at the washington examiner magazine jay caruso. what are you hearing from republicans about the question or, sorry, i should say the ousting of lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, the recall of ambassador sondland, especially when you juxtapose that with the tweet coming out from donald trump jr. saying the quiet part that's supposed to be in their minds out loud? >> well, this is typical of donald trump, people i've spoken to say this is what donald trump likes to do. look at what he did at the state of the union address, any good will that he had coming out of that is pretty much gone going into -- you know, from his behavior at the prayer breakfast to his little victory speech later on to firing -- firing people that testified against him. now, you go back to the whole idea the president has every right to do that, these are people that serve at his pleasure to there's nothing illegal or untoward in that

d.c., managing editor at the "washington examiner" jay caruso. good to have you with us. so in the few minutes before i came to you, we have been updated that michael bloomberg has in fact qualified according to the latest poll that he will appear on tomorrow's debate stage that we are here hosting at msnbc in nevada. i'm curious now to get your thoughts about the significance of this. michael bloomberg is confirmed to appear for tomorrow's debate stage. >> well, it's significant in that bloomberg is finally going to have to answer to his rivals. so far he's basically poured hundreds of millions of dollars into ads. it's worked in some respect, national polls now, he's third. he's bypassed, you know, pete buttigieg, he's bypassed amy klobuchar. he's sitting there this third place now. now is going to be the time he's finally going to have to face scrutiny about stop and frisk, other policies, things that he has said, what he's planning on doing. there hasn't been a lot of details, most of his ads have been attack ads on donald trump,

managing editor at the washington examiner magazine jay caruso. what are you hearing from republicans about the question or, sorry, i should say the ousting of lieutenant colonel

is think americans really care about ukraine of course the daunte is there are so from the washington examiner but ukraine from my command exactly ukraine is important as a poor against russia so let me remind you of another phrase from then super warsi who hate spawn payola drum so much about nancy pelosi never the less value or go she said russia it's about russia it's not about ukraine it's about crush invading eastern ukraine all roads lead to pollution understand that well everyone understands they're all wrong to basically lead to the people who made the queen ukraine. carpetbaggers and follow exactly are the carpetbaggers that followed and it is expression of humor areas of the article by us for members that your brain william taylor in the new york times where he writes if you believe washington examiner that a russian triumph in ukraine will last in earth shared the real effects on the health of other western democracies if ukraine falls the civilized world falls with it and of what is what does fall mean well we were in the definition of let's let me remind you what is your green in

. >> joining us from washington deputy news editor for the "washington examiner" david market, seems like former joe biden fighting for his life, considering the fact he came in fourth place as we're seeing tha iowa results still come in, david. talk about some of the criticisms we're hearing from the vice president with regard specifically to bernie sanders and mayor pete buttigieg attacking the former mayor because basically he's saying he doesn't have enough experience to take on the job of president of the united states, and bernie sanders of course calling him a democratic socialist. >> it's not joe biden's style to be an attack dog. he built his senate career in delawareca over 36 years, kind being a nice guy. he was that way also as two term for vice president under barack obama, but he's in the fight of his political life. he sees this thing slipping away to bernie sanders, pete et buttigieg, perhaps others. he's doing what any candidate does when they're cornered. he's getting personal about it, and we'll find out soon enough whether or not that works. >> really quickly, dav

i would like to remind everybody of a "washington examiner" article in 2016. it explains the truth of a health care system in cuba. two-tier system were the haves. the cuban insiders like castro and his cronies experienced fine care. and the have nots, that means everybody else, would have trouble finding even an aspirin. members of congress should be called out when they mislead the american public. that's why you'll see today mario diaz-balart will be introducing a resolution condemning standards common. specially for-- specifically for disregarding the history of what's happening in cuba. the human rights abuses. the forced indoctrination and authoritarian actions on the policies of the castro communist ictatorship in cuba. that goes to say the american people deserve more. this is nothing more than a dereliction of duty and i expect all members to work together to put the public first and, of course, and foremost, their safety. let's open it up for questions. yes, sir. reporter: last night the president said that now is not the time to plan travel restrict

