Inc. You. So weve had the fortune of having Many Political journalists both print and broadcast speak your over the years. But the one we have with us tonight and discovered six u. S. President s beginning with president reagan. And speaking of president reagan, we are first introduced to kent back in 2002, when he handful of other experts he must the Reagan Library to share stories about president reagan and our air force one, 27000 pretty stories we have been used to make visitors experience in our air force one that much more rich. Since then he is come to other times to the discussed and signed copies of his book. Pressures of the white house in 2013 and ultimate insiders white house photographers and how the shift history in 2017. Since hes been covering the white house since 1986, i am sure he has no other material for many more books and especially since today he continues to provide insight into the white house of donald trump in the world the president ial campaign. And perhaps maybe he will share insight to the upcoming elections. But he is here tonight to discuss the greatest book, president ial leadership in crisis defining moments of the modern moment from Franklin Roosevelt to donald trump. In president ial historian, kent walsh one of the nations truest observers of the presidency takes leaders on the tour and how is 14 presence resolve crises became the way and how i 15th, donald trump regards crises is the norm rather than the the exception and incorporated them into his management style. Anyone interested into how power is exercised, will come away enriched. Both success and failure of the highest level of american government. So lets hear some tells shelley, ladies and gentlemen, smite in honor to introduce kenneth walsh. [applause]. Kenneth thank you all for coming. I will be talking about some challenging times at the president s face printed and we had some challenging times getting here tonight. Including me. I was just in san francisco. Anna did some programs of their and one think that is being canceled right after another. As you will know. And all of the lift drivers, fellows who are out there making money from what we used to think as a taxi Service Starting to get the surgical mask now. Its hard to hear them and understand what they are saying. So all i heard was can i help you. So its just sort of a precaution they are taking been and what they are doing it in any case, i want to thank melissa for having me and thank you all for coming under these extraordinary circumstances. Then when youre White House Correspondent not been one for 30 years, and probably six president s, youre always looking for different ways to see the president and get insights into them. Find out what they are like his people, the personalities of character and policies, their gender is gone. Matthew number of ways to do that through my books. And one i wrote one on air force one printed in putting together the exhibits, and nancy reagan was nice enough to write a note about that. And to see what the president s were like on air force one. And celebrities, or cultured how the presence behave and so forth. And they participate in popular culture. It also occurred to me since i covered the white house for so long, the presence, the every present ive covered every modern resident has to deal with a major crisis of some kind. Maybe this was not so true early in our history when we did have mass media miscommunications but no, we are in all of those things are true and so the president s always have to do some kind of a crisis. Welcome back to this later but President Trump it particularly interesting because he seemed to thrive on the idea of christies printed and some he generates himself. And he sells the prices name like the idea that hes emerged victoriously in the crisis now he is dealing with the crisis unlike any he is had to do it before with completely out of his control and to start with. In this virus that we are talking about. And he has never dealt with something. And he is a businessman, hes had some experience but a lot of other things he dealt with but not this. I think and i will talk about this in a few minutes but basically, it is up in the air now. How do we evaluate present trump in dealing with this coronavirus. He still can correct some of the problems that we have had initially, some of the confusion in lack of understanding with the country once from the president in this situation. But he can recover thats what were going to about in a little bit. I cant resist showing you the cover of my book. [laughter]. But we cant go into much detail in all of this but i just want to give you a sense of some of the things that i discovered in looking at this whole concept of the president s and prices as the defining moments for these different president s. I did come up with a series of standards that i developed. Im historian in my own right and how president s deal with crisis and basically what i think the people for the public wants, and the historians expect his personal taking action, and secondly adopting to the changing circumstances, and balancing principal with what works and persevering, and having an instinct for achieving success. And that is all wrapped up in what i am about to talk to about evaluating the different president s. This is sort of a summary of those that i give you. In our youre talking about the next few minutes. He changed his mind as time went on and became a moral issue with him. During the ridging of the war, union had terrible setbacks initially and he had been in that military earlier in his life briefly he had a lot to learn. That is one thing about president s and crisis. Our they willing to listen and learn . Lincoln was willing to do that. This was little. Talk about adapting to changing circumstances and doing what works, he hired mcclellan, fired him, hired him again, fired him again because it wasnt chasing down the confederate armies like lincoln wanted him to do. You can see perseverance as well so that very clearly in his dealing with the civil war. Of course he won the civil war, ended up abolishing slavery, i just want to show you one other alike to show these pitchers when i discussed lincoln this was before he took office, shortly before he grew his beard. His giving up famous speech that outlined his agenda. Keep this