Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book Discussion On Assassinations Threats And The American Presidency 20160221

This topic were what do people say to you, is it a little bit weird to be discussing and i said yes i guess it is but i find it fascinating and i think that its a significant assassination certainly affected not only American History that World History and i give a few examples in my introduction about the fact that after all its face it, world war i began because of an assassination and of course we had the fall of the Roman Republic because of an assassination and we have our country itself divided when Abraham Lincoln was of course murdered in 1865 and we are still reverberating from the events around john f. Kennedy in 1963 but its a lot more than looking at Abraham Lincoln and john f. Kennedy. Assassination has been a common theme in history but also in American History and i devoted a chapter to each president who faced a direct assassination attempt both those who were assassinated into those who were wounded and were also president ial candidates which i havent seen anybody else do i know whereof so i have a chapter of huey long assassinated in 1935 and i have a chapter on robert f. Kennedy assassinated in 1968 and also a chapter on george c. Wallace who was shot in the list for life in 1972. Semicovered altogether so mike brought together 11 i covered altogether 11 president s and three president ial candidates and then i have two chapters of recent president s who havent had a direct contact in the assassination could have been threatened so therefore i discussed the issues around jimmy carter, george h. W. Bush, bill clinton, george w. Bush and barack obama right up until october, 2014 and luckily they were not there and got very far into the white house unbelievable and showed us the secret Service Needs a lot of reform because it is getting more and more daring and people are becoming bench jumpers as i call them, white house intruders and think that this none of the living president s have had anything anything that correctly affected them but thereve been lots of threats and as i pointed out, i talk about 20 threats but its actually many more to any president other than Abraham Lincoln. And of course president ial candidates you have to worry about even now after all we have a lot of rhetoric and ive written on the hill and the History News Network or the threat this year because of the rhetoric and because of the hyperbole that is going on and i advocated before what happens is donald trump should have secret Service Protection and ive also advocated that Bernie Sanders should have it but he does not. Of course Hillary Clinton does because shes the former first lady but even the candidates that are not as serious like marco rubio and ted cruz always in danger and all you need is one mistake and that is one too many and thats what we have to remember. Ive looked at all these president s and ive done a lot of research. The question comes up how did i get interested in this . When i was at college at the university of new york at english freshman course i had to do a term paper and that was in 1962. That gripped everybody and still does. There was the assassination of bowker max, the assassination of George Lincoln rockwell come of the attempted assassination of George Wallace and of course the assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan as a threat against churning forward to be co for and was very well kept quiet. Almost three years ago roman and littlefield my publisher was aware of but i never had contact with wrote me and my email at Florida Atlantic university and said we see you doing these elections would you like to write a book . I am retired now and i just do my lecture and blog. I thought i could than this two years ago no matter how much i would have wanted to. Theyve been on cspan and now im on cspan again. Ive had articles in the hill at the History News Network and im going to be in turkey with on npr on february 15 on president s day. I was interviewed not on the because thats how they found out about me. Towards the end of the hour 957 on w. Lrm. The sale started to shoot up right after brian lamb so im very appreciative. I want to make clear is i have a powerpoint and we are going to go through it. One thing it is more than just the one on the board on the powerpoint. But theres actually three threats against Andrew Jackson. 1833. Not for the webinar firearm. He was in his mid60s and he used a cane and all that said he wasnt in the greatest of health but a man named robert randolph. The president never had anything happen that we know of anyway so this is the first thing. Not a big deal but its the beginning. Now, et and 35, the one before the one i have on the board is not a friend to veto threat in the sense it is a verbal threat that comes from a wellknown state by a person whose very famous at the time and write a letter in his hand writing to president Andrew Jackson threatening his life just fighting in the letter and it doesnt go further than that. It goes to jackson and its been of course kept everything is kept unless they somehow get rid of it. If advocated who this person was and than who they thought it was and its shocking. Because he is the father of the leader actor who assassinate Abraham Lincoln that is julius, what a name by the way. [laughter] three years later, et 38 but imagine you have to wonder whether it was genetic or mental illness, who knows that he threatened. The point is it is his handwriting and we have to say that its a threat. But we do call it a threat so it is reported in my book. The biggest however is in the 1835 as well and i think that its a few months before the incident january 301835 so on my facebook page. Salon january to provide a little entry this is the day but now 180 years later. Richard lawrence was mentally deranged there is no question and i want to make it clear those tough mental problems, most of them. She comes to capitol hill. He has his cane when Richard Lawrence runs to him and fires one of his pistols but this is in the middle of the winter remember that may have been a factor. He then takes the other and misfires again. The odds of this were astronomical. If you kick them down and whack them over the heads of people came along to help them out so in a way he helped to subdue his assassin. No other president could say that that he had been involved so why not. So he went to the Mental Institution for the rest of his life and luckily he didnt harm jackson but still it was something to worry about. Youve got to realize he had a lot of anger and a lot of people with his policies and his temperament and all that and thats the kind of thing that fuels people that want to kill a leader and become famous or edwards be honest if you kill a leader or even try to, you are always remembered. Richard lawrence is still alive today because of me because obviously people have also written articles about jackson to suddenly he is somebody. And although he was mentally ill, he totally was very happy that he had gotten some notoriety. After this, we have the next attempt, actually a few attempts on Abraham Lincoln and the team 61 before the inauguration on his way from