to the inauguration, he had them in his government. we are going to have to

there's trent lott apologizing and then very quickly going away in 2002. there's not a whole lot of other political apologies. they're always disingenuous and terse. and that's why they don't work. previously unknown house republican staffer who has now, at least for a moment, become nationally famous. on wednesday, we got the traditional pardoning of the turkey ceremony. president obama pardoned two turkeys, mack and cheese. they will now get to live out the rest of their days in a turkey farm in west virginia. we all feel great about that while we eat other members of their species. it's like this pageant of mercy. president obama's daughters, sascha and male arksz, they attended the turkey pardoning. they put up a brave teenage base about the whole thing. but after it was over, they were targeted by the communications director for a republican congressman. her name is elizabeth laughton. she's communications director. and ms. laughton wrote online, dear sascha and malea, you're a part of the first family. try showing a little class. at least respect the

a group of fraternities have held former senate majority leader trent lott to lobby congress on how are congress treats rape victims, sexual assault on campus could get lost in the fallout. >> maybe it wasn't the best to no not fact-check it. to make sure somebody wasn't living 30th with jackie. that doesn't mean the story doesn't have an important role in leading forward our conversation but i think it speaks to making sure you're really careful about moving forward. we are changing a culture that doesn't want to believe victims matters. >> "america tonight's" lori jane gliha. i think a lot of the people would like all the information ton case but simply we don't have the details. especially what happened there with that fraternity. what new reaction are we getting from the greek community there? >> well, the fraternities and sororities are definitely expressing lots of angry attitude because the school had a strong reaction. >> right away. >> once that article came out. and on a national level, fraternities and sororities, felt their reputation had been damaged. before any of the resu

i say it's trent lott. who are you call? well, i had him at an disadvantage. but did i it to see what they would say. during that process, i actually got three death threats, one from my own state, chicago turned over to the f.b.i., one from oregon, and a third one. i mean, it was ugly. but remember, we lost that vote n 2007 on a procedural vote. the accounting i was doing, i was back in, i thought we were going to be able to win that. but over the weekend, rush limbaugh labeled it amnesty. , and labor got ahold of democrats and said we don't want these workers coming in ith these visas. republicans were reporting no because of amnesty from rush limbaugh, and i'm in the well the senate with jon kyl and lindsey graham, but also ted kennedy, dianne feinstein, and harry reid. the six of us working the vote, and we lost. that was one of the most mind-boggling things i've ever seen. is harder now, i think, but my attitude is why would you want to come here? why would you come sneer why wouldn't you want to make a difference? when i hear the criticism about things i

trent lott called to complain that i had to democrats -- two democrats and only one republican. moments like that count. every time you do not have complete confidence or what you are reported does not pan out completely, that is a chink in the armor. >> here is some video of you on air force one and 9/11. it is about one minute. >> i am ann compton of abc news. i have covered presidents over 40 years. today, my last ride on a -- on air force one. there is an office. we can spend the night on the plane. we haven anything else, a electrical power at our seats and television screens. 11, we used those screens to know what was happening on the ground. i have never been frightened on air force one. not in bad weather. not in trying circumstances. on september 11, we were the only airplane up there. most of the people have been dropped off. i think that, if i ever felt fear, it was the idea that the president could run and could not hide. i was not afraid for myself. i was worried about the country. >> which president traveled the most? >> gerald ford, although we only had 2.5 years,

if this turns out to be a boilerplate speech, it's a lot different nan what trent lott said he was supportingess, though frapg, we were in that post eric ericson, the conservative bloger put up saying how kwould you not know it's david duke's event. i guess we're saying this conference occurred in 2002 that duke had come within three-points of making it to a run aif for a congressional seat in louisiana. he made the gubernatorial runoff. in was a guy who definitely had a conservative political con stitch when esill in louisiana. is it plausible with a very ambitious audience wouldn't know who duke was involved with? >> i don't know he didn't know who duke was. i think that there definitely are some questions about whether or not he knew who duke was. that might go down to what his defense is here poor staff work. if he only did have one staff work who is being shuttled from event to event, he wasn't necessarily sure what groups he was speaking to. grant it that is necessarily an excuse because you probably should know who you're speaking with. i don't think there's any question he knew who da

it was the year when trent lott was the senate leader. it once and attlee, we were passing out an award. i asked charlton heston to come do it. it was a throwaway. he was in town, this was going to be 10 minutes he was going to talk. that afternoon, heston came to the hotel, he went down to the podium, and then he went up and practiced his speech. his remarks he was going to use for 10 minutes that no one was paying him for, it had no purpose other than he was doing us a favor. that evening, he came out and knocked the audience dead. , somebody,showed up and this is typical of american politicians, the champion of it was gerald ford, who never looked at his speech until after he delivered it. but trent lott showed up, they handed him the speech, and he read it, mispronouncing most of the names in the speech, and making a terrible impression. afterwards i said to him i thought about today's experience on the you have to rely same tools that child heston has to rely on. that's your ability to communicate, and you can do it. you can do it be