in your minds, this is the way he looked when he took over as president before he grew his beard. Three weeks before he was killed, the ravages of the war had taken such a toll on him, that he became to embody the suffering the country was going through the civil war. Is very important even in the south it was among the free and slave people he was father abraham. He had gone through such trauma with all the deaths he was ordering himself. He also lost a son during the civil war, it was not due to the war but due to a fever he had. Its amazing of the toll he took on lincoln the best crisis manager weve had as president. During the early 1930s and through the thirds we had a terrible terrible economic calamity. Unemployment today is about 4 the report is just a little less than 4 we dont like it when it gets up to eight, nine or 10 one out of every three people were looking for work, basically men at the time thats with the culture was. Couldnt find it so they had to go to soup kitchens. This was considered humiliation to ask for charity, to ask for help. People felt it was their fault that they couldnt find work. People were tremendously upset by the whole circumstance. Ive a couple of images here wanted to get to this one of people lined up, just to get coffee and donuts. This all dressed up really well if they had to get dressed up to do this whats happening as people were clamoring for some help there so desperate prayers at terrible economic calamity for people, Franklin Roosevelt stepped in to do that. One thing roosevelt did in addition to what im talking about he actually had persevered in a specific way and that is reflecting optimism. Thats what he is known for. Every president since roosevelt has adopted this technique including president reagan by the way who admired president roosevelt all his life. He had been a democrat and became a republican of course, reagan did, he likes roosevelt because the optimism he could convey to the community. This is giving a fire side jet. He is the media of his time, radio, which every american could have access to. He is his own radio or neighbors pretty scheduled what he called fire size Entrance Side chats talking directly to the country about the depression, what hes doing, this is him talking about the banks. He had a very clever way of doing what he was doing, having the federal Government Act for the economy instead of talking not shutting down banks, making sure banks were solid. He called it a bank holiday its a pretty clever term, much lighter and nonthreatening idea. He was closing banks. He went out and he gave the fireside chat, did throughout his administration. We could walk to the city, town, hamlet with their windows open you can hear Franklin Roosevelts words because such incredible Market Penetration as they call it now, or people wanted to listen to the president. You can hear him really just about anywhere you went. It was her tremendously effective thing he did with these fireside chats. This is an example of the roosevelt optimism its an optimism people of certain age member i cant talk too long about each when theyre all in the book. Of course president roosevelt dies in april 1945, harry truman becomes president. Truman had a lot to prove. A lot of people did not think he was up to the job lot of people felt we had president roosevelt for four terms he was elected to a fourth term just before he died. How are we going to survive without Franklin Roosevelt . During the truman. We had the korean war this is an example of what those soldiers had to go through during the korean war very terrible conditions initially the war did not go well then the war started to get better, partly because we had a general who so Many Americans admired, from world war ii, douglas macarthur. When i suggest to illustrate harry truman was firing General Macarthur. A lot of historians will do defining moments of president s in terms of military conflicts are war and peace they have to deal so many things now ive chosen to illustrate this book with examples that are not just war and peace but other things that were defining moments for the president this was firing macarthur. This took a great deal of political courage to fire mccarthy he was one of the most popular people in the country during the pacific he said he would return to the philippines he became the Supreme Leader of japan he launched a brilliant move to do an invasion of the north, very risky but Successful Operation South Koreans are made farther and farther north, pushing the North Koreans back. They get too close to the chinese have bordered in the chinese ordered hundreds of thousands to the troops to push the allies of the americans back again almost forcing them off the korean peninsula. I had to push their way back up again. During this period when the chinese enter, mccarthy started to say this is a different war now, i need to do things differently. Talk about using Nuclear Weapons used on my bombing the chinese mainlands is talk about bringing the nationals chinese in which was an outrage to the chinese. Harry truman kept telling them publicly, we are not doing that. Were not bringing the soviets into its a cold war we dont have a wider wars over truman it became a concept of civilian control of the military is seeking length is very popular general run the war the way he wanted or the president his best be the commanderinchiefs poster run the war. So truman met mccarthy in the pacific to see really what the general was up to. The meeting went okay, they did not get along very well. Then macarthur started to make these very aggressive comments again and truman fired him. The huge firestorm. Now historians basically feel it was the right thing to do, he was defending the constitution with principles and control. Very unpopular at the time. The cost truman a lot of support but he defended it. People who write the history books feel it is was the right thing to do. At the time it was a tremendous gamble for truman but this is an example of a political military related defining moment that this president did and the representatives respective did very wellin dealing with it. President eisenhower whiffed to go rapidly here i want to be respectful of your time. President eisenhower generally considered a successful one, to terms they want to return to normalcy and