springfield he had to go through baltimore and that was a concern he might be harmed so he is basically skipping for baltimore without stopping and he is ridiculed when he arrives at the station because this was a baltimore plot as it is known that was believed to exist and there is evidence but no one was ever arrested at the thought was hes on his way to the inauguration. We dont want him facing the assassination so he was able to be inaugurated the people have threats all the time and in 1864 he rises to the home in washington, d. C. , a place away from the white house a little bit cooler at the top of the hill and he always had the soldiers with him, there was the secret service yet i have to point out and the point was that he rides his horse and uses the high hat on his head and has a couple of soldiers and suddenly there is a sniper fire and he is past his office had. He laughs off that his wife did not. Was it accidental, probably not. We dont know. But now he agrees on the protection and hes a stagecoach when he went to the old soldiers home for the last seven or eight months of the presidency. Now hes inaugurated the second term and of course hes worried about her that it that hes not going to be able to win it c. Decides hes going to drop because they didnt matter and they would just stand by. So the first i have chapter 17 as a list of discussion of the 15 might have been president s and the Vice President i mentioned this and they say you are making it up, no i am not it is a real person that he has been dropped and Andrew Johnson is picked to replace him to gain the democratic votes because johnson is not a republican like lincoln. Its a mistake of trying to cross party lines. It had been the same problem when he picked john tiger who wasnt awake. Its going to cause trouble for Johnson Wendling denies. The point is it is only six weeks in office and lincoln is of course assassinated at the ford theater in washington, d. C. And we know that John Wilkes Booth was involved and we know that a few days before he was mumbling pretty loud he was going to make sure the president didnt live much longer. He was at an event to the white house and he had been plotting with a group of nine other people. Under the succession laws at the time of course he was the secretary of state William Seward who later purchased alaska under johnson and turns out in fact we want to move on and this is assaulting jackson. Of course then he succeeded them anyway but he became president anyway. Now lincoln killed before trial and heres the scene. The thing is the Vice President isnt harmed but he gets drunk and chickens out and he goes on to become president of course overnight, april 14. He said that returning from surgery but he survives and recovers, stays on as the secretary of state all through Andrew Johnson eight years as the secretary of state colin of the very best and again he purchases alaska in 1867 from russia. Andrew johnson would succeed of course and he would be a tragic figure just by most scholars if not to be the worst president one of the bottom few usually with James Buchanan and warren g. Harding as a buchanan is worse, the president before lincoln but you have to believe he would have been better. Okay. Now here is the fact lets say Andrew Johnson had been killed. The succession at the time was strange we had three successions we were discussing. The first was that the president or Vice President or not available, the president pro tem of the senate which today is the longestserving member, nope longer the case back then but i have to dig to find out who is this guy. He would have had the president in connecticut and as we study a little bit about him he would have been better than Andrew Johnson iv leave if for no other reason he was a northerner from tennessee and he collaborated against reconstruction so he was the first but lets say then Hannibal Hamlin would have been if he were killed in baltimore or sniper shot or have been kept on. I think he probably would have been better as well because he had a long career after this. Lincoln is killed and johnson comes in and this is something that the moment in history i was asked by brian lamb and others which assassination has had the most impact and i said the definitely lincoln. Not jfk . No. You have to realize he was succeeded by Andrew Johnson and it was a tragedy. Jfk is succeeded by Lyndon Johnson also im not so sure he would have escalated in the non. But everything jfk wanted and beyond so it wasnt like a horrible tragic thing in that sense but Andrew Johnson was i think. But i think it was more so. The best events, and this is a tragedy in a different way, James Garfield comes into office and after four months is shot and wounded. It is a tragic story and garfield was brilliant and he was an intellectual, he knew about eight languages, he could write with both hands at the same time in opposite directions, he was a musician, hes amazing. The best probably intellectually between lincoln and teddy roosevelt. Now in a way you could say at least he accomplished at the end of the war. Kennedy accomplished quite a bit. But garfield never had much of a chance to do anything and i think that makes it a human tragedy and the book that came out a few years ago about the mistakes and the constant mistakes by doctors and the fact that they were incompetent and came to the station where he was killed in washington, d. C. Dont forget this is 1881 and they dont wash their hands or know about churns or bacteria and he suffers and finally dies in september, 1881. It is really tragic and of course what happens is charleston is the assassin who actually visited the white house at the real road station but he had visited the secretary of state as well and what did he want . He wanted patronage, he wanted the job. There was no Civil Service reforms about was unfortunate for the system but was he qualified . He said i made speeches for you. But hes got somebody significant. He made it clear when he visited the white house he told garfield i would like one of the following jobs either ambassador to france or hungary into the show garfield nice to him and he threw out his information and he never heard and he came up with the conclusion the only way i will get the job is to kill president garfield, became the Vice President , make chester alan and he will awake to me that he is president and give me the ambassadorship. That tells you how much he is. These are all arguments in the book i want to point out. So it was a long torturous death and he will put on quite a scene at trial. He will act like hes crazy, hes found guilty and will be executed. He dances around like a ballerina. I would love to go back and see it. It would be something to see. He still ends up being executed and garfield could have benefited an outstanding president and we dont really know. He wants to be the nominee and 84. He wont be. He will be the fourth president elected. Its lucky that he wasnt elected in 84. He dies in 86. They would have succeeded and this is one of the cases. He finds a Simple Service reform and because the act. He is a man of courage better than people used to think. Now the next one is mckinley and i should point out one thing you might say wait a minute, he