trent lott was driven from the field in 2001 for something less than this.me now is robert costa of "the washington post." robert, the big question is steve scalese seems to have john boehner's support as of now. but is there any chance that could change? >> congress is out of town, but once the house republicans return next week there's going to be a lot of press scrutiny. the house leadership is already preparing for this story to remain a story. >> and how does it remain a story? would it require more nings to come out about any other interactions he might have had with david duke? >> right. >> thigh ear hoping it's a one-off. there are other associations that could raise eyebrows bier the press is digging into this. >> i suppose if he has ever said he agrees with david duke on certain things if there's anything specific like that, that would change the story. >> that's right. >> that's right. he did have a relationship of sorts with a man named kenny knight who is a long-time political adviser to duke and that relationship is in the spotlight today. >> t

when trent lott had to step down. it doesn't seem to raise to that level quite yet. >> something steve scalise said on monday. he was talking about, hey, i would talk to anyone trying to make the point that this wasn't an endorsement of this point of view. he said "i spoke to the league of women voters a liberal group. i still went and spoke to them. i spoke to any group that called and there were a lot of groups calling." so league of women voters yes, not in line with steve scalise's politics but i think why is he saying this? why is he even bringing up i went and spoke to the league of women voters. isn't he kind of alienating other people too? >> it's a terrible comparison to make. we've seen an evolution of statements. from day one it was his staff saying it was a staffing error and then it evolved and i knew about it and shouldn't have done it. which one is it? there will be more questions when he knew who the group was and if he himself chose to speak with them or sought them out. there's also the story about h

. >> that was former majority republican leader trent lott giving advice to the next majority republicantch mcconnell. in just a few weeks, he will become the 20th majority leader of the united states senate, a job he has wanted for a very long time. mitch mcconnell said this, i have studied this job and reached my own conclusions about how it ought to be den. it has been a long wait. one of his strategies in pushing his agenda will be through pazing each of 12 appropriations bills and then leaving it up to the president to decide whether or not to sign those spending bills. mcconnell told the times many of my memories are not used to voting for appropriation bill, but if we're going to pursue our agenda to push back against the bureaucratic overreach seemingly on steroids for the last five or six years, we need to put appropriation bills on the president's desk and make him make a choice. joining me now is the nbc political analyst and columnist for "the washington post." e.j., it sounds like a lot of the new rules mitch mcconnell has in mind are actually the old rules that were in plac

and we had a senator, former majority leader tom daschle, former republican leader trent lott, barneythe house and there was a discussion of the filibuster there. and you can imagine the senate guys all very reluctant to change it dramatically. including me. barney frank eventually wore me down. i am now to the point where i think that 51 votes should control everything in the united states senate. and barney kept saying, we kept saying all this stuff about tradition and how it works in the senate and cool things off. and barney would just say it's democracy. he just kept saying 51 is democracy. what's wrong with democracy. and i ran out of answers for that. >> well, right now, we have to choose twheen ongoing paralysis, driven by the deep partisanship. people run on the argument that i'll pearl liez the other side and they do it under the existing senate rules. if we accept that, then we're going to accept deep dysfunction. because we simply won't address the high cost of interest rate for student loans or the high cost of college. we won't address the need to have a rebuild america

it's time to take names and kick acts trent lott. it's time that we do that and that's exactly what we intend to do. and we still have to make away by it. and roanoke is one of the best. and they have a made in america gallery. and so we are still fighting this battle and it's been a long time in doing this. but i think we are beginning to get some traction and that is a beautiful part about this. because it tells the story of what happened and i'm not opposed to globalization. i have heard wonderful things about globalization. and i want them to turn around and go to work. [applause] [applause] >> thank you, john. at this point the ushers are going to walk around and collect questions go ahead and pass them around. we will be beside you shortly. walking around, let's start off with a few questions. that is how you know how it works when you hear the story. >> is does the hair stand up on the back of my neck reign that's always a really good one. does it that make me laugh or cry, doesn't make me think of something that i hadn't thou