eisenhower delivered that. He initially got along pretty well this soviet leader cruised off. He was still worried during the cold war about the soviets were up to so we authorized you to fight some of these were spy planes over the soviet union. These planes flew tremendously high altitudes beyond soviet technology of being able to shoot them down until the soviets improve their technology. And then we authorized several of these spy flights before International Conference in 1960. He thought about the capstone of his presidency germany, france, uk, paris. He once the spy mission, about three weeks before this International Conference is supposed to happen and wouldnt you know, the soviets shot that went down. It was a tremendous blow to the prestige of the americans. Look like were the war mongers and all of the sorts of things. Initially president eisenhower had a lie about it he said it was not a spy flight it was a weather mission. He made a bad judgment here and he admitted later it was the worst mistake of his presidency it set both sides back of the cold war. He is from his advisors he got was this youtube planes could not survive an attack, they were very fragile, the pilot would not survive the pilot also had a poison needle to inject himself with so he could kill himself. The soviets not only felt the debris they captured the pilot. Chris just showed the degree in very wellpublicized exhibits in moscow and said not only are the americans the warmongers, flying over our country, but eisenhower is a liar. Which is a blow because he pried himself of being honest politician. Hurt his reputation. Soviets played this, the Public Relations on it much better than the americans thought they would. They canceled the paris meeting which cruised off went immediately engine initially and he wanted eisenhower to not have anymore those missions. He felt he was being bullied so waffled on it. It was real Public Relations mess for the United States. This is a case for the defining moment did not go well. By large eisenhower years were considered a success. Nothing you have president kennedy with kruschof these elected in 1960 takes office in 1961 a few weeks after he takes office, we have the bay of pigs invasion. Where American Forces support xl trying to take it from cruised off. It was a disaster they felt we didnt give them air support or do what we said we were going to do. He said the Eisenhower Administration had come up with for the invasion but it didnt work. Its a tremendous setback. So he goes ahead and meets with kruschof and he has the bay of pigs and the meeting in vienna kruschof concludes he is weak, callow, inexperience and he can get the better of him. So what happens . We have one of the most dramatic and dangerous moments in the cold war which is the human missile crisis pitting kennedy against castro ecl close cuba is to florida. The soviets were installing offensive missiles that could have reached much of the United States mainland and wiped out millions and millions of americans. They felt we have recognizance, getting picture of the sites, felt he couldnt let it go. So there 13 days and a lot of rhe creations of television and movies. Some are very good by the way. He goes to many, many arguments within the administration on what to do. Invading cuba, bombing cuba, a lot of things. Lenny comes up with quarantines weather than of blockade. Consider seven acts of war, calling it a quarantine but it is a blockade softened the impression for the world committee. Kennedy gives a speech, just a boy then, you can see little illustration on how people worth this. His people in the Department Store on the Television Section one watching the president on tv. He got tremendous coverage. It was very dangerous because we did not know how the soviets were going to respond. One thing after another. A couple of things kennedy had an is Crisis Management not only perseverance but learning from experience that notion of him changing with circumstances. When he felt there were openings for peaceful resolution of this and he took them rather than keeping pushing khrushchev intracorporate is learning from experience. Also he had learned from the qb and missile crisis he learned from the bay of pigs that some of his military advisors a general militaries pushing him towards a confrontation he didnt want to have coming we didnt listen to his generals as much as he had earlier. I think most historians would agree this is a good thing for him to do. Did not want to be pushed into being. [inaudible] so the confrontation ends, kennedy gets a lot of credit for this for could have later theres a deal we traded, out loaded missiles in turkey and promise not to invade cuba for the removal of the missiles. Theres some definite Communication Strategies that went on here as well. My concluding point unflappable kennedy really understood the stakes and the risk that were being taken in the end it turned out very prudent and the sensible way of dealing with this. Hes given credit for that in history and his defining moments. Linda johnson takes over after kennedys assassinated theres the vietnam war. Here is a photograph from the tet offensive. Remember that of generative 68 its a move, the north vietnamese and the vietcong. The communist forces, South Vietnam launched attacks all over the country of South Vietnam took the americans and South Vietnamese by surprise. Basically the United States has won most of the battles the problem was, it made clear we were a long way from winning vietnam. The enemy was not going to give up even though president johnson said they were. That there is light at the end of the tunnel. As a Public Relations victory. If not a military one. This led to more intense and site war feeling member of protest johnson had to deal with, as a war criminal Vietnam Veterans are people in vietnam protests, veterans and others protesting it. I can november than i was in college in these days johnson could not speak outside of the white house because you have these often violent protest. He had to speak in military bases and conservative College Campuses otherwise he was a prisoner of the white house for much of this time. Remember the chance that would go up, hey hey lbj, how many kids did you kill today . We talk about how harsh politics is today, but that was pretty harsh. Lyndon