went to the white house wasnt the secret service for somebody to check him out before he got in the building . The secret service was created in 1865, it was on his desk and signed. It it wasnt designed to protect the president or anybody else that was designed to deal with counterfeit currency and it wouldnt be different until 1901 go secret Service Protection until 1901. So you say wait a minute theres nobody at the white house to check anything . There are two officers outside of the building. They are there to keep people off the grass. Im not joking this is the reality to keep them off the lawn. So after he is killed in 1901, the president s and 65 and 1881, 1901 and then the secret Service Takes over. So hes in his second term. We also acquired hawaii separately. Mckinley has done so and he is looking better in recent times getting a better wrap as things go on. He is improving in his image and the president are always in approving or declining in their image. Now hes against all governments and its not so much mckinley, it is the office. They would then go and kill the pope vatican city. He chose the the president of the United States as a position of authority to be the first that he would indeed killed. There is an exhibit on this and we have the exposition world fair. The press secretary was worried about appearing because of the anarchists threatening a terrorist threat as he would see today but he went on with his plans. As an exposition hes in the crowd and he has a gun under a glove or a washcloth come he comes up and shoots him in the shoot him in the abdomen and the thought is hes wounded that he will recover but he doesnt. There were no xrays and 81. There were no xrays and 91. Theodore roosevelt in all six months figures hes getting better. Im going to go hunting by myself and there are no cell phones. He cant be found on the turn for the worst. There is a screening scurrying of where is the Vice President . He doesnt know right away. He dies in 81 and i thought after september 111 of the first thoughts that i had was 100 years almost to the day a transformational moment because once he came in the presidency was never the same. Its basically the same thing minus three days. It was the same transformational point. So he doesnt testify at the trial and he doesnt want to speak up. Hes found guilty and is executed much more quickly. The thing is this is the scene of what happened. They thought he would get better but he doesnt. But he will wind up being executed. Now the thing is he now becomes president and he will transform the presidency and be the first to succeed to the presidency and actually get elected to his own term. So hes running back as the best thirdparty nominee ever. Teddy roosevelt wasnt even known yet and has become a war hero from new jersey another of them might have been. Garrett was close with the president , his wife was very close to the first lady. They spent a lot of time together and looking him up, he was an active Vice President. Not compared to now but for the time he was a significant figure and the indication was that would have kept him for the second term but he dies of Heart Disease in 1899. He would have been president for not teddy roosevelt. Nobody would have even known who he was probably. But instead, he dies in office and is replaced and he becomes president. Now the thing is he becomes president and hes there for seven and a half years and he comes to the north shore of long island and goes back to his home as every president wanted. Im waiting for somebody to write or call or tell me i knew this. Im not aware. I found an assassination threat i found in the Long Island Newspapers that was never mentioned in any study that i have ever seen that i know of. Maybe im wrong and i missed something but i dont think so. We have a man 28yearsold named henry wilde. A new name to remember as a potential assassin. It oclock at night the secret service isnt much but there is a secret service now and this is september 1, 1903, september 1, 1903. So he comes back an hour later and says i want to see the president. No, you cant. So they wonder why hes coming back than he comes back then he comes back at 11 00 at night and now the secret service think theres Something Weird about this guy. The second time should have been enough but now they chicken out. Then they didnt chicken out and they might have killed or wounded in the roosevelt. Its the only one that we know of while he is president and if that had happened, what would have happened . He is one of my 15 might have been and is well known the secretary of state of mckinley and teddy roosevelt. He was a private secretary to Abraham Lincoln. He therefore was serving under lincoln. He became secretary of state so this thought crossed my mind if Hillary Clinton gets in cheek and say she is can say she is the second secretary who was at the white house because that is the case. He would have been fine if he had succeeded. He said in 1904 i will not run again and they said why did i say that . You said you left office at 50, the youngest we have ever had about nine months younger than john f. Kennedy but he was under 43. He couldnt stand being out of office. William howard taft, the successor, alienated his own party and was a split between conservatives and progressives and he started to become really upset and decided although he did and made a public key was going to run and in 1912, he announced his hat is in the ring and he has a boxing ring in the back of the house and he takes it and throws it into the rain and that is where we get the term hat in the ring also nobody does that now. Can you imagine donald trump saying hat in the ring . He says silly things but that became an idea and even a challenge. That would have been fun to watch because he was 250 pounds and he could have lost some weight as well that would have been something to watch if it had happened. So he didnt say lowenergy [laughter] he didnt say you want to look at that face for four years but he did say fatso which was funny he challenges him for the republican nomination but being the president helps as it was discovered in later times as well. It didnt get anywhere and there were attempts to stop jimmy carter in 1980, couldnt succeed, to stop gerald ford, that couldnt work out. Theres always the edge getting nominated but of course each time there are challenges in the party they lose the election in every single case. Every one of them is lost but they get the nominations are now he forms a Progressive Party and its the symbol of a bold moves. I am not im not sure what that means honestly. But now becomes a part of political history just like the elephant of the republicans and the democrats although actually it isnt a donkey to be exact it is the type of a donkey known as an ass and this is done by the political cartoonist for trades democrats as a ass or donkey but now we have the moves added to this in 1912. Eugene is the socialist in the time he hes running at hes dynamic and everybody is to the left even taft. What hes done but hes done some progress of things weve been able to show. Of course he does very well he gets 27 of the vote in the thirdparty. In the six states in the thirdparty was 88. Thats why Michael