bob dole, trent lott and bill frist.every former president of the united states from jimmy carter to george h.w. bush, president clinton, president george w. bush and president obama all support this. so you'd think this would be a slam dunk, but there are a few that have blocked this from coming up. over 800 disability, civil rights, faith groups, 20 top veterans organizations -- i mentioned the chamber of commerce, the business round table all support this. well, it's a sad thing that on this international disability rights day that i'm sad to say that it looks like the clock is running out and that we will not even vote again on it this year, let alone adopt it. next year my friends, i will not be here. i'm retiring. next year my friends on the republican side will take over the senate. well, i hope that they will pick up on this and take this treaty, move it through their committee again and bring it out on the floor. it should not be a partisan issue. and if there are some things that need to be done with the reserv

i remember coming to the hill when trent lott was going down and it was getting worse and worse with his strom thurman comments and his spokesperson at the time, you know, if he felt really good about the information you could quote me by name. a little bit less, i could tell because he'd say, you know, as a lott aide. and then when it got really bad he'd say just quote a lott ally. you know? [ laughter] and then finally, lott aallies to give the impression he had more than one. >> another thing on our list is the use of embargoed information and the way that the administration uses that. i know the "new york times" has a full on war going on with the white house in terms of its use of embargoed information. did the bush administration used to do that? i don't know if everyone is familiar. they'll put out something in the evening that's under an embargo that's really lame. >> you know if it's embargoed it's not news. >> like it's trying to manipulate a news cycle. i don't understand it. >> so, i mean, would that be something that would be on your list? >> yes. >> of things you would

but people also do remember when senator trent lott put his foot in his mouth, trying to give some sortf tribute to strom thurman and ended up losing his leadership post. those were directly raciallyin send incendiary comments. is there anything else as national reporters dig in. the front page of the "washington post" says you confirm you addressed, quote racists. never a good headline. and saying you have love and will herd coming in two more black members of congress than the republican party had last term when it was zero. so there is an evolution here. but the history is not gone. and i think a lot of folks now are going to be giving it a close look. >> well it will be interesting. if i could real quickly, folks, it will be interesting to see if those two new black members of congress will have anything to say about it. particularly mea love and mr. hurt, whether or not they have some thoughts on this. coming into this new session. i think in the long run, though ari, this does pass. unless there is a smoking gun or more appropriately, smoking words, where the context of his speech

trent lott, all those people who wanted to be conservative republicans and tamp down the spending, i think that they destroy the republican party. but that's my room -- my opinion. host: thanks for calling him, jim, texas. caller: first time caller. thank you for my call. host: glad that you made it in, finally. caller: yeah, finally got in. harry reid in -- harry reid the progressives got the best of it because they were able to appoint as many progressive and liberal judges as they could. the american people to the worst of it for the very same reason. host: thank you for calling. back to facebook -- hi host: tom is on the line from saddle brook, new jersey. hey, tom. tom, are you there? cannot hear tom. let's try david in spirit lake, iowa. are you there, dave? caller: good morning, i'm here. i think the american public got the short end of the stick. and i believe that thanks to the democrats and lack of transparency, those examples of the irs cover-up, they could not find the e-mail records and later they find 20,000 or more? latest by dianne feinstein. she wants to get down to

trent said these are different times but i think it's going to take meaningful leadership, stepping continue plate, looking for ways to do things differently and i think he has that capacity. >> senator lott. >> i talked to mitch, as you might expect, and have over the years. i must say that majority leaders don't generally ask for advice very much. they tend to think they already know it. but having said that, mitch really does have a long record of learning, having been a staff member for john sherman cooper, and having been in the senate as long as he has been, being in leadership position, bothing a whip and minority leader, so, he knows have it can be done. and i think he'll want to take action that produces results. that's easier said than done because as we have seen, you call up a bill you have a threatened filibuster, you fill up the tree, and everything falls apart, and i'm sure he'll run into some of that. i've known mitch -- when i was in leadership, i was whip when he was minority leader the last couple of years and worked very closely with him. he knows how to get it done and i think he is determined to move things forward, and so far he has hit just the right tone, his tone

these are as trent said, these are different times but i think meaningful to take leadership stepping up to the for ways to do things differently and i think he has that capacity. >> senator lotttalked to mitch as you might expect and have over the years. that majority leaders don't generally ask for advice very much. they tend to think they already know it. having said that, mitch really does have a long record of having been a staff member for john sherman cooper been in the senate as long as he has been, being in position both as whip and minority leader. how it can be ton and i think he will want -- can can be will want toink he take actions that will produce results. i'm confident of that. is easier said than done. as we have seen over the last couple of years, call up a bill and have a threat of filibuster and fill up the tree and everything falls apart. will run into some of that. mitch, when i was, you know, in leadership i was minority leader the last couple of years and i worked very closely with him. done.ws how to get it i think he is determined to move forward and so far i think what he has had to say has tone.ust right of all of the leaders in washington right no