In 1997 he began his program hard ball, which heirs on msnbc. He is author of seven bestselling cooks. Tip and the gipper, when politics worked, and kennedy and nix hardball. He. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome me in join me in welcoming chris matthews. [applause] thank you. What an intelligent crowd. I havent seen this much i. Q. , i dont know. It is great stuff. Well, i just came from seattle. The weather is nicer here and its great to come back here. It is wild, outdoorsy crowd here. I dont have to wear a coat or anything. I want to h talk about my book. We have until 11 15. I have only 35 minutes. I dont want to give away the book. It isce inexpensively priced. It is actually a beautiful piece of art. There is picture, my producer and i spent so much time peter and i wanted to get artwork for the book i wanted it to be a beautiful book for a beautiful guy. I wanted him with minority kids reaching out nobody like anybody haske done before. He was first white candidate reached into the Minority Community and really engulfed himself in as much of the culture as he could. The reason i wrote this book, dirt poor, white family along the jersey tracks, in june of 68, dirt poor, the kid has no shirt. We didnt grow up like this, dirt all over you, the father is obviously affectionately patriotic about Bobby Kennedy. This is something democrats have lost, this affection patriotism, gut patriotism of the heart. Obviously has been in the military. He has this crisp salute that he is offering his democratic leader. Thisem is all gone, this connection between the White Working Class and democratic party. I think it has to come back. It has to. [applause] and the salute is everything. The africanamerican crowds that day june of six at this 8 00, i was in grad school at chapel hill. Africanamerican audience, something doesnt happen like this anymore. They sang 20,000 in baltimore, the battle battle hymn of the republic this is americanism. There are fourr things that identify my book and why i wrote it. April 4th, 1968, Bobby Kennedy is campaigning for president. Gone from Notre Dame University to ball state university. A africanamerican student said why do you have for america . Because most black people and white people are good people. When heo got in the car to go to the plane in indianapolis, he got king had been assassinated by a white guy, a racist killing. Why did i tell that kid to have hope . So he getshe to the scene, actually before he gets to this very tough neighborhood in indianapolis,n africanamerican neighborhood, the police leave him, the Police Escort refused to go in. They dont, theyre not going to take the risk. They knew its explosive, the situation. So b bobby goes in anyway. He says, i have to go. So he goes in. He gets up on flatbed truck, looking at this group of africanamericans. Have no idea what happened. There was no twitter and all that crap back then. People heard things word of mouth and waited for cronkite to tell them at 6 30. It wasnt like today. Because i worked with nbc he was able to get the tape. You heard a guy saying next to him, do they know yet . The guy says no. So he has to tell them. And so he gives this, he says, im not going to talk long because i have something terrible to tell you. So he tells them. Initially the crowd is cheering him because theyre so thrilled Bobby Kennedy is there, they dont actually hear his words. Keep cheering he has to keep telling them. We ought to read it because the words are amazing. It is classic, what i like about this speech it is awkward. He talks about how his brother was killed by a white guy. This was an odd thing to say. His brother was not killed for racial reasons. He did try t to connect. He took his skin off to talk to the crowd. He exposed himself. Any true empathy i believe has to be, has to come clothed in vulnerability. You have to be vulnerable to be empathetic. You cant come in say im the tough guy, i have armor on. Our prayers and thoughts are with you, that crap politicians always say. Im so sick of it. You know. [applause] but true empathy comes from pain. It comes from experience. It comes from being a person. You cant have empathy if you dont have that. So i think a lot about the guy was empathy. We dont have it today. Not from our leaders. Our leaders and im not just pointing to the one at the top, im talking aboutne all the ones in. Congress. They read out statements written by staff people who are bored to death, cold toast. That is what we get from these people. The other day when trump came out with the tax bill of his, pelosi or chuck schumer, doesnt matter who reads this stuff, it is same words, oh, it is a ponzi scheme. You original little person. Im so tired of these people. Say something human. Say something that means something to you. Relate to people what this tax thing will mean to their lives. They dontei even bother. It is too much work. Theyre too busy raising money and kissing ass, which is what at the do. [applause] i talked about the train ride. I want to talk about the cuban missile crisis. Now bobby predicted, i mean he wasnt a visionary. He had a couple predictions that were fascinating. One we would have a africanamerican president in 40 years. He was off by seven. That is pretty good. He was damned optimistic. What are the chances of guy like barack obama going on who was absolutely unbelievable of threading needle being africanamerican and a white mother and interesting aspects ofsp immigration that sort of worked for him and being a genius, absolutely 100 clean, like no politician has ever been. [applause] but he nailed that. He also nailed jimmy hoffa. The jimmy hoffa, crooked labor leader, mobbedup leader. He couldnt quit. Hoffa cant quit thehe mob. You dont walk away from the mob. You end up in cement somewhere. We dont know what kind of cement hoffa ended in but we dont think it was a happy ending. He tried to getet out are stay , whatever happened. After bay of pigs, russians will bring Nuclear Weapons into the country. They will bring Nuclear Weapons on the island within a year. He did. Castro says, told the guy, the produced movie 13 days. I didnt want them to bring in offensive weapons. He also said he liked