Bloomberg cannot win if he runs into line. If he runs he will elect the republican nominee. Although it would definitely hurt Hillary Clinton so it adds an illusion if he thinks that he will be able to win enough electoral votes in the state idiot but he was a celebrity and said it was national except he had one parts of the country but still in the 88 votes so the fact is during that campaign he was subjected to the assassination attempt october 14, 1912 in milwaukee wisconsin. Hes shocked but the thing is this he has a 50 page speech wrapped up up in a glass steel case with classes. Hes been wounded but he insists on going to the auditorium to give a speech while bleeding and even tells the audience like im pleading but im going to show you you i masked it as a moose and i can finish my speech. Everybody thinks thinks that he is crazy but he goes on and on and wants to talk and loves to talk and is a real character and always was a good and he goes to the hospital and he kept it in his body but he recovered. In the end they ended up second behind wilson who won overwhelmingly. One of the states was vermont. Today vermont is so liberal they would never vote republican. You could be sure that they would lose vermont even though i think he might win new england i dont think that he would win new england is very liberal now. The fact is he only had six more years of life and he is crazy enough to go on the expedition in 1914 through 15, he gets the area, he nearly dies and takes all kinds of chances. He never wants to grow up and he does die six years after this at age 60 partly because his hopeless declining but also his youngest son was killed in world war i and he just couldnt get over it. He had so much to accomplish in the course was rated one of the top five president s in the united United States theres a lot of debate about what was said but that is what history is all about, the question in an. Of the issues but this was still an attempt. There is a life sentence if he goes on for 30 years more in total isolation. The next one is franklin d. Roosevelt. This is what a lot of people dont realize. In miami florida, Franklin Roosevelt february 15, 1933 is there at a Democratic Party gathering and its a public event and that the crowd this is the man if you watch the show a brief interview with a lot of little clips put into that our. Anyway, he will name as fdr but instead he ends up shooting the chicago mayor. He was working against them and its very possible that is the case. But as we will see its not so much him that the president. He buys about two weeks later and eventually was charged with assault and had a prison term and then he has a very quick murder trial. If they make that quick he was killed. The Vice President elect from texas who would have become president , what stands out is that he is the longest lived Vice President of the united president of the United States who lived is 98 years of age. His birthday was november 22, he was 95 on the day that kennedy was assassinated and that morning he made a phone call to the former Vice President wishing him a happy birthday and then within a few hours hes dead. Things like that stick out. Thats what he has been a new dealer and have done the kind of stuff fdr did almost 100 no and i became one of the few that would have been a disaster if this had happened the whole history of america would have changed if that had happened so after two terms when he runs for the third term he breaks with them and then he has Henry Wallace for the third term and then harry truman for a brief period. Theres all kinds of threats but nothing transpires. They wanted to kill the leaders but it didnt happen and there were rightwing and leftwing groups that did inflate ten didnt like him. We have gerald smith attacking him and we also had the father that was supportive and roosevelt and we have others like that and am on those who are a threat to him or at least he thinks would be huey long. At that time you didnt announce it that far ahead. But he was campaigning and writing books and doing the radio show. He was seen as a possible threat to actually be a serious challenger to him in 1936 but suddenly it is all going to be over very quickly september 8, 1935. In fact the state capital in louisiana he had been governor and ran the political machine. Hed been killed by a medical dr. He had an issue about his fatherinlaw. But when he was with him or about to shoot him or did shoot him, the security guards that look like not the storm troopers were the kind of people around mussolini opened up a fire and pump him with 61 bullets. And i think that hes still alive but an old man now there had been a debate because they never had an autopsy properly done. And himself he died two days later and was argued was a medical malpractice and maybe there was a plot and he could have recovered from his wounds and all that and it is a big controversy that still exists and was thought to be a cover up among the king fish as he was known as hes the first candidate for such a tragedy. Then we asked truman. Hes in an incident that is controversial because there isnt much backing to get. You want to believe. She wrote a study long ago and argued that a zionist terrorist group as she called it that still exist after world war ii and was involved in killing british leaders bringing about terror in palestine before we had israel that they were plotting to kill president truman in 47 because they hadnt been created but it was thought that it was unlikely to recognize jewish homeland if it came about. It was recognized with an 11 minutes being declared in 48 he was out to kill the leaders and Margaret Chernin letter bombs were sent to washington and of course they never got to truman that it was still a possible threat to his life and those who say that its not backed up by a lot of evidence. Why would she do this to some people might say shes antisemitic or antiisrael. The truman should have said hes coming in but im telling you to bite the bullet. But anyway, the point is that is a little debatable. I dont see that it is fact or 100 i cant be sure. The question is do you want to believe the the president stauffer, thats president s daughter, thats the issue. We will see in a moment who should have been if something had happened. But safe to look at the book george c. Marshall was the secretary of state at the time and we will get to a slide that shows you after etd six until 1947 after the Vice President the secretary of state and then the others will follow in the succession and that would be changed in 47 which i think is a mistake and should still be that way and i will explain that thats why he was the secretary of state before the succession act changed. We know that it was a great world war ii general and we also know that marshall worked against the recognition of israel and truman did anyway and then marshall resigned as the secretary of state in 48 and later came back as the secretary of defense of 1950 so i guess they made up that he wasnt for the recognition of israel so that could have affected history if he had command. The plot was changed in 47 but it was is what it is now to get them directly after the Vice President. The speaker of the house is first. Then the