johnson has to decide what is going to do about this or slot interpretations about what he does the political crisis that in the end he handled well he goes on television, talking about a bombing pause and he announces hes not going to run again. He says i will not seek nor will i accept a nomination of my party. This caught the country by surprise, it was a tremendous shock, people were stunned that johnson would do this. Hes wanted this all of his life and he loved being president. I think in reconstructing this is one of his defining moments that ended his presidency, he really did the right thing he knew he would face a real struggle being reelected pretty could have been reelected actually because he was a very strong figure he didnt want to polarize the country and he didnt want to pull the country apart so is the right thing for him to do. I think most historians would agree with that these days. Again moving quickly, president nixon, nick said of course wanted to be the tough, firm leader. He was face with the watergate scandal which is the issue i chose to deal with for nixon. He violates all of the standards look at president s under those conditions pretty does not adjust to changing circumstances. They perseveres in trying to save his presidency but not dealing with the problems and abuses the watergate scandal showed. He did not take action until too late. He goes on and on. So he stonewalls congress, as the houses moving to impeach him, he resigns. So he is not impeached. But you remember the scenes, heres the pain in pat nixons face, thats his wife is hes leaving the white house as he gets on the helicopter and flies away to go to california. I think this is another case where the president does not do wellin a crisis situation. I think initially if nixon had owned up to what happened in the watergate burglary and not try to cover it up, he probably could have survived it. Because the democrats were not offering alternatives to what he was doing that the country was going to accept. This is a case where he was his own worst enemy in many ways. In handling his definitive crisis as president. General ford takes over, he was Vice President , he pardons nixon and thats the case i is for gerald ford. We have to talk about this a great deal explained in confidence in detail the book. Ford decides if he does not end at the nixon controversy somehow, he will be devil bye for his entire presidency. Nixons going to be a figure casting a shadow on his whole presidency. So does pardon richard another big gamble he took. This probably cost him his own bid for the presidency and 7076 when jimmy carter won. People want him to make more of a price they felt nixon had paid a price with humiliation and leaving office all the fightings that were made about that administration parity pardon nixon at the time is very unpopular decision but took a lot of political courage for him to do this. I think he was sort of exonerated by history by this and even the kennedy family, ted kennedy was very, very critical of ford for pardoning nixon, later gave ford an award saying i was wrong, senator kennedy said in ford was right, pardon me nixon. There is a redemption for gerald ford. This is jimmy carter, this is the iranian hostage crisis. We still have iran in the headlines today. This is a case where the shot of arendt was an american illini left the country, religious zealots took over, took control of iran. He was widely despised for supporting the shaw who was brutal towards his people. When the shaw had left, he wanted to have treatment for some terrible physical problem he is having in the United States. The question was over going to let him in the United States may strip opposition in iran that we were supporting this hated figure there. This is after hed been deposed. Curtis did okay its probably the humane thing to do will let them have the treatment here he had been an illini of the United States for long time. These people go and take over embassy and capture their people a minute come back to the advisors and say what we do now, and thats exactly what happens. Students and radicals took over the embassy they captured about 60 of our people and held him for a year carter was unable to get them out he tried everything he could possibly do, this is a case where he was derided for instead of taking action which is one of the standards i have for president s and defining moments, he called for prayer, he said pray for our captive americans the case of a National Cathedral ceremony. He was stricken by it, almost froze his presidency for a year. Finally after the pressures growing on him he launched a mission. This is at the center of my critique for carter for the iranian hostage situation. To get the hostages. What happened was the military told carter this but everything had to go perfectly for this mission to have any chance at succeeding. Hewitt helicopter sue had to go into the desert, meet up with other helicopters, find other people from the country who knew how to go and get into the embassy, fly them to tehran, a hostile city and not a small place. Get to the embassy, fight your way through the embassy, find the embassy get back on the helicopters get the helicopters back to the ships. So every phase everything could go wrong at any time. It will wrong in the first phase, the helicopters ran into each other. The helicopters ran into each other, it was a terrible blow to carters presidency and president reagan got them out. The day he took office, how much it was it reagan how much was it it was a terrible blow to carters pregnancy unchecked presidency and he never got better. President reagan this is him when he was shot its the case i used in the book for his crisis, the ultimate personal crisis because he almost died from this. He was giving a speech in washington only a few weeks after he took office is getting into his limousine and is he reached the limousine John Hinckley junior, a star struck deranged young man wanted to impress the actress jodie foster, shot the president he ended up hitting his press secretary d. C. Policeman, secret Service Agent and one of his rounds bounce off the side of the limousine and hit reagan and the side. This is the exact moment he was hit by the peaceable. You can see hes looking over at the shooter. This picture won a pulitzer prize. He pushed