we also want to welcome our new partners, the washington examiner.hey will be publishing our es says on their website. one a day for the next 12 days. they have run an editorial today. also all of our essays are 1776unitedur website states.com. you can read the essays. i also want to thanks thank our sponsors. the reason that we are gathered to address the 1619 project, the good news is that it has stimulated a much needed debate in the black community. the quality of life in the black kmoount has been served over the past two centuries with the quality of the debate within. during the 19th century, there were three areas, one, there were those who believe in recolonization that we should return to africa. this was embraced by president lincoln. the great fabric. he second is insurrectionists. att turner, the third were accommodationists, and this debate was in the black community service as well. the 20th century the debate occurs of the civil rights commitment. in the 1960's we had our own tea party movement within the civil rights movement. when e

joining us from washington, d.c., deputy news editor for the washington examiner, david mark, good to have you with us. lots of movements, president trump's personal lawyer and former mayor of new york city rudy giuliani went after bloomberg on stop and frisk. what more can you tell us about that? >> well, this is a reminder that before rudy giuliani was president trump's personal lawyer, he was actually a pretty highly regarded two-term mayor of new york city which included a lot of rather aggressive police and crime fighting tactics. one of those was indeed the forerunner of stop and frisk which critics unfairly targets minorities and contenders say it helped to draw down crime considerably in the nation's largest cities. giuliani sees a destruction of his own legacy of mayor and a leading contender for the democratic nomination. it's a two for one deal there in criticism. >> what do you make of the democratic hopefuls piling on bloomberg? >> it shows that they are quite concerned about him, and if anything, i'm surprised it took this long. his basically bottomless bank account has

we also want to welcome our new partners, the "washington examiner." they will be publishing rsas on their website starting today, one a day for the next 12 days, and they have an editorial today. also all of the hour essays are listed on their website, 1776 unites.com. you can read the essays. also want to thank our sponsors, greg coons who couldn't be your but has a representative and also jim forrest who is one of our great supporters to enable us to do this. the reason that we are gathered to address the 1619 project, the good news is that it has stimulated and much-needed debate within the black community. the quality of life in the black community has been served over the past two centuries but the quality of the debate within. during the 19th century, latter 19th century, there were three areas. one, there were those who believed in recolonization, that we should return to africa. this was briefly embraced by president lincoln. but the greatest advocate was marcus garvey. the second, lancer wretchedness, and they were for violet matt turner, rem

. >> joining us onset, msnbc legal analyst, danny cevallos, and managing editor at the "washington examiner" magazine, jay caruso. jay, let me begin with you first of all if i can in d.c., how might president trump's potential senate acquittal expected to take place wednesday afternoon impact the relationship between republicans and democrats. when you kind of look at some of these statements we have been playing for you. some people saying it's inappropriate. what he did was wrong, not removal, let the american people decide. >> yeah, i think that it's interesting, republicans probably would have done better had they said that right from the start. had they said, hey, what the president did here was probably not in the best interest of the country. and it was wrong. it was inappropriate, but i don't think it's worthy of removal. instead they kind of had to be silent up until the point where we're about ready to have a vote. how it's going to affect the relationship between republicans and democrats, i don't know. this is washington, d.c., you know, these people have been through a lot. the

. >> joining us now, managing editor of the washington examiner magazine, jay caruso. great to have you with us this monday morning. let's talk about the outcome of the caucuses. interesting for joe biden. first what do you make of bernie sanders win notably with young and hispanic voters and the way the coalition looks. how does he propel this momentum going forward. >> the big thing is sanders beating the polls by 12 points. he's got 47%. that's a huge victory for him. how much it affect going forward, i'm not really sure, especially in south carolina. let me leap ahead a little bit. it's going to be a big thing for the march 3rd, for super tuesday. that's a big deal, how much momentum he has there. if you look at a state like california, california has 495 delegates or something like that, and the way they are handed out is candidates have to get either in congressional districts or statewide 15% of the vote. if you look at the last three polls, one poll shows the only one with over 15% is bernie sanders. another one has joe biden at 16 and another has elizabeth war

we also want to welcome our new partners, the washington examiner. they will be publishing our essays on their website. one a day for the next 12 days. they have a wonderful editorial today. also, all of our essays are listed on our website 1776united s.com. you can read the essays. i also want to thank our sponsors. , who couldn't be here, but he has a representative, also, mr. lawrence, one of our great supporters, who helped us do this. the reason that we are gathered is to address the 1619 project, the good news is that it has stimulated a much needed debate within the black community. the quality of life in the black community has been served over the past two centuries with the quality of the debate within. during the 19th century, there were three areas. one, there were those who believed in recolonization, that we should return to africa. this was briefly embraced by president lincoln and marcus garvey. the second, the insurrectionists. they were for violence. nat turner. remember. the third were accommodationists, booker t. washington and ot

