and the whole thing started giving way. >> to help us extract meanings from these conventions, william buckley gore vidal. >> bill buckley was the first modern conservative to say ideological debates are cultural debates. >> you think miniskirts are in good taste? >> in you, i think you are. >> the only one i can think of is gore vidal. >> gore vidal is one of the most successful and distinguished writers. >> we are all prostitutes ethically, if not sexually. >> i am a happy warrior. i am in battle and enjoying it. >> everything was going tomorrow. >> these were two visions of america clashing. >> each that the other was quite genius. >> all the security makes it nervous. it's necessary, i guess. >> if buckley were to get out his ideas would take down a nation. >> it was almost as if they were matter and antimatter. >> freedom breeds inequality. say that a third time. >> no. >> always to the right and almost always in the right. anything obligated confuses mr. witt all -- mr. vidal. >> they really do despise one another. >> listen, you are right. >> stop calling me a cryptonaiz. -- cryptonazi.

the conversations with william buckley on television at conventions.ery personal debate we had. 1968, republican convention, miami beach. i said there is no difference between the two parties. each is led by the same people. explosion. how could you say such a thing? charlie: you mean about bill? gore: it was always there. charlie: people liked bill buckley notwithstanding the fact that they disagreed with what he said, what he wrote, what he believed. william: i thought they liked him because he had come around. charlie: i don't know if they ever came around. did you think they came around or did they just like the company of the man they were keeping? william: this sounds vainglorious, but i think reading what i wrote were brought to their attention incentive. charlie: i remember so much of that. he wrote me a note after his first appearance on the show. he said, you are going to be the best thing, flattering to me since mike wallace. this is gore talking to mike wallace. gore: i'm so in touch with reality and you are so far off base that i cannot be

>> rose: we continue with a new documentary about william f. buckley and gore vidal called "best of enemies." >> they're not just fighting about 1968. they're fighting about the republic, and both of them had such an understanding not only of the american republic but republics going back to ancient times. i mean there were such scholars in that way that the stakes for them couldn't have been higher. >> rose: and we conclude this evening with al hunt on the story with colorado senator cory gardner. >> we still have more work to do, but we've come a long wayses, and the exciting thing that i've been a part of is to watch in one single day as we voted on american amendments in one day of this year than we did in all of 2014. right now if you look at i think the numbers we've passed over 60 bills, most of which were bipartisan. 25 of which have been signed into law. >> rose: doris kearns goodwin on lyndon johnson a new documentary about william f. buckley jr. and gore vidal and al hunt on the story with colorado senator cory gardner. all of that when we c

when two intellectual giants-- william f. buckleye right, gore vidal on the left-- attracted a huge national audience with intelligence and wit, but also put-downs and insults. filmmakers morgan neville and robert gordon explored a series of debates the two held during the 1968 political conventions that for a variety of reasons, would alter the future of political discourse on television. we spoke recently at the a.f.i. docs festival in washington. you set this up as both a personal and a kind of national epic. why do you think it rose to that level? >> gore vidal and william buckley represented the polar opposites-- the left and the right-- at a time when america was kinda coming apart at the seams a little bit. this is 1968. there's rioting in the streets and they're representing those poles there on national tv, but what i think what makes it such a dramatic story for us is that it was deeply personal, it was under the veneer of politics, but i think they saw in the other person somebody who could detect their own insecurities an

it of course deals with the friendship between william buckley and norman mailer a friendship i didn't know existed until i read your book. so i guess i will start out by asking you how did you know this friendship existed? how did you get started on this book collects. >> thank you very much for coming and that generous introduction. this book was so much fun to write because they knew of both of these larger-than-life figures. norman mailer does novelist and one of the inventors of new journalism and somebody who is just a great first-person voice on the 1960s and a huge personality and william f. buckley there was an equally large personality on the right founder of national review and it never occurred to me that they would be friends. after norman mailer died he sold his papers to the harry ransom center at the university of texas in austin and a couple of those letters got picked up in a magazine and i was leafing through the magazine one night and i read some of the letters. i just stopped cold because i read one of the letters between norman mailer and buckley and there was cut