reagan into the limousine, he feels tremendous pain he thanks the secret Service Agent who pushed admin, had broken one of his ribs so he cost him. But this time he was bleeding from the mouth and frothing. The agency were not taking you back to the white house mr. President were taking you to the emergency room. They had not done that hamel surely would have died. The personal courage and the personal grace under pressure of an individual person under this tremendous burden of being shot. He gets to the hospital and he always felt like the president should act like the president. So this happened by instinct of president ragan because he had been a movie actor and im not saying it critically. He felt he had a role to play he gets out of the limousine, buttons up his suit jacket, walks into the emergency on his own power and then he collapses. He did not want people to see vulnerability. He does almost died. The doctors do their best to save him. He benefits from amazing good fortune turns out the day he was at the hospital there was a conference were some of the most prestigious specialist in many types of surgery were there for a conference. They were all there when he was shot so they could help them. They left the conference to help with the surgery. So then came the post operative part of it which was also brilliant and many ways because reagan understood the importance of the spotlight he was on and he had to show the country is capable of handling this and recovering hes a man in his 70s, remember . And we had two president ial candidates who are going to be in their 70s now. [laughter] actually three if you consider bernie sanders. He understands the country needs to see him so he handled that very, very well. It was very carefully orchestrated. I put this as a plus because it was a very important time for the country, for the soviet union to see if our president was so weak they could take advantage of them so we conveyed the idea that he was up to this that he could rise to the occasion. He could recover in an almost miraculous way. They arrange for him to meet at the hospital with the senior advisors, which he does. He looks frail to me doesnt he look that which you . Obviously he has had a trauma here. But it works. The country is very respectful of him and believes the president does have the personal courage and grace under pressure we price and much he perseveres. Also he shows he has support around the country this is a card that the staff arrange to be sent to him, as white house staffers being photographed as a get well card for the president pretty does other things that are very clever. To show he would recover, an elderly man pumping iron and so on rather soon after his being shot. It was amazing tour to four reagan with this personal calamity is going through it helped his agenda. I was covering congress at this time just before i got to cover the white house. A lot of americans felt that they were going to give him the benefit of the doubt because of how he dealt with this personal practice i could remember i was like to talk to cabdrivers when im somewhere to get a sense of what everyday people think i cant tell you the cabdrivers who said i took he took a ebola to the chest and kept coming. I didnt like him at first by like him now. I think thats what a lot of people tell me this is the image of course he was left with he never had another calamity like that he did have skin cancer and colon cancer and such he did end up with this image as the leader charging ahead with his agenda which is the image she wanted all along. President bush takes over his Vice President he wins that 1988 election he watches the persian gulf war president bush was a master Coalition Building and again if you apply my standards to this, he does live up to all of the standards, taking action, combining principal with reality persevering and so on. This is him when he visits the troops after he organized his massive coalition to drive iraq out of kuwait which they had invaded to get their oil for other reasons. He waved, it could be awkward but he handled the situation very well. We finally went to work, it was a massive success for the americans. And for our allies. In all the years ive covered the white house this is when i saw the white house operate better than of ever seen them before. We all know what this is, this is the big crisis for bill clinton the monica lewin see and lies scandal he had an affair this young intern lied about it under oath so he handles it very badly. If he had admitted it, he probably could have been okay. But he did not, he lied about it. This is the famous press conference he had hillary was there and he is saying i did not have sexual relations with that woman, ms. Lewinsky, thats exactly what he said and thats a lie he did. He was caught. There were all kinds that whole year he was investigated and under impeachment proceedings, has a journalist i was covering things i never dreamed i would be covering ever in my career about the president of the United States and his behavior with this young woman. Just unbelievable. They felt betrayed they felt he had taken this fundamental risk and was so selfindulgent to risk his presidency the job hed wanted all of his life or something to end up being as salacious and dangerous as what he did. He was impeached, course impeachment is a charge, that the house levees. And then the Senate Acquits him. That is just what happened to President Trump by the way. The blemish remained on clintons record of the impeachment. By the way i think that blemish will remain on President Trumps record to even though you can argue it was partisan. It certainly was but still in the history books. What happens with clinton is that by the end of his presidency he has persuaded the country that is public leadership as president was more important in evaluating him and his crime and behavior. A lot of people felt he was a scoundrel. By the end of his presidency is impeached and acquitted. By the end of his presidency he is a popular president again because they feel i guess we cant have the president as a role model anymore. The outcome of his big crisis is a fundamental difference of perception we have had in the presidency. We separate the public president from the private president. Thats a big change for us we wanted the president