we saw this from the right- meaning "washington examiner." "snafu fuels calls to eliminate first in the nation status." tor you can look "l.a. iowa caucus is so white -- at hashtag being used. critics say he does not represent america and it should not have so much influence over who the democrats pick. nick bryant is in des moines. nick: things did not go tolan at all in iowa last night. saconfusion, a colsense of anti-climax. chaos on caucus night is the headline. watching all of the candidatesf basically deliver victory speeches can even know nobody was certain who had won. for what we had today and last night were the most explicit claims of victory came from yor pete, as he is called here, pete buttieg. he is trying to become the first openly gay president we have ever had in the white house. ashe does reckon he won. the w campaigld have had precinct captains and caucus captns at these events who have their ownigures, and their campaign reckons they have won. but the bernie sanders campaign in the last hour or so has put out numbers that

in article in the washington examiner says trump's budget shows why we are doomed, talks about how thisill lean heavily on economic growth remaining strong for the next 12 years or so. the agree with the criticism this is getting? >> when you look at the highlights you had on-screen you could tell the first two items are going to be nonstarters with the democrats. this budget has a chance in congress, the answer is it is dead on arrival, there is no way there is going to be compromise to what is there. what is going to happen is there will be temporary spending measures put into place between now and through the end of the election cycle and we will see how it falls as far as who is the president and what the make up of congress is going to be because unless the party of the white house, the same party and it is in congress, very little chance that you will have compromise. we have seen in the past both sides will spend more and more and more and that will be the compromise. rob: no one wants to fight hard on this stuff. and the trump budget makes it clear, financial security and hard-w

david: it could be, bring in washington examiners byron york, he is with us, thank you for joining us. what do you think, was romney's vote -- will that be seen as a genuine vote of conscience or personal vendetta against president trump? >> romney, has a history with donald trump, remember in early 2016, and 15 actually, a number of republicans wanted romney to run against for the republican nomination hopeful to stop trump, he decided to not do, that but march of 2016, romney delivered a scathing speech against trump, did not stop what became president trump, then during the transsition, trump humiliated romney, dangling the job of secretary of state, they have a lot of history, romney has a habit of changing his positions to please whoever he is trying to please at that time. in 1994, he ran for senate from massachusetts, against ted kennedy was strongly pro life. and changed that later. then in governor of massachusetts, 2002, was still very pro life, and then, created a health care system virtually like obamacare. then when he started to run for president. and republican party, h

susan for ratio the correspondent for the washington examiner, and capri cafaro the executive residenterican resident. along with the democrats they are not only calling the president certain acquittal a tragedy, they are saying it almost does not count because the trial had no witnesses, do you think the left leaning are demoralizing. >> they are backed into the double standard which we often see. if the trial was a sham what was the impeachment? because the question in the trial was our we going to have witnesses. in the witnessing question that they wanted were not called by the house. do you see the double standard there in the double standard of the treatment of pelosi versus mcconnell. >> they argued that they were left by the administration. >> they did not go to court. you also see the double standard of the treatment of the managers versus the president's lawyers. philbin is just as good a lawyer as adam schiff but shifts adam schiff gets all the coverage. >> doesn't have it a bit of an aroma of sour grapes and how the media is on trump's impeachment and conviction. >> i think

already spent according to the "washington examiner" over $417 million up to this point and really whatas been nothing more than a slick marketing ad campaign. by the way, "the new york post" is calling at the wizard of odd campaign with his record is hiding behind the curtain and tonight as we are about to reveal, that record is sick beyond the deserving the shocking allegations from various lawsuits, other accounts including one legal complaint from saying that bloomberg encouraged her to get an abortion so he wouldn't miss work for just kill it, his words, 1995. after she informed him he was pregnant, he allegedly responded, kill it. the plaintiff asked bloomberg to repeat himself and he said, kill it. muttered, great. number 16 suggesting to the plaintiff that he was unhappy that 16 women in the company have maternity related status. kill it? response to an employee announcing something as amazing and beautiful and wonderful as pregnancy? there is more. according to the complaint, bloomberg is accused of making some of the referenceable comments to an employee who had just given bir