the last chapter focuses on three modern, or almost mod eastern, depending on how old you are william buckley ronald reagan. i think it's very interesting the extent to which the lives of these three men were very, very intertwined and i would suggest that it start with buckley when he burst on the national scene in the early 1950s. conservativism was viewed as a dead -- a dead philosophy. it was hard to find anybody to say he was a conservative. the consensus was that the new deal liberalism had won. there really wasn't much of a dialogue. the only choice was a democratic party maybe more to the left and not any force that would call conservatism. buckley conceived more than what the public realized. he was determined to become the individual voice of what he called responsible conservatism. he pulled together in founding the national review and going around the country speaking and debating. he pulled together strengths traditional, conservative, pulled them into a cohe-- group and he ran some of the coo -- just became the voice of conservatism. and buckley was so attractive and so intellig

>> rose: we continue with a new documentary about william f. buckleyore vidal called "best of enemies." >> they're not just fighting about 1968. they're fighting about the republic, and both of them had such an understanding not only of the american republic but republics going back to ancient times. i mean there were such scholars in that way that the stakes for them couldn't have been higher. >> rose: and we conclude this

you heard one woman saying william f. buckleyld debate anybody but gore vidal. >> i suspect the first call that was made when he "anybody but gore vidal" was to gore vidal. i don't think they expect it had sparks. i think they expected sparks and not a forest fire. and they certainly got a slow burning very hot forest fire. >> all right the most famous moment, probably also the lowest but we'll play a clip, everyone listen to this exchange. it's great. >> as far as i'm concerned the only pro crypto nazi i can think of is yourself. failing that -- >> let's not call names. >> listen you [ bleep ]. >> stop calling me a crypto nazi or i'll sock you in the [ bleep ] face and you'll stay plastered. let's go back to his pornography and stop making illusions to somebody who was in the infantry in the last war. >> you were not in the infantry you did not fight. >> yikes. i mean, that is a moment it really brought their feud down a base level. you had vidal calling buckley a crypto nazi. then him firing back talking about his sexuality. i'

this happened in the lebanon hostage situation where william buckley, the cia station chief and general higgins were killed. we did take some actions. unfortunately, they violated the policy that mark talk about. oliver north megadeal of trying to trade cold mission -- one hostage was released, another one would be taken, what our colleague called a hostage been. been. so that been. so that wasn't the dilemma that we faced, perhaps in a lower area then right now because there wasn't quite the video of beheadings, et cetera, but that was a dilemma we did face. unfortunately, i think we made the wrong choices by making to do which encourage al-qaeda think americans were patsies and could be rolled which get back to part of the dilemma that you laid out? >> guest: . counterterrorism hostage situations is a classic case of a short-term gain versus the long-term. you can solve a short-term problem but you grea create lonm problems down the road. so where's the dividing line? that's not always easy. i would raise a question to you all, one of the elements that we faced when you're in state de

for your 1849 fans they probably don't know william f. buckley and gore vidal.s. it got funny. >> jimmy: it's fantastic. >> it is. it's a pisser as my aunt used to say. [ light laughter ] >> jimmy: i love your aunt. >> aunt ester always said that. >> jimmy: now you see -- people see people fighting on tv all the time, now. you know, reality shows and whatnot. >> jimmy -- >> jimmy: this was at a time when no one was doing that. >> this is where it was born. it's never lived up to this again. and here is a moment that shows how they feel about each other, i think you could say. and it's -- the operative word is in this sentence, call me a a crypto nazi. watch for that. it's right at the top. >> jimmy: here's a clip from "best of enemies." take a look. >> i know you don't -- >> as far as i'm concerned, the only crypto nazi i can think of is yourself. feeling that -- >> listen, you -- >> stop calling me a crypto nazi. let's stop calling names. let's stay plastered. >> gentlemen, let's go. >> go back to his pornography and stop making any illusions of -- >> i beg you

day's events for abc news, two of the most celebrated intellectuals of the era, on the right, william f. buckleythe right, gore vidal. best of enemies the new documentary looks back at this ivy league slugfest. the other networks were running gavel to gavel coverage inside the convention hall. abc couldn't afford to in 1968. >> they needed to make money by running their shows like bewitched and batman and the flying nun, instead. >> reporter: we spoke with the filmmakers it's strange to watch these two guys, both of them speaking like thurston howell iii. >> it's another era. having two lek chuls like this who were so good on tv. >> if you did it today, you would have, you know, you could also do it on mute. >> reporter: the real fireworks came the night the night chicago police cracked down on the anti-war protesters. he insults vi s buckley. buckley erupts. by outi ining vidal on televisi >> they hated each other, didn't they? >> it was not a frenemy relationship. that hate didn't end when that red light turned off. >> i think they were not fighting about 1968 they were fighting for the sole o