president pro tem of the senate and then the secretary of state. I want you to know ive studied this three out of every four years since, the speaker of the house and or the president in and the senate have been of the Opposition Party of the president. That isnt good. There should be continuity but there isnt. After the president and Vice President we have the speaker of the house paul ryan in the other party and from utah the point is it doesnt matter which way it is that we should go back to the cabinet members directly linked to the present but it had then later in the year. I dont think that he would have made much of a president. He would have been alright, he was a military man also that margin, not particularly and i dont think the speakers of the house as being cereal myself although right now the speaker would like to be now that we know. Thats true but generally i dont think of them as being that way and we have good speakers but i couldnt see him as a president. Now we will have a threat against truman looking at the blair house instead of the white house because of the renovation and the two puerto rican nationalists. They saw him from outside and there has been a revote in puerto rico. Some people wanted an independent nation as it has been the result of which was suppressed by the u. S. Military something many people dont even realize just a few days earlier and i guess one of these people were killed in a military assault by puerto rico a few days before in 1950. But what happens is one of them is killed and the other one is wounded. Truman of course is not affected. Hes inside the blair house hes looking out the window and they would say get back because being in the window could be dangerous its very sad and hes buried in a National Arlington cemetery that if he had been killed in 1950, the Vice President barkley and the fullterm because he succeeded roosevelt as Alvin Barkley who defend the Senate Majority leader a solid person considered for this a couple of times by roosevelt a couple of times and truman i think earlier but anyway, he would have been president and good i think. I want to point out he was older than him. That is becoming a trend more than ever. Whats interesting is after he decides not to run hes already in the 70s. Notice the difference now we are going to have the oldest combination of candidates ever. Both will be probably 69 or older it looks like that today is different. We dont look at the same way but the thing thats interesting as he wanted to run but now hes too old like 73. Lets say that he had been able to get the nomination. Lets take he had won and he is a good man. We dont know come he died in 56. Just like if he had been elected he would have died in office, so these are things that after you say think of this. So anyway now i could change it to 1947 and in the succession act of 1947 again i would rather go back to the floor because i think that its continuity and it makes more sense. Okay now the next one of course is john f. Kennedy. John f. Kennedy is threatened other times. We know of the threats when he is president elect and hes in palm beach florida there is a man named richard paul who is the oldest assassin or attempted assassin whos already i think 71 and he has a car with dynamite and he parks right near the compound in the beach and he wants to hang around and the secret service doesnt check him out i dont know why individually he leaves but they tracked him down after the fact and they discover the car has dynamite and he is planning to kill kennedy has president elect he didnt like rich people, the kennedys were rich and supposedly would stop him so he says, he went to prison for a number of years, he saw president elect kennedy. I cant do it in front of them. He might have been killed before he ever got to be president. There could have been no president theodore roosevelt. We might not have had a president elect Franklin Roosevelt if he had been killed. We might never catch on as well. And of course Lyndon Johnson would have taken over if that happened. It seems clear, although some people still say not. But, of course, the tragedy of him being killed by jack ruby means well never really know the truth absolutely, unfortunately. All right. And heres the scene right before the shots are fired. And this is in my book also, this photograph. And just seconds before, all right . And what happens is mrs. Connolly is turning around and saying to the president , mr. President , you cant say the people of dallas dont love you. And he says, you sure cant. And then the bullets are fired. Every time i hear it, you know, i just get chilled by it. Its unbelievable, the tragedy of it all. Because he left us at a time when, as people would say, if he had been around for the whole term, would he have been reelected . Thats a big debate. I am not convinced he would have been, because he was losing the south over civil rights that he was initiating, and he couldnt have won without the south in 19 60. He might have lost. And if he had lost and been a oneterm president , he would never look at good. Oneterm president s never look as good except for one, james k. Polk. Because he didnt want to run again, and he had a good record of accomplishment. Every other oneterm president doesnt look good because theyre defeated. In a way for history, his being killed makes his name look better, i hate to say it. So i say that because ive had students in recent years who said terrible things like i wish george w. Bush would be assassinated. I said, no, dont ever wish violence on anyone. You can disagree and vote against them, i hope they get out of office, but besides, the wrong of that, think about it, if he wants to be killed in office, he wants to become a martyr. Then they realize, yeah, youre right. And i say violence is never the answer, no matter who it is. And thats why i worry and i pray for every one of our candidates this year, that they will all be safe. No matter what they say, no matter what we think of them, leave them alone. Dont harm them. Let us make our decision and live with it. All right. Anyway, so then we have, of course, lbj comes in. We know that. All right, now, next is this is beyond belief. And i was watching on television at the time when Robert Kennedy won the california primary, u. S. Senate for three and a half years actually, two and a half years, i guess, not even three. Two and a half years. Had been attorney general under his brother. Had decided to seek the presidency challenging Lyndon Johnson. Then johnson dropped occupant, and we had Hubert Humphrey replace him and Eugene Mccarthy was oning, the running, the tumultuous election of 68. He did win the california primary and looked as if he might be, not for sure, the nominee of the party if he had lived, and hes one of my 15 might have beens. I believe he would have been, and i think he would have been president. He would have defeated Richard Nixon, i think, because humphrey came close enough. I think very likely rfk would have. But he is killed by Sirhan Sirhan who is a Palestinian Christian immigrant, Palestinian Christian, not muslim point out that. I bet donald trump doesnt know that. [laughter] i bet he doesnt. Probably thinks hes a muslim, right . Because hes an