democratic central committee, representing district 17 which encompasses rock phil and the beautiful city of gaithersburg, welcome. gaithersburg is a city that promotes that humanities which >> we are pleased to bring you this five this event, thanks to the support of our sponsors and volunteers, when you see them around, please take the time to say thanks. i would like to get right to this event here but first a few announcements. please silence all your devices. await. await. go ahead. silence all devices. thank you. and if you are on social media today and we hope that you are, please use the hashtag gbf gaithersburg book festival. your feedback is valuable to us, there will be surveys available at our tent and on our website. by submitting a survey you will be submitting a drawing to win a 100 dollars a gift card. i encourage you to enter the survey. at the end of this presentation, mr. surely will be signing books and copies are on sale in this tent and around the grounds here so make sure you take advantage of having an author like mr. shirley. take advantage. a quick word about buying books, this is a free event but it does and i does help the book festival if you buy a book. the more books we sell at our events, the more publishers will want to send their authors here to speak with us. purchasing this for a partner, politics and prose, helps support one of the world's great independent bookstores, it benefits our local economy and supports local jobs. if you enjoy this program and you are in a position to do so, please buy some books. let me introduce this steamed panel that we have here. tackling the familiar, or that which we believe to be familiar, is a challenge for even the most seasoned author. the task is even more daunting when the familiars and icon, and a hero to many. done well, the best books often eliminated subject which done well, the best books often illuminate a subject which we are already familiar with. they provide texture, context, nuance. the really good once transcend and speak to the sole. craig shirley is that author, reagan rising is that book. the author is a member of the charter members of the conservative party and this comes from his love of reagan and conservatism honestly. reagan rising offers a glimpse into the lives of one of our most celebrated personalities. more than a mere biography however, it chronicles the journey of a man who having just suffered a devastating defeat in 1976, picks himself up and becomes a leader of a new brand of conservatism. ultimately achieving an improbable and overwhelming victory for years later. trump's presidency perhaps offers the perfect backdrop against which to study reagan's ascendance. with the republican party struggling to define itself, reagan rising offers meaningful insight into a development of a philosophy that is served as a touchstone for conservatives across the country. reagan's optimistic and unify conservative philosophize to and spices day. as a special aside, researching what i say this introduction, i saw that mr. shirley played instrumental role in having the sport of across designated as the state sport of maryland. for that, i'm sure he will always have a special place in the heart of all maryland. gaithersburg, join me in welcoming craig shirley. (applause) interviewing mr. surely today will be juan williams who needs no introduction but we are going to introduce them anyway. emmy award winner and fox news contributor since 1997, celebrated author in his own right, mister williams, the prolific chronicler of the civil rights experience in america. like this titles includes eyes on the prize, american civil rights year 1954 to 1965. and thurgood marshall and american revolutionary. there are ten more but for the sake of time i truncated to those two. finally, as the treasure of the montgomery county democratic party, the democrats announced an almost two to one majority over registered republican in our county. so one, welcome to friendly territory. if you ever need a respite from fox news, we welcome you here with open arms. gaithersburg, please join me in welcoming juan williams. [applause] >> a pleasure to be here with craig shirley. who i have known since the reagan white house. back in the eighties. i did not know about lacrosse, that is fabulous. but i want to start with the very basic question for the people who have been so kind to come into our tents here at the book festival and ask why did you write this book because you have written extensively about reagan before? >> first, thank you. first of all, i guess if you are in friendly territory i am behind enemy lines. that's all. i'm retired from all that anyway. i did think that for making us wait, we ought to rename his tv show before. i wrote this because it is an important part of american history. an important part of reagan's history because it is never been explored before. like winston churchill, martin gilbert was -- okay. i have a big mouth. martin gilbert, who is winston churchill's most famous biographer, and most important biographer, wrote a dozen books on churchill, various aspects of his life, and one of his books was called the wilderness years. and it was about that time in the late twenties and early thirties when churchill was cast aside by the conservatives in england, great britain. and embarked on a new career of writing and doing radio commentary and lecturing. and it mirrors reagan in many ways because reagan in 76, as you pointed out, was cast aside by his party. and churchill was warning about spending most of his radio commentary and his columns warning about the rising threat of adolf hitler and nazism, something that most people in england at the time we're ignoring. reagan spent his wilderness years writing, doing radio commentary, warning about the rising threat of the soviet union. there is a lot of parallels between churchill's wilderness years and reagan's wilderness years. of course, there are many, many issues we could get into later, it's serendipitous but it's also because he forced them to the four. issues like prop 13 in california, the panama canal treaties, other issues. you recovering, i was involved with, they come to the four that helped produce his election in 1980. and that is why i wrote it. douglas brinkley, terrific historian who edited the reagan diary said the realm of reagan scholarship is beginning to open up and i think every time i sit down to think about ronald reagan, i think about a new aspect of his life and his career and his times that has been either either under reported or hasn't been covered it all. >> let's get to friendly territory behind these lines, and talk about the elephant pun intended, in the room, which is donald trump. when i. >> no, no. i mean no is the answer to this question. >> i see, you've seen into the crystal ball. >> here's the