william f. buckley, the then editor of national review, the great conservative commentator, did at great political risk, i think, stand up, stood up and said, look, these people should not be defining the conservative movement. they should not be defining the party. he drew lines and a number of other republicans did so. i think in many ways they saved the republican party. i would suggest today, this is a time not just for donald trump but for a lot of other republicans to very bluntly say, there are just some lines that shouldn't be crossed. there are some people who claim to be supporting republicans that we don't want. >> thanks for that answer. sorry we have to cut this segment a little short. thank you very much. we'll be right back. i take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn. because it gives me... zero heartburn! prilosec otc. the number 1 doctor-recommended frequent heartburn medicine for 9 straight years. one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. when you're not confiden

writing a book right now about the conservative movement, and, you look back at someone like william f. buckleyrt of policed the far right. he was able to excommunicate the frifrng elements. and eric erickson, i give him a lot of credit for standing up and saying that what donald trump said is inappropriate. he wasn't, he was, you know, kicked out of the red state gathering. and i wish that rush limbaugh would exercise that same sort of moral authority. he has a huge audience, a huge megaphone. if rush limbaugh stood up to donald trump, it would make a huge difference. >> can i make one poichbts about this, that donald trump got a big cheer if front of that audience when he said, i only said this about rosie o'donnell. and none of the people who've been interviewing donald trump on this, and he says i got a big laugh about rosie o'donnell. when did we decide as a society that it's okay to use these words in relation to one person. that you can call this one person these words. and before we go, the truth is, he did not reserve those words for rosie o'donnell. he used the word dog for someone el

william f. buckley, i could use a few terms that he used with gore vidal. would you like me to mention a few? >> you know, i think it is important, obviously rich is exactly right. he has changed on these things and he should get attacked by the other candidates and let the american voters decide which is more trustworthy. voters are very good at that. >> i would say buckley was even more politically correct than trump. >> coming up, just when you thought iranian nuclear deal couldn't get any worse, wait until you hear what we heard today. then tonight -- >> you have criminals, you have black racialists, you have cop haters and anarchists have now put together this bold movement. >> he called out the black lives matter movement. what if one stalk of broccoli could protect you from cancer? sfx: crunch what if one push up could prevent heart disease? [man grunts] one wishful thinking, right? but there is one step you can take to help prevent another serious disease-pneumococcal pneumonia. one dose of the prevnar 13® vaccine can help protect you from pneumococ

the first people to sign up for this electronic mail service were reporters, one of whom was william f. buckley, and i maintained a lovely correspondence with bill over time before he passed away, and i remember that i had come and gone to mci, left to join bob kahn and then rejoined mci to help them get into the internet business. in around 2003 it was clear that charging people for e-mail wasn't exactly a great business model anymore, so we shut down the mci mail service, and i got a whole bunch of angry e-mails from reporters who said, i have had my mci mail address since 1983, how can you do that? but the honest answer was it was time for that service to go. so i have two themes that i would like to address this afternoon. the first one has to do with technology, and i will drop into geek a bit. i apologize but it's the only way to be precise. and then i want to talk a little bit about policy. so i have eight points or so on the tech side and four or five points on the policy side. so let me start on the technology side. i'm really proud of the fact that the internet continues to evolve. th

the first people to sign up for this electronic mail service were reporters, one of whom was william f. buckley and i maintain a lovely correspondent over time before he passed away. and i remember that i had come and gone, to mci and left to john bob khan and rejoined cmi to help them get into the internet business and around 2003 it was clear that charging people for e-mail wasn't a great business model so we shut down the service and i got angry letters from reporters who said i've had my mail since 1983 but the honest answer is it was time for that service to go. so i have two themes i would like to address this afternoon. the first one has to do with technology and i will drop into geek a bit. apologize, but it is the only way to bee precise. and then i want to talk about policies. i have eight points on the tech side and four or five points on the policy side. so let me start on the technology side. i'm proud of the fact that the internet continues to evolve. this is not a design which was fixed in time 40 years ago but rather it is one which has adapted to new technology, it has swept in