arab from the middle east. And hes killed in the Ambassador Hotel in the kitchen pantry right after the speech that hes accepting the, you know, the victory. Let me go back. I thought there was another one on this. There isnt another one. I thought sirhan is there. What a name, Sirhan Sirhan is going to be given the death sentence, commuted to life. Hes had, i think, 11 appeals or maybe its more to troy try to get out of his life sentence. The only person whos tried to kill a president or candidate whos still in prison, as far as the ones we really know about it, and the argument is he killed him. I think thats why hes not been released. Well see with George Wallace and also with gerald fords attempted assassins, theyve all been released. And hinkley even, reagans, you know, person, assassin, has also had a lot of freedoms parts of the month. All right, but not in the case of siren hand sir hand. All right now, then we have george c. Wallace. And, of course, id the not like and do not like george c. Wallace, but i wrote a book without any political commentary. Gist reported thicks as things as they were. He still had a right not to go what he went through. He divide thed the country, and i wrote an article comparing donald trump to George Wallace and ross perot in different ways, you know . I think definitely a lot of the wallace ideas, thats not healthy x its not good as far as peoples anger. And i do worry that he could be a victim of an attempt because of that. But wallace was attacked, and its right on tv, you can see it. They have footage of it. May 15, 1972, and this is four years after wallace actually wins five states and 46 electoral votes as a third party candidate, the second best performance of the third party ever. But in 72 hes trying for the democratic nomination, and hes going to actually win florida, get that. Hes going to win the state of florida. Which is regrettable. And hes going to win some states. But the fact is, he is shot and paralyzed for life by Arthur Bremer. Arthur bremer. All right. Now, Arthur Bremer is the youngest potential assassin, hes 21 years old, and he just wants attention and that kind of thing. Hed read about Sirhan Sirhan, Lee Harvey Oswald and others, and i want to point this out. This is of interest. Get this. He shot wallace and paralyzed him. He had 26 years of suffering and pain. Surgery every year to try to relieve the pain. Being in a wheelchair but still serving in government again as governor of alabama, he ended up having four terms, and he had one of the longest times in office of any governor. Not the longest, but third or fourth ever, 16 years. In his last term he had a republican opponent, he was a liberal. He had changed his views on civil rights. I think his paralysis changed his mind, and he asked for forgiveness from civil rights leaders. He apologized for his bad behavior and his racist statements that he had always run on. He actually did reform which i think was nice to see. All right. But the fact is while he was being stalked and eventually shot and put into a wheelchair by Arthur Bremer, Arthur Bremer had other people on his mind. He was stalking Richard Nixon during the campaign of 72 as well. He was already president. Now, think of it. Lets say he had shot and killed nixon which could have been, you know, whatever it is. Well, who would have been president . Oh, my god. [laughter] and this person i find very hard to be neutral. Even wallace i could be more neutral on that spire row agnew. Anybody who likes spear row agnew, theyre going to turn it off. We didnt know about it yet, and there was no watergate yet, but he would have been president if that had happened or anytime up until he left office in 1973. And so again, agnew [inaudible] after nixons resignation, he might have been impeached and removed himself unlike nixon instead of nixon. Spear row agnew, the Vice President for four years would have been, hes one of the 15, and im going to make it clear, hes one of the short lists i would say, please, thank goodness we didnt have him. I would also put John Nance Garner on that list and joseph w. Martin. But even martin not as much, the speaker under truman. Id say more agnew than anybody would be just about the worst, i think. All right. So, but beyond that, okay, okay,agnews out of office. We have an attempt on well, not direct, more indirect, but a threat on Richard Nixon by a man named samuel byke, all right . He has a plot thats unique. Hes never going to confront the president directly, so its not eyeball to eyeball. And its something covered up for a long time. And a lot of it was not known until 10, 12 years ago when a movie came out. The assassination of Richard Nixon. Starring sean penn. As samuel byke. And i remember thinking, huh . What do you mean, assassination . It was covered up very well until shortly before 2004, 2005. Then the History Channel had an hour documentary, the plot to assassinate nixon. And we learned more about it. It was really covered up for a long time. What did samuel byke want to do . He wanted to hijack a plane, try to, in the baltimore washington airport. He actually shot and killed the pilot, and i think wounded the copilot, then was shot and killed by, i guess, by airport police. But he wanted them to do was fly the plane from baltimore to washington and attack the white house, hit it. Now, nixon wasnt home that day, but the thought of somebody using a plane to attack the white house in february 74 . 9 11, 27 years early . Thats mind blowing. What other way can you look at it . Its amazing. Even if he wasnt just the thought of anybody attacking the white house. So he is killed, and its pretty much covered up. We dont know much about it. All right. So not everything is told to us, and the argument some people have said to me, about Lyndon Johnson . Why isnt he the list of people threatened . Nothing on the list that we know of, i be with the vietnam war with, nobody threatened him . Apparently not directly, or its just been covered up. Even eisenhower. Not any threats that we know of publicly. There probably are hidden records, but i was not able to get any information on east one of them either one of them. Nixon did, but this one was well covered up for a long time. All right now, so anyway, now and, of course, he was picked by, you know, by the, picked by nixon. Not the first choice, gerald ford. He had other people on his list, nixon, who was under fire and had to pick a replacement for agnew. He had John Connolly, treasury secretary, on his list. And i remember at the time saying, please, dont do that. I did not like John Connolly who, of course, was shot when kennedy was shot. I didnt like John Connolly. He also had george h. W. Bush on his list. Imagine that. He had bob dole on his list. Interesting. He had Ronald Reagan on his list and nelson rockefeller. Interesting and significant in the future. But he ended up picking ford because he figured, nixon, that fords a Vice President , nobody wants to have gerry become president , so theyll keep me in there. No. As hong as hes a decent fellow, honest guy request, gerry ford would be fine. Thats what he didnt understand. He himself will have two assassination attempts which is unbelievable. On september 5th and 22nd, 1975. Two