here now, byron york, chief correspondent for the "washington examiner" and fox news contributor. if acquittal was one of the best pitiful words that president trump has heard, i think he likes the word expunge brought up b by the reporter. >> the reporter actually gave him the idea. i do not think as a possibility. whether the president will follow the clinton model on this, yes and no. i do think with independent audience is when he's trying to expand his reach a bit, it is time to talk about the economy. 225,000 jobs created. things are going very well economically. that's a strong case for the president to make. he does make it in every rally that he attends. but as far as his true believers, they supporters, the president has a bond with those supporters. it has been strengthened from their point of view by their feeling that the democrats and the media have unfairly treated the president, i saw that in iowa, went to the trump valley in des moines and a republican caucus on caucus night and there were people there who felt even more enthusiastic about the president, who felt

andy puts coming byron york, chiefpolitice "washington examiner," and fox news contributor.ng to start with you. michael bloomberg making some news tonight saying that he's going to release some of the women from nda's. starting with three. still don't have a full count of how many women have accused him or his company and #metoo passion with discrimination. >> the key word there is some of. we do not really know how many in the same candidates are saying that's not enough. elizabeth warring and saying nope, not enough. joe biden released a statement saying nope, not enough. it's not going to make anybody happy. one of the things, which you were introducing about the calls for bloomberg to quit the race, bloomberg brought all of this on himself. on the morning of the debate, his strategist released a memo calling on biden and buttigieg and klobuchar to just drop out of the race, leave it to mike and people thought, wow, that's arrogant sounding. he better do really well in this debate tonight and of course he did not do really well. and now they are getting back at him. >> h

senior advisor to senator john kerry and byron york, chief political correspondent of the "washington examiner like there are a couple of people a position to have a pretty bad night. >> yes and joe biden and is at the top of the list. it started friday night at the debate where he declared he would lose the new hampshire primary and it ends before the clospolls close tomorrow night. he's trying to make the best of a bad situation but no one will have a worse night than joe biden tonight. >> i think somebody will have the worst night. when we think back to the to the fall, when it was biden and warren and warren and biden, this is where it was going to be always a showdown between elizabeth warren and bernie sanders and she's not even on the front page. she represents the neighboring state, this was supposed to be the case where she could really show her strength. it will be hard to not joe biden out of this race because he's going to run ou out of money pry soon. >> so my point to that, elizabeth warren unlike joe biden has a grassroots organization. she can survive and go the long haul and s

we are learning from the "washington examiner" that the white house is in the process of cutting 70,ama era holdovers from the national security council. boy, is it about time. joining me now, lee feldman and -- while this is a welcome development, i almost choked in saying 70. why did it take so long, and how many others are burrowed into other agencies? also the cia, also the fbi, working against trump in various different ways? >> this is a big deal, this is the president's staff. every president from one after another, they have had the prerogative to make changes as to what they want the nse to look like. for president trump, you can argue that this should have happened a long time ago, maybe he has soon as he came into office. if he wants to have an nsc that has 80 staffers, a hundred and 50, 200, that is his prerogati prerogative. specifically as we are talking about here, lieutenant colonel feldman, jim morrison testified he had a problem with lieutenant colonel in men's judgment. she had concerns about his judgment, others in the nsc, then you have lieutenant colonel benjami

trump who described her at fb following encounter in the un and washington examiner, pierce impressedox news appearances, that's us. the intent here is to influence trump officials and consolidate british favors, so, yes, this is a good choice for britain and america, the special relationship, churchill and fdr defeated the nazi and saved democracy and the globe, margaret thatcher and ronald reagan staired down the soviet union, boris johnson and president trump face a variety of issues; terrorism among them, how will you and finally what do you think you will do, can you contribute to that special relationship? >> well, as you say, eric, goes back a long time, the key figures in it, it doesn't matter who is in power, either side of the atlantic, the important thing is that values that we share, the security and economic interests that we share, we work really hard to stand those up, keep them going and advance them, i think the clips she showed very very nice, they look a bit one way to me. [laughter] >> i think of this as a two-way relationship, we are the largest single investor in

let's bring in marie hartman, executive director of serve america pac, byron york with the washington examinermpeachment manager for the republicans way back when in that last trial. congressman, thanks for coming in. >> sure. ed: congressman, i'm going to start with you. we had congressman andy biggs on at the top of the show and and e says, frankly, he thinks it's petty. they know the i acquittal is coming, but they didn't want to give him that victory before the state of the union tuesday. >> i think that's true, but we could see this coming. it also provides, what, four days, i suppose, for any further so-called bombshells from john bolton's book to be leaked out. so, you know, it would have been nice to have allowed president trump to present himself to the american people at the state of the union having this finished, but, you know, it's the way this whole thing's played out. the democrats want to drag it out as long as possible. ed: yeah. interesting. marie, how do you respond to that as a democrat, the idea that nancy pelosi held this up for 33 days and then as it all played out, the