even william f. buckley supported a public service for--young people who are 18. i think when you're part of the risk, you're gonna be part of the solution. our founding fathers did not want a professional army. they were very explicit about this. they called it-- we did not want a standing army. and the moment we get awe and a tiny number of people go to fight when they shouldn't be sent to fight because "they're a professional army" doing their job--the moment we have that awe, we surrender to that kind of militarization of our foreign policy. and having been in the army, i can assure you that when you're in the army, navy, air force, or marines, you don't have awe of those people when you get out, because you know too much. >> second question, what are the most important questions you would ask the presidential candidates in the next debate? >> how will you shift power from the few to the many in ways that make it very easy for people to band together as consumers, as workers into democratic trade unions, as small taxpayer groups, and as communities who are bei

because they are rock ribbed william f buckley conservatives who believe in this idea of wealth redistribution long as it is somebody else's being redistributed to them but when it is time for them to take their wealth and redistribute it to other people they are all of a sudden thinking ronald reagan is a swell guy and that is where you put people in the position where they have to put their money where their mouth is. of course, you are a college student. you don't have any wealth to redistribute. you want other people to give you stuff and you will until you start getting jobs and paying taxes at which point your opinion will change. and that is normal. this is, in fact, my phone. it is mine. i don't owe this phone to an. you know why i have this phone. because i work like a slave is why. i get up every day, i work seven days a week. i very, very hard and this is one of the benefits of the extra work that i do that i don't have to do. i earned it. it's mine. it's my phone. mine. [ applause ] >> and those phones are yours. well technically thur your parents but we're not going to split hairs

it used to be william f. buckley who stood up and called up the fringe on the far right, the john birchers, the ayn rands and excommunicated them. we haven't had anybody with the courage to do that and i think eric erickson is doing a great service in calling out donald trump for this. >> okay. and jonathan has been nodding in agreement with you. i want to play for both of you what rush limbaugh said yesterday about the treatment of trump by the fox news moderators. here's that. >> big time republican donors had been ordered to take out donald trump. in the debate last night. we all made a mistake. we assumed the orders went out the the candidates. is, but the candidates did not make one move toward taking donald trump out. is the broadcast network did not one of the remaining nine candidate s candidates joined megyn kelly in taking a shot at trump. not one. yet we have been told that there were orders from republican donors to take trump out. >> matt, is that the conservative belief that it was the fault of the mode

was raised on the altar of william f. buckleyfreedman but i was vehemently opposed to the iraq invasion. i knew what a debacle it would be i studied history as an undergraduate and i could have 'predicted the domino effect and the chaos that ensued from the ill-fated -- its offended me deeply. the whole freedom fries frenzy really insulted me. i do descend from colonial setters. my father was a world war ii veteran so i know what i'm talking about here. southboundly, it would warm my heart if you could align yourself with the grow very nordquist on the pentagon budget. that's an issue i'm passionate about. i cannot believe the lack of transparency and the other issue that i think you would support and i know you do, but i wish it were a top priority, is the low voter participation in this country, and i think you could find alliances on the conservative side. our voting rights rarely exceed -- voting rates rarely exceed 30%. the stranglehold of the lobbyist culture, of wall street -- >> host: suzanne i apologize. if we want to ge

williams one year after his suicide. "e.t." looks look with his son and ongoing fight for robin's fortune. >> mr. >>> i would hope when i get to heaven, buckley is there going -- enjoy, rejoice. time to meet the flippingest. time to meet jay z. >> one of our many conversations with robin williams. it is hard to believe that tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of his death and unfortunately, his family still fighting over the late comedian's estate. robin williams spelled out his wishes in great detail to avoid this kind of problem that we're seeing. >> even so, terms of williams' estate are being disputed by his widow, susan. they are heirs but wants some of the personal items she received from the trust. mayor is author of trial and error and said the rest is about money. >> the biggest fight is the amount of money going into trust to take care of susan schneider williams and pay for her to stay in the house for the rest of her life. >> susan, intensely private person, mr. williams would have wanted this. so that's troubling to the trustee. >> susan saying how much money she received even if it means going to court. meanwhile, one year l