Bobby Kennedy, who knows what he meant. If he said anything right. He did say they were wrong to do it. Those weapons castro were bringings not to defend castro from us. They were to reach every city in the United States this side of seattle. They were offensive intermediate Nuclear Weapons aimed at balancing off the soviet imbalance with us in Nuclear Weapons. Had nothing to do withh defendig cuba. They were aimed at us. Castro would have been standing there, im sorry in central park if the war had gone the other way, watching us all being executed. He would have loved it. Cuban missile crisis, when that happened, bobbys first instinct like often was in situations which are tricky was, lets go get them. Lets bomb the hello out of them. Then theyy realized if he and hs brother jack, if we moved on cuba, that khrushchev was ready to move on west berlin. If he moved on west berlin we were outnumbered on conventional forces we would have to go nuclear. He could see the Chain Reaction it would have started. Then jack said you have to calm down these hawks. You know what he did . He went into the room of hawks, bundy and curtis lemay, things like that, you know what . Were not empire of japan. We dont pull sneak attacks. We dont go in and kill everybody without notice just because we want to gain a strategic advantage. Were not like them. Unfortunately george w. Bush never got that memo. [applause] so, he made a lot of great call. He made a lot of mistakes in his youth. Joe mccarthy, then he turned on him. The thing iob liked about bobby was his character. When he turned against joe mccarthy, he thought mccarthy went way too far fighting communism and abusing witnesses and demagoguery, he wrote the resolution condemning him on behalf of democrats that down. Bring him when mccarthy drank himself to death, took him three years to do it. He was apparently determined to drink himself to death, bobby stayed with him as a person. Would to to his family and sit there with mccarthy sat across in his stupor. He would write in his diary how mccarthy was drunk the last three hearings. Im irish. I understand this thing. I understand the whole thing. The clan. Look out for a guy that grew up like you did even if he goes bad. I understand it. All the time he was risking his brothers political career, he didnt want to be friend of joe mccarthy entering the 60 election because mccarthy was out of favor with the country. He was at the National Airport with his daughter kathleen, a friend of mine daughter and friend of my wife even more. She was six years old, with daddy, that is how she talks of course, withh daddy. Daddy gets the word over the car radio that joe mccarthy drank himself to death. He was at bethesda naval hospital. He was so overwrought by this, that he drove around the airport three times. Then when it came time to bury mccart think, by the way 70 senators showed up for his service at the capitol. Four of them went off to appleton, wisconsin. Bobby snuck along on the plane. When he got there got a ride with the reporter, but begged him to say he was never there. He went s to the funeral site, watched from the car as they buried mccarthy. He didnt want anybody to see him there. Politicians are not like this. Politicians are for show, most of them. He had a character because he did things he thought was important. Thatat is why people believed h. Why his enemies feared him because he would actually do what he said he would do. When he announced for president , nixon is watching from portland, oregon from the hotel. Bobby announced for president , march 16th, day before st. Patricks day. Nixon is watching, somebody turns off the television, nixon still staring at the tv set. It is almost like, twilight zone. Nix southern starts with that weird thing of this, forces will be unleashed we can not imagine. Who knows where this is going to lead. Because the kennedys had this sort of atmospheric connection to this country. People feared them. Some hated them. People loved them. They excited us. I think in most cases in a very positive way. By the way when jack kennedy went to debate nixon in 1960, bobby was his corner man. When he said goodbye to him in the green room, what did he say to his brother . Kick him in the balls. [laughter]. Who doesnt wantan a brother lie that . You know is behind you. On other hand Henry Cabot Lodge said to his running mate, he said erase the assassins image. That is morale booster. I look like an assassin trying not to look like one too much during the debate. Jesus. Anyway i know what this book is about. I didnt realize it until i spent the last crazy six, seven months, intensely writing it. So to be as good as it is. It is about the writing i guess, and research. All the research is based on people i know, gotten to know very well. Frank mankewicz, Ethel Kennedy kathleen kennedy. People really close. Tip oneill i worked with all those years. This is almost inside stuff, stuff nobody else knows about. So, the book is about, i wrote this in the beginning, the book is about when america could use this, a leader today, is what we lack today. And what we lack is empathy, for real people, true empathy, not known phony, bs religion, truegi religious belief, when bobby talked to the black crowd in indianapolis, say a prayer for our country, he meant it. Prayer meant somethingng to him. And secondly unity. He tried to bring blacks and whites together. When he went through gary, indiana, not like ron howard zing about it in the the music man. It is tough ethnic town, with long unspellable names from europe and blacks moving in with the crisis and anger. Talked to the richard hatcher, the first black mayor and tony zell, remember him, guys into boxing. He was the other guy in somebody up there likes me. The paul newman movie about rocky graziano. Everybody my age, we grew up with boxing. It was everything growing up, boxing. Empathy, unity, a moral compass. Somebodyll who actually as president , we like to think the time were kids, watching robin hood movies, king richard the lie on heart shows up, he will be the right person. When with it comes down to judgment we dont have anything in our leadership. We dont have trueth empathy. War widow, we dont have