to be a role model throughout our history. A lot of president s have them at clinton did but its kept quiet. Now its different and thats a big change. The other point about clinton is if we had that me too Movement Today that we had back then i dont think he wouldve survived. Charges were not taken as seriously then as they were now, at least not as intensely. If we had that then i dont think he wouldve made it through. Of course, 911. The destruction of the world trade towers with high jacked aircraft. Terrorists, the pentagon was hit also, this is president bushs son. He is a little off balance when he first handled this, a lot of people wondered about his ability to be strong and resolute in a crisis. This is when he was first told of the second plane hitting the second tower. Of course i was covering the presidency of this time. He was at an Elementary School in sarasota florida, one of his aides said up playing his hit one of the trade towers in new york. And nobody knew why. To the president told me later he said i thought maybe the pilot had a heart attack. Sort of fun realistic initial impression. Nonetheless he goes out and hes on camera in his chief of staff whispers in his ear a second plane has hit the second tower, america is under attack. That starts the global war on terrorism that he launches. He is off balance, the first day he does not come back right away to washington. Which i was critical of initially by think he was right about that. There was such chaos for example on air force one the pilot of the plane was so unsure of what was happening he asked a secret Service Agent that was a friend of his to stand guard at the cockpit so no one would take over the plane. I was that that was amazing. The pilot of air force one asking a secret service guy to protect the president for mean the plane being taken over while flying parade thats what happen paired we had an initial period with chaos and insurgency. Then president bush settles in. This is probably the most memorable moment of his presidency he goes to her that trade towers had been, smoldering in the background. Set up burned out fire truck and starts of chalk in the First Responders that we cant hear you, we cant hear you. He grabs a bullhorn, grabs a guy up from the crowd, First Responder whose ends up being a retired First Responder who came back for that day. He says i hear you, and the people who knock down these buildings will hear all of us pretty soon. Thats exactly what the president says so he passes that initial test. I think as time goes on you can reassess how he handles the longterm crisis, the war in afghanistan, iraq which his father did not do because he thought it would be too much of an obligation or still living with the consequences today. The initial part of the taxis handled very well. President obama and the financial crisis when he took over. This is a clever Time Magazine cover comparing him to Franklin Roosevelt who had to deal with the depression, i talked a little while ago. President trump, president obama had to deal with a pretty awesome meltdown it was a fundamental economic crisis. You remember that era was major banking institutions, lending houses were going under and so on. He had to decide whether it was best to get it over with as soon as possible, and alienate some people who thought he was going too far with the federal government or was he going far enough in punishing the bankers and so on . A lot of liberals the Democratic Party felt he did not go far enough, he should have punish the banks and put these people in jail, but he did not do that. He does get past the initial meltdown. The economy does recover we have to give them credit for that they do persevere they bounce principal with pragmatism. He understands taking action was important and he does have an instinct for success in this. One of the things he did, which was particularly controversial he rescues the audio industry he gives the Auto Industry loans and financial aid, which was tremendously controversial. A lot of americans felt is the Auto Industrys own fault theyre going bankrupt. They werent making cars that americans wanted. That was turning out to be true. They were not as fuelefficient. He decides a bailout the Auto Industry he saves the Auto Industry in some fundamental ways. I think you have to look on that as a case where took a very risky and unpopular decision. And then he ran with it and that was probably a good judgment on his part. Again, we can quarrel about my conclusions but i think laying out the parameters of discussion here i think is interesting on how he dealt with this fundamental defining moment. Now up to President Trump. President trump has made a presidency of crisis. Hes had a perpetual series of crisis but we can argue whether ten of them well or badly he seems to thrive in a crisis atmosphere. A lot of president s, maybe a Government Shutdown be enough of a crisis for a first or weve had a Government Shutdown, confrontations with north korea comic with proms with iraq, terrorists instances, the wall of the border, getting along with congress, one thing after another. The wall is one thing i talk about in the book is one of the crises he dealt with. He promised during the campaign he would build a wall between the United States and mexico and have the Mexican Government pay for it to stop illegal immigration and criminals coming into the United States and so on. When congress realized it was not going to pay for the wall, after the Mexican Government decided they were not going to pay for the wall. President trump declared at national emergency, crisis at the border so they could move money from other counts of pay for the wall. Thats still being contested in quartz by the way. Against the very limited in congress. Hes fighting for the wall, staying with it and his people fields the right thing to do. It is a crisis he is still dealing with now. Finish the long set of build the wall. His argument is he started. This got wrapped up in the whole impeachment controversy. I talk about this in the book as a fundamental crisis that he is dealing with. He is impeached, he deals with robert mueller, special counsel that investigated him. The report was inconclusive but the democrats ran with it anyway. Nancy pelosi the House Speaker decided to do it after this famous phone call