liz joining us tonight will be "washington examiner" chief political correspondent byron york.ng up what is now a very public fight between the president, the attorney general, the radical dems and the deep state and we'll be joined as well by the president of the national border patrol council brandon judd on what is happening at our ports of entry and our southern and northern borders. and coronavirus expert dr. anthony fauci on the very latest in controlling this disease before it becomes a pandemic. china expert gordon chang, military expert jim hanson, all of that, coming up at the top of the hour. please join us. liz, back to you. liz: lou, you always have great guests and interesting topics. good to see you, lou dobbs. we'll be watching. >> thank you. liz: besides a list of bold-faced names that president pardon like michael milken and rod blagojevich, were women whose cases were not as well-known. the president is championing criminal justice reform. the president commuted sentences for three women convicted of non-violent drug or fraud offenses. the cases of hall, judi

people in place, hopefully, that are still able to do all of this it was interesting to see the "washington examinert you to look at this with me. arguing that coronavirus has trump allies plotting fresh "trump allies point out that this illustrates exactly why the united states should stand up to china, tighten its immigration protections, and take back control of trade supply lines." what do you say, jason? >> i think those have merits unto themselves, but i don't like it when you inject politics into a world health situation. we have people on front line, the tsa, for instance. 450 airports in the united states. so over 2 million travelers. how do you protect against that when somebody gets into the system and maybe isn't showing the symptoms they would show the next day? we have a very confident health and human services operation, where people who dedicate their lives to this: put themselves in the front line. they did so on ebola and i'm sure they will do so on the coronavirus. people who step up, put on a mask, and go to those front lines. i give credit to president obama, what he did with eb

a scary is a "washington examiner"'s column, author of the excellent book. which demonstrably day.oins us tonight. thanks so much for coming on. you spent a lot of time thinking about this mind-set. we are facing what could become a pandemic. thousands have died and get a certain segment of well educated america is more concerned that people might say insensitive things. explain the mind-set behind th that. >> you said it perfectly inner monologue. i hate to say that, but i could use a lot of that in my book. they care more about ideology than they care about the actual -- what's actually happening. yes, it turns out most people in america, even the chinese, don't want the commie cough, but we are all hearing nowadays who's the privilege and was the victim? welcome in his case it's supposed to be the victims are -- everyone else who is spreading this disease, everywhere it's coming from it's coming from china, obviously. where the privilege to so we are just supposed to accept it, we are supposed to be okay with what's going on. and yes, that's a big dynamic i talk about in my book

panel, matthew continetti, mar eliass eliasson, and chief congressional correspondent for the "washington examiner we will talk about the state of the unit and looking at that in just a bit, but first the iowa results that we have as we have them, it's not complete but it does tell a story. >> it does tell a story. the big loser, the iowa caucuses. the other thing that democrats love to hate about the primary process, they didn't cover themselves in glory and they will be hard-pressed to explain why they should go first next time. but the results do tell us that somebody has probably won the raw vote total bernie sanders but pete buttigieg is going to come in with the biggest percentage of delegates. there is only 41 delegates to give you but it gives you a boost to go off to the next state. it was late in coming, kind of confusing, under cuts the boost, bernie sanders and pete buttigieg come out on top, bad night for biden. >> i wonder if this is going to make pete buttigieg switches views on the electoral college. what i find the most amusing about this whole episode is democrats couldn't manage

david drucker, senior correspondent for washington examiner, david jolly, from florida, no longer affiliatedwith the party, and steve israel back with me. mr. drucker, we heard stephanie grisham say some are going to have to pay for this impeachment. what does that mean. didn't they already pay? no witnesses, the president was acquitted. his approval rating was higher than ever, the economy is kicking it. why not take the money and run if you're trump? >> that's not how trump operates. what he believes is punching down or up to enemies, depending whether it is punching down or up works for him. it is how he won the election, how he believes he was able to gain two senate seats in 2018 as he lost the house and lost a couple of swing state senate seats, this is where he is most comfortable. i would say for a re-election campaign that is trying to reach beyond the base, but is still built around motivating the base, in other words, motivating people that voted for him in 2016, motivating people that would only vote for him if they had shown up in 2016. trying to get them to show up next time ar