unity because the person at top wants division, if he gets his 40 he is happy. If he can get 35, he is happen. As long as he gets that. Division is working in america. People against him play the same game. I dont hold them as accountable because theyre reacting, both sides plays the division game. Gets more money into the coffers. Thirdly we like a moral compass, someone can remember when it comes to the crunch isnt political anymore, tell us the right decision. How do we deal with north korea . How do we deal with some of these crises . How do we deal with iran . Do we have moral judgment that helps us. We need a moral judgment. Something moral to guide you. And i think we need all those things if Bobby Kennedy and your spirit is running against donald trump this year, youve got a good candidate, you have got a good candidate. I hope you read the book. I love writing it. I think bobby is more interesting than jack he more like us. He iss accessible. He wasnt gifted. He wasnt elegant. Even ethel admitted that. He was awkward. Maybe thathy is why he understod the overlooked. A friend of mine said, ways in the peace corps, he talked about his love life with women, he was amazing that way. He said people dont mind being used, they mind being discarded. Isnt that everything, discarded . Ever since we started this archie bunker thing in the early 70s making fun of white working people we kissed them good buy. You make fun of people, you get down on them, they get message. You call them deplorable. You cling to the guns and my religion . Okay, i cling to my religion. A a little person. I will vote are to the other guy this time. I think we need some unity again. And this is the guy. Thank you. [applause] thank t you. I will take questions. Imuy told i have got 18 minute. I be glad to, try to stick generally to the book. I know there is a lot of stuff but whatever. Im here. Go ahead. Go ahead. Please. Your voice must be heard. I hope i have half men and women here. Man explain something over. Lets mix it up. [applause] i have often thought how much betterer life would be today if enbby kennedy had not left us, often, often thought that. Im no glad you wrote the book. Thank you. I look forward to reading it. And maybe the answers are in there but i wanted to ask, would bobby be successful today and is there another Bobby Kennedy among us . That is the hardest question but let me think. I think his brothers tribute to him at st. Patricks cathedral after he died was pretty good, he saw suffering tried to heal it, he saw war, tried to stop it. I think of the vietnam war, and i understood. I was part of that growing up, communism, and i did think the world was being taken over by communism. I understand how he didnt want to doan it. Andry germans, taking one county at a time i get all that. That was pretty clear by the mid 60s, we were not going to win over there. The people saw it as national listic struggle, it was them against europeans, against us, the french, then us. Bobby said i think he would have tried to end the war. I thinkhe the war was two times longer than it had to be. If you go to war in washington, with all the names of People Killed i think half as many. If the warn ended in 69, by the same terms we got in 73. We get the pows we come home. That wasnt much of a deal from the communist side, they got us to leave. You to. That is all they wanted us to do. That is what the war was b we leave, let us take our prisoners back with us. They could have cut that deal anytime they wanted to. It was a good deal for the side. Ist i dont think we gained anything by staying there. When you watch the movie, documentary, im sure everybody watched it on pbs, it was just politics. Johnson, even worse nixon, sticking it out so to get elections. Lives for kissinger comes off horribly. He is still celebrated. I dont get it. I think things were i think division we have this country between the classes, between the hard hats as we called them and long hairs, town versus town, all that stuff really got aggravated in the 60s. It never really left us during watergate. It kept getting worse, rural versus urban. Everybody in this room knows what im talking about this fight, just seems to be the definition of every election now. Reagan democrats, trump people. People are angry on both sides, faxes mean nothing, depend on your side. Alabama, four weeks, well see what happens down there. I think, tough one down there only alternative to moore is a liberal democrat basically. Prochoice liberal democrat. I just think abortion issue could go away, we dont recognize up here or down here, but down here is also like up heree so. I think that is a tricky one to watch but i do think doug jones will win. I think. Hi, chris. For three years. He will t be in there three yea. Will bring somebody else with a conservative with all those problems. Im judy. Thank you for the book. Thank you. I see at the end of the book, it says that bobby saw the election at that time, as a fight for the soul of america. We are now in that fight bigtime. He does mention our peace corps andd what that did, the inspiration that came from that. He saw youth getting involved with drugs and that is becoming more and more materialistic. I stopped teaching. I see long lines for the new iphone, what have you, but still just as i was optimistic about peace corps and the domestic peace corps in the years when i was young and i worked for bobbys election from the ann arbor campus i see that, i have to have faith in the young people. What do you see . I see that they they are people with plenty of young people out there that want an america like the america i loved and are beginning to doubt. How do you see the young people . What can be done . Well i look at my kids, i look at my kids. I dont do polls. I. Look at my kids and theyre very, very ideal listic. They just are. They probably vote the way you want them to. They are very, l almost pristine in their liberalism. Im not worried about it. What i would like you to do bring the book to the College Campuses and a to speak there. Okay. I love, want to book me . Im there. Okay. Im there. I on any college campus. I will get 34 honorary degrees. I love it. I have about, i ha