came about with truck talking to the leader of the ukraine about an investigation of joe biden, the leading democratic president ial candidate and corruption and evolving bidens son, hunter. That is still floating around out there, by the way. A lot of republicans dont want to let go of that and went to investigate hunter biden, joe bidens son. This is the issue that because the impeachment. The arguments of the democrats is theres an abuse of power, President Trump titer corner and adversary by forcing an illini to investigate this guy. The other part of this is trump says biden was trying joe biden was trying to remove a prosecutor from ukraine. The prosecutor might have been trying to investigate hunter biden, joes son. He gets a little complicated most sites are not giving up on their interpretation of what joe biden was trying to do what his Vice President. Fight corruption or get his son off, that sort of thing. Nonetheless heres joe biden the sun, what happens is adam schiff and others push impeachment and trump is impeached as clinton was it is also acquitted. Hes got impeachment on his record but the acquittal and that still going on. So how did this come about . I tend to think trump would have been very hard to avoid impeachment because the partisan atmosphere we have right now. He soften the blow a little bit had he not been as resistant as nixon was to cooperating with the investigations, not allowing testimony and so on. His conclusion when it was never going to be fair, he was never going to be treated decently. So i will let you decide what was the proper interpretation of that. One thing i wanted to end with was we have now, right now going on we started talking about, earlier in this discussion, the corona virus discussion. That could be the biggest crisis of his presidency. It affects so many people. Our people panicking . Is it worth panicking over . Thats the question. We have this kind of story floating around the country how are you treated . Do we have enough tests . That, by the way is something the president needs to be very careful of in particular because a lot of people in the Public Health service, very nonpartisan people say we do have a problem getting test for this. The government needs to get on the ball here and get to test out here so we know who has this. Its taken a very long time for that to happen. Now President Trump can still recover from this, i think, from the initial missteps or slowness of the response. Initially he said it was like the flu. Now it turns out people are really, really scared about it. As a say heat they are overdoing it. Nonetheless its a real problem in peoples mind. President trump s a deal with this and this is him announcing some of his programs. Hes now taking action which is probably what americans want to see most of all. Hes realizing the severity of the problem in most peoples minds. That is, i think a step in the right direction. This is a case where where i could not accommodate mi book whats already been published but this coronavirus is an example of a crisis that could really undermine or propel the president. Its right in play, right now thats what we are all looking at at this moment. So anyway with that i want to thank you for coming i hope that was helpful in understanding this notion of president s and their defining moments. Thank you. [applause] host we have time for a few questions were going to ask because this is being recorded you do not ask the question until staff member brings a microphone to you. Hello, thank you for the excellent presentation. What would you recommend President Trump to do next to make this crisis something that he comes out as handling well . I think therere two things. Recognize reality. Tell people what is really happening here. Not minimize this is something no one should worry about, which is the impression he gave initially. It was fear that he gave the impression, its going to go away, wait until the warmer weather its the flu. But people are so worried about her think thats part of the circumstances he has to address. You see signs hes doing it its a big deal for people there really worried about it. One is putting up information that people really want to about whats happening. And second that means working with Public Health service and other health professionals. The second is taking action. People in a crisis when the president to do something. He is now starting to do that. Is it too late to create a different impression that he is on the case . I dont think so i think he can still do that. Hes got to stay with it now, its something people are looking at him. Its a defining moment for him. Hes got to show is capable of leading us through this crisis whether people are exaggerating it or not. I think the public once the president to be decisive and either combing our fears are showing us the way out. I think that is the key to what he needs to do. Could you tell us a little bit about the korean war . Youve talked about vietnam tell us a little bit. The question about the korean war we talked a little bit about that. Basically i am one of the few journalists left in washington who was in the army. I was not in the korean war but the vietnam era. The korean war was an immersion intervention the United States is gotten into including vietnam and some other places which americans did not like because it did not have a clean resolution. What happened was, the North Koreans, before this the peninsula of korea was divided between north and south and thats a whole other story. There is it deep line, the tmz. Its in the middle of the country. The North Koreans feel they can finally take over the south so they invade the south. They push the american troops that are allies of korea almost off the peninsula. We were in a little compartment there the bottom of south korea where we had been stuck, pushed by the North Koreans. Feeling pushed troops and supplies in we try to push the North Koreans back. Was very clever strategy by General Macarthur and other generals. He saw the fighting, the conditions in cold weather. Very desperate fighting. It was a very, very difficult time. Would you had just had world war ii ending in 1945. Now were in the early 50s and were back at war again. Very difficult situation. Our government, and our allies, South Koreans dont understand how