the washington examiner saying filings reveal buttigieg's campaign gave tens of thousands of dollars to shadow on july 23 last year for software righghts and subscriptions.. thehe well here. i don't know much beyond that. whatat i will say is this is a moment in which this company, which i i believe, if i'm hearig reports correctly, has also created an app or has ann app that might be used in the nevada caucuses. this compapany needs to go to maximum traransparency right no. we n need to know everything abt their r working with, who i is involved with that -- not to try and spell conspiracies, but to get to the bottom of it, to know whwhat i is real.. so we have two areas here now where we really want to get a lot more clarity. we want the iowa democratic party to go to maximum clarity, maximum transparency, let us know what went wrong, why, who they w were working with, why ty were doing it, and is much as we can about the results. let's get it right. and also with this company. we need to know the full story. and we need it quickly. remember, fofor better or worse, we have set up a

in a review in the washington examiner, one writer was critical of the fact that you did not includeames k polk. how does he end up on your cutting room floor? craig: first of all a diary is , not a book. john quincy adams wrote wonderful diaries. from garfield, diaries allow us to know that he was reading civil war books. diaries are good sources. i wanted my book to tell a real story and to be a coherent book. to do that, i had to make cuts. there have been a lot of presidents that wrote a lot of things. what interested me was the story of their books and how important their books have been to american history. focused on their books, what they were reading presidents , reading other presidents. no offense to polk but his story is not one of the best stories. i did not want to waste pages on it. >> do you have a favorite? or if people haven't spent much time with them, where's a good place to start? craig: i like calvin coolidge's autobiography. it came out a 1929. i don't believe it is in print anymore, but someone should change that. it is a wonderfully personal book. followedres

the american enterprise institute in washington dc, washington examiner political analyst michael, examinehow america's political parties haven't have not changed. there's a portion of the program. >> the democratic party is always been a coalition of a groups pretty different groups of people regarded by themselves and others is not typical americans but when united, to make up the majority. andrew jackson party was a coalition of southern whites and roman catholic immigrants in big cities of the north. a good combination if you keep them separate the democrats took a hundred and three ballots in nominated candidates for president in 1924 and that convention, but just like something of 2000 votes declin declined, just four of them, the ku klux klan. in effect there. today's democratic party is the coalition's most loyal members unusually black americans and unusually secular liberals. they are often going to work together to impeach donald trump. so it appears when it comes to argument of toxic junctions for church that don't perform same marriage. i predict they will be disagreed with th

making sure that -- >> we are gathering today, we also want to welcome our new partner, the washington exami r examine examiners. they will be publishing our essays on their website. they ha

things that happened at the end of the night, byron york, chief political correspondent of the washington examinernd juan williams, columnist for the hill. let's start with a couple moments between nancy pelosi and the president of the first one we have is when he entered the chamber and handed her the speech which is tradition and there was a missed handshake. watch this. >> to be fair he might not have seen the outreach but she clearly reached her hand out at that moment but the second moment. >> at the end of the speech there is this. >> god bless america, thank you very much. >> he made quite a show of standing up straight and tall and ripping those papers quite intentionally. your thoughts on this? >> we live in a time of great political polarization and you heard the governor a moment ago speak about dishonesty and division in our country when she was talking about people who get something done versus people who just utter words and rhetoric. when i was watching tonight what struck me, picking up on the idea this is the start of the president's campaign, he was less about carnage and vision

in a review in the washington examiner, one writer was critical of the fact that you did not includene very prolific diarist, and that was james k. polk. how does he end up on your cutting room floor? craig: first of all, a diary is not a book. i relied on presidential diaries often. john quincy adams wrote wonderful diaries. james garfield wrote wonderful diaries. from garfield's diaries, he was talking about civil war books like grant's and sherman's. diaries are good sources. but i wanted my book to tell a real story and to be a coherent book. to do that, i had to make cuts. there have been a lot of presidents, and they have written a lot of things. but what interested me was the story of their books and how important their books have been to american history. so i focused on their books, what they were reading, presidents reading other presidents. when i made those kinds of choices to tell the best story, no offense to poke, but his -- to polk, but his story is not one of the best stories. i did not want to waste pages on it. >> so having spent 10 years with presidential books --