in a month. Two 17 days apart. Amazing. And both by women only cases, only other case is running the boarding house for lincoln. Excuse me, for booth against lincoln. Shes involved in the plot, not actually direct. Here we have lynette squeaky [inaudible] a follower of charles manson. Confronting gerald ford, she has a weapon on her, so its not as direct. But 17 days later in San Francisco Sarah Jane Moore is actually going to point her weapon at the president and is going to lead to, indeed let me see, ive got this one. It shows you both of them. She gets a light sentence, released in 2007. Same thing with Sarah Jane Moore. And heres the scene i have in the book of the Sarah Jean Moore shot and ford looking stunned as the shot is fired and, luckily, it does not hit him. Actually, a marine knocked her hand and, therefore, he was not hurt. Ive mentioned to people look at how hes stunned there, and some of my friends said, wasnt he always . [laughter] well, what is that, you know . So thats the scene thats in my book as well. All right. Now, this is the story of the century. Who would have been his replacement . Nelson rockefeller, the former fourterm governor of new york. The liberal republican who conservatives like Ronald Reagan hated. Even today, particularly now if you said im a republican still, oh, good. What kind . A rockefeller, theyll kick you out of the room. Theyll say youre a communist, probably would be said today. He was very liberal for a republican. He had tried to be president three times. Failed to, but he had tried. All right. But he was picked to be Vice President. Had a whole controversy about it. It lasted four months, the debate, because he was very wealthy, and he was not liked by conservative republicans and southern democrats. Finally confirmed but not easily like ford had been to replace agnew. And twice in 17 days he could have been president of the United States, and it probably would have caused some people to have a stroke or a heart attack thinking, oh, my god, president rockefeller . And after this is over when ford defeats reagan, reagans people make it clear we will not back you in 76 after reagan loses the nomination unless, unless you agree that you will dump rockefeller. He picks bob dole and tells rockefeller, you cant be on the ticket. After the elections over and years later, you know, ford says if i had kept rockefeller, i might have beaten jimmy carter. I think he would have. He lost ohio and hawaii. He might have had it if he had rockefeller because dole was a nasty campaigner against Walter Mondale. I think rockefeller was the better. But rockefeller could have been president and would have been a good one, i think. Reagan, of course, in 81. John hinckley. Actually has about half the month he can go and visit his mother whos, like, 91 years old. I agree with nancy reagan, he should not be free. Hes in a mental hospital, all right . He is seriously wounded. He is not wearing, hes not wearing a vest, you know, a protective vest, neither is the secret Service Agent who is shot and wounded. Could have been very different if they had. Of course, i think back a hundred years, if this had been garfield, he would have been gone, 1881, but this is a different time. And this is john hinkley, of course, whos, you know, comes from a welltodo family, but he had mental illness. Its always mental illness. And, of course, bush would have become president then if that had happened. Of course, he became president anyway. The thing about hinkley, hinkley also was a threat to somebody else. He was stalking president carter months earlier in the Fall Campaign of 80. Lets say he had killed carter, because he was stalking him. And if Walter Mondale had become president , who says with the tragedy of carters death he would not have defeated Ronald Reagan. So maybe Ronald Reagan never would have been president either. Its a possibility. All right. So we have idea here about carter and what would have happened with mondale. And by the way, we just passed january 20th, 35 years since jimmy carter left the presidency and Walter Mondale left the vice presidency, alltime record, 9188 whether you like them or not, youve got to say, wow, this is quite a story. 35 years on january 20th, and theyre still both with us, all right . And theres the review of my book, and that is all i have to say. I also covered the recent president , but i thank you very much for listening. [applause] and i welcome people to come up and ask questions with. Thank you very much, ron. Yes. If youre going to ask a question, please come up to the microphone so that we can be recorded for the cameras, okay . There you go. Ive got a question. You say you would like to see the succession go back to the members of the cabinet, because you felt that or feel that theyd all be the same party. Well sometimes they pick republicans to be secretary of defense, thats true. Thats what i was going to say. Theres a lot of members of the cabinet that are loyal but even the republican picks for the democrats or vice versa, your loyal to youre loyal to the president. So thats why i would think a cabinet member would be better, but its not going to happen, you know . It was changed under the republican 80th congress, and its not going to be changed. But im just saying takes an amendment to the constitution to do it again, does it . Thats even harder. Youve got to get a twothirds vote of both houses to get it and 38 statement legislate which ares. Thats impossible legislatures. Thats impossible. Thank you for the question. Yes. Two unrelated questions. You mentioned there were the five best president s, and you mentioned one. Who were the other four . Let me just give you the other one, and then i can sit down. The next one is, were there any major threats against obama . The five top president s, but going by cspans rating of 2009, and well have another one in 2017, i guess, the top five are, in order, Abraham Lincoln republican, George Washington federalist franklin d. Roosevelt, of course, democrat. Teddy roosevelt, republican, and harry truman, democrat. Now, if i could change that, i would make fdr second and washington third and truman four and g. R. Fifthth. No debate about lincoln. Even Hillary Clinton yesterday request said the best president she believes was lincoln even though shes not of her party. Everybody accepts lincoln pretty much. Except some confederate sympathizers, i guess theres some who hate him, but thats now, the other question of any major threats, yes, the most recent was the one of Omar Gonzalez who got over the fence and got into the white house in september 2014. We had two plots against obama during the campaign of 2008 by young men in tennessee and in denver, colorado. The one in denver would have been to shoot him as he accepted the nomination be, almost like a manchurian candidate kind of a scene as hes speaking. Theres been tons of threats. And [inaudible] threats in the thousands other the years and it is, in a way, miraculous that he has been able to avoid any direct threat. There are always threats. And his wife, too, has had threats. Not as many, of course, but hes had lots of threats, more than anybody other than lincoln by any estimate we have. All right, thank you for that question. Any