perilous it is see it close to the chinese border. As our troops are moving up closer on the river which is the key place of demarcation. And then hundreds of thousands of chinese store across the river and pushes back again. Then it becomes even more desperate. With many soldiers dying under terrible conditions. Then it becomes a real tough slog and it becomes a stalemate. Thats why so Many Americans hated the korean war. We did not win its. We were stuck. We still dont have a peace treaty. We have an armistice. Were still dealing with that whole situation now. So anyway, thats it in a nutshell hope that was helpful. How do you feel president obama handled ben godsey . On benghazi, i think that was more of a Hillary Clinton thing i think president obama could have stepped in. Its a situation where did Hillary Clinton allow our diplomats and our americans in this benghazi situation to be stranded and killed without trying to rescue them . She did not move quickly enough. I think of such a fastmoving situation. Obama maybe he should have jumped him personally but he deferred to Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and let her handle it. Its criticism of Hillary Clinton that she did not take action to save our people when they were under attack and benghazi. Theres a lot more to say about it, but in the interest of time, president obama just decided he was going to let hillary handle that. He did not intervene he let hillary as the secretary deal with it. Still a big criticism of her among conservatives and republicans. Now obamas relationship is very close they been close in chicago, he came up as a political figure. She was actually initially a friend of michele obama, his wife. Then became a friend of his. She became a senior white house advisor, did not get the attention she should have gotten as a real player. We all knew she was close to president obama but she was there for many, many decisions right at his elbow. We still have not gotten to the bottom of what role she played in a lot of this. She was certainly one of the fundamental players in that government. That is the case where maybe we should have paid more attention to that. By and large, there were very few people in the bomb administration more important than valerie jarrett. For one more question. Thanks again for bringing this information. You mention president eisenhowers big mistake, i think there is another story when he was leaving office somebody asked him have you made any mistakes as president . He said yes ive made to and they are both sitting on the supreme court. [laughter] guest thats interesting. I heard that story to i think maybe an memoirs and in interviews, that the single estate he made was handling that you two. He prided himself on being a truth teller. He was not in that case and it really hurt him that he made that mistake. I think that is part of it he is personally troubled he was put in that position. My real question is your comment, if you have any on president clintons words a few days ago and the sexual escapades relieving the stress of the presidency . Guest you picked up on that. [laughter] a lot of people did. President clinton, its a sad case in some ways. He was considered the best politician of his generation initially to the campaign. Not the least of reasons because he could talk his way out of everything. He was proud of that. There are many, many stories about clinton would say when i am in a roomful of people, i will go to the person who i think hates me the most i want to convert them. I want to persuade them to support me. He would go right for that nation. But im getting out, the story when i talk about that within me too movement. That does not work. I have this great anxiety and stress so i need to pray on this in turn. Monica lewinsky has changed her views on this too. Initially she was much less willing to criticize president clinton. Now she saying he was the most powerful man in the world and i was enthralled hes paying attention to me im 22 years old. So he handled that in just about the worst way he could. He was impeached over it. But as i say, those times were different and i dont think it would work today. I did see that, im sure that kind of thing is going to be floating around politics and our country for a long time. Stomach want to thank you all for braving the weather and joining us tonight. I want to thank ken for being here and its fascinating. Right behind you were going to keep you all indoors, the bookstores right behind us he will be in there and can answer any other questions, sign your books, just will sidenote we announced today during the coronavirus we are closing our doors. Tomorrow is the last day the ragged Library Museum will be open until further notice. Glad you could be with us tonight. Thank you very much. [applause] you are watching a special edition of book tv now airing during the week while members of congress are in their districts due to the coronavirus pandemic. Tonight, biographies, first Robert Wilson editor of the american scholar. He recounts the life of 19th century showman pt barnum then historian Adam Hochschild recalls the early 20th century Rose Pastor Stokes was a Founding Member of americas communist party and married to new york millionaire. Later, journalist Janice Kaplan on the discoveries of women geniuses today and throughout history. Enjoy book tv now and over the weekend on cspan2. Our Mission Continues to provide an unfiltered view of government. Already this year we brought you primary election coverage, the president ial impeachment process and now the federal response to the coronavirus. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on television, online or listen on our free radio app. Be a part of the National Conversation through the daily Washington Journal Program on cspan or through our social media feet. Cspan created by private industry, americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to today by your television provider. And now on the commute gators we want to introduce you to sarah miller, the executive director of a group called the American Economic liberties project which is what ms. Miller . We are an organization based here in washington that is focused on what we see as a crisis of a concentrated economic power
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