other questions . Comments anybody wants to make . Ill make another one . Okay, just come up, please. Well be able to hear it later. Thank you. This is not related to the exact topic. You mentioned, keep mentioning trump over and over. It seems to me youre pretty convinced that hes going to get the nomination. Is this what im gathering . No, actually not. My blog, i predicted marco rubio will be the nominee. I actually think he will be. My prediction, which well see. I might point out, not bragging but i am. In 2012 i predicted the Electoral College exactly. Not that i was the only one, but i did. This time i predict an electoral vote. I may be wrong. Maybe i shouldnt put it on tape. [laughter] that Hillary Clinton will be elected president , her running mate will not be who you hear about. I think the issue of ohio is the crucial state, and republicans must win ohio to win the white house. Every single one of them has who have become president other than ford who wasnt elected and lost ohio to carter. And i think whats going to happen is rubio will be the nominee from florida. He will pick kasich of ohio, who i think is the best person, actually, to be his running mate. Florida and ohio, two crucial states. And my prediction is florida will go with the republicans, which it did not the last two times, but ohio will go to the democrats. And how is that going to be with kasich . Because my prediction is, and, you know, i might even write a note to hillary joking saying pick senator Sherrod Brown of. Youve got to think ohio senator Sherrod Brown. Forget about julian cat e troh, forget about Martin Omalley. Youve got to win ohio, and if ohio is on the ticket either way, president or Vice President , pick sherld brown whos not as well known, but hes important and a good guy, to be your running mate. And i predict the electoral vote will be 303235. In other words, every state that obama won hillary will win except florida. Itll be the same except not florida. So it will be a smaller margin. But thats what i predict, and well see what happens. Trump has shocked everybody, so i dont know. Well have to see. I actually have thought at times that it might be people coming to see him and they wont vote for him. Well see what happens next week and the week after. It would be funny if f if it ended up he did not do well at all. But a hot of people like to be around a reality star. Doesnt mean theyre going to vote for him. Well just have to see. I still think rubio will be the nominee. All right. Anyone else have a question . Just come up to the microphone. Thank you. What do you think about the situation with hillary with the fact now that the fbi is practically ready to indict her . Not so sure they are. Thats a lot of propaganda. Theres not been proof of that at this point. If it happens, however, its disastrous. If it happens. I dont think its going to happen. I think a lot of its propaganda. But if it does happen, i think Vice President joe biden will come back and run. And, you know, im a joe biden fan, and last week on John Hockenberry i was asked because i wrote a blog entry a year ago about joe biden, i said he should run for a third term as Vice President. And people say, can you do that . [laughter] on president s, yes, but not on Vice President s. I wrote this in february of last year, John Hockenberry found it, said we want to talk to you about joe biden. Last week i spoke to him for seven minutes. He made fun of it. He said youre a oneman campaign to make joe biden Vice President again. I wonder if joe biden heard this. I followed through, but im thinking, you know something . I like joe biden that much. And whether he runs for something, i think he should be secretary of state if hillary wins. What i thought id do, write him a letter, type a letter up and send him a book signed to his office and tell him about the John Hockenberry interview i and how much i admire him and i wanted to give him the gift of my book. I just sent it off today, you know . I thought maybe theyll just blow it up before it ever gets to him. Theyre going to have to check out that its safe, of course. So i think if hillary falters, i think joe biden would have to enter, because i do not think Bernie Sanders can win the election, unfortunately. Hes a great guy, but i dont think he can win. I think joe biden would come back in. Thats my gut feeling. But its a lot of ifs. After a month or two somebody could watch this tape and say, boy, are you out of date. Its going to be done already. But you asked me, so im answering you. All right . So i thank you for the question. Anybody else want to make a comment or ask a question . Feel free to come up. Yes, thank you. Lets say hillary does not get the nomination and biden is out of the picture because of his family i dont think do you see any dark horse democratic candidate, a viable one . The only one that i talked about was former candidate al gore or former candidate john kerry. Kerry, of course, being active as secretary of state, gores been out of office i dont know. I would think itd be difficult at this point. But thats pretty much it. Theres no real bench of new people. Other than Martin Omalley who east really a good perp whos really a good person, but he has not taken off. Hes a younger generation, hes the kennedy of the 60s, the carter of 76, you know, the clinton of 92 and the obama of 08. But it hasnt happened. He has not taken off. So i dont think its possible to imagine him now being a serious candidate. But hes a good man, you know . There are other people in the party that you could talk about, Kristin Gillibrand of new york, senator gillibrand, but not seriously. Cory booker of new jersey could be thought of, i guess you could talk about Amy Klobuchar of minnesota. But these people would have to have a campaign apparatus, and they would have had to have been planning. So it could be a real problem if hillary was somehow to be forced out which i am sure its not going to happen. I dont think its true. But i think joe biden will be the best bet then to step in that i can think of, you know, really. It would be a problem though, yes. Hopefully, there is no real issue, and i do think its opposition propaganda. Ron, one more question. Okay, one more question. Thank you. With all the republicans in the race right now and there was talk and there still is about a brokered convention, yes, i also believe rubios going to get the nomination, but i think its going to come about because of a brokered convention after three or four ballots. And as old as i am, i remember back in 48 and 52 when 48, a long time ago. 52 when eisenhower and stephenson ran. They were both brokered convention. But we didnt have caucuses and primaries that decide delegates. There were a lot of unpledged delegates back then. There were no caucuses until 72. But they had primaries. They had primaries, but not many states had primaries. Now, itd be very hard to imagine a brokered convention. I by think that would i think that would damage the Republican Party if that happened, if you have a split like that, you know, i really do. Anyway, thank you all very much. [applause] thank you very much. I appreciate it. Booktv is on facebook. Like us to get publishing news, scheduling updates, behind the