question, people say well gosh, how would you compare -- i >> wouldn't. >> reagan, to trump and then they say, what does come of republican ideology, and conservatism from reagan to trump? >> you covered the reagan white house row many years? >> for. >> and the reagan campaign in 84. >> let me ask you, is there anything about donald trump that reminds you remotely, of ronald reagan? >> no. you saw the crystal ball. i must tell you, so many people in the republican party really hold ronald reagan up as this inspiring figure. >> and with good reason. >> a paradigm. and conservatism, but then they'll say they are now with trump. >> that is just a matter of practicality. you can be with reagan but you can also be in the modern age and say, i am for trump because he wasn't hillary or i'm for trump for whatever reasons. he is taking on a bureaucracy or whatever else, but comparing the two individuals, there is no, my wife is looking at me. i have been guilty for 35 years. reagan was an intellectual, reagan was thoughtful, reagan was an american conservative, reagan was kind, he was gentle, he was thoughtful, even in his diaries he wouldn't swear. he would write de, dash dash dash, instead of writing. that's how gentle he was. there was a story that when he was president, he had one of the first, second female secret service agents. he kept standing aside as he's walking through a door to let the secret service agents go first. he said, my mother told me ladies always go first. the head of the treasury department had to sit down and say mister president, she is not a woman, she is an agent. she is a professional and you have to allow her to do her job. reagan was very reluctant. i can't imagine anybody ever saying anything like that about donald trump. reagan was a populist, he was an american conservative. he was committed to his principles but he was also flexible. he was kind. he was thoughtful, not always particularly thoughtful, but more so than most men. we don't turn to me for evidence of reagan's importance to american history. john patrick davis, who in many ways, was the official historian of the american left in the 20th century, he wrote books about labor movement, euro books about the civil rights movement, he wrote books about the environmental movement. his last book, he had been abruptly in the sixties. and he had done battle with then governor reagan over the whole free speech movement and the rights of berkeley. rhetorical battle, not physical battle. his last book is called ronald reagan, faith, freedom in the making of history. in this book, this liberal historian rates ronald reagan as one of our four greatest presidents. he compares into washington, abraham lincoln, franklin roosevelt, because they saved or freed many, many people. he said that is the best definition of greatness, is that didn't american president save or free many many people? >> when we think about reagan and the republican party conservatism, i go back to barry goldwater, to 64, to reagan's famous speech. for the sake of this audience, before we take him into the wilderness, which is where you take him here, explain to us how he comes to being. because one of the great distinctions between reagan and trump is that reagan has a strong political history before he challenges the party establishment. >> he had already had a lot of executive experience as head of the screen actors guild. a couple years ago, reagan negotiated the residual's which became important to a lot of old, retired actors and actresses who are out of work, we're still getting stipends and residual's from the work they had done in tv and movies years ago, because the studios would pay the actors and actresses one to pierre on a tv show or movie or something like that, and then they could re-broadcast it and pocket all the royalties with impunity. reagan, in his last term as president of the screen actors guild, negotiated residual's so that their images and their voice was not sold without compensation. reagan was the one that did it. i was having lunch with fred barnes a couple years ago, he was in one of those washington movies, he had a little role in what those washington movies. i think it was day if. he was telling me about it, the movie had been re-broadcast in hungary or something like that, and he got a residual check for 12 dollars and 98 cents and i said you know why you got that check? and he said no. i said you got that because of ronald reagan negotiating that with studios. my point is, he had very good executive skills and very good negotiating skills long before he ran for governor but of course his movie career had faded. he liked hollywood, he loved hollywood, but by 1962 63, he made one movie after that called the killers, which was an adaptation of hemingway's novel. he hated the movie so much he never saw it. it's the only movie, he did 57 movies i think. it is the only time in 57 movies where he is depicted as a bad guy and he slaps angie dixon in the movie and he really hated that. he hated that. he would never see the movie. he himself was in the wilderness several times including after 63. he is kind of like a professional host in southern california, introducing political candidates, various things, and starting to develop a speech which became known as the speech. for local candidates but mostly for goldwater and 63, the draft goldwater movement actually started in the fall of 63. my parents were members of it, they came here to washington and went to the draft goldwater convention. walter brennan kissed my mother. so a anybody remember walter brennan? the real mccoy. good. >> it's odd to think of walter brennan in my mind, kissing your mom. kind of an old man. >> he's developing a speech and finally a group of southern and wealthy southern california businessmen go to reagan and his brother neil, neil was an ad executive in southern california. they say to reagan, we want to put this speech on television to help goldwater. so they put up the money and it was broadcast on nbc and it was an enormous hit that raised millions of dollars for the goldwater campaign and the republican national committee. and of course, goldwater loses an historic landslide but david brody wrote for the washington post, that the one ray of sunlight in an otherwise dismal campaign was reagan speech. goldwater's defeat is devastating for the republican party, the republicans are in the minority in the house and vastly in the minority in the senate and they have very few state houses, very few governorships and in many ways, the republican party is dysfunctional-y debt. it doesn't have a coherent philosophy. reagan now is embarking, traveling to california and he says the group of business men come to him and the same group and they say we want you to run for the senate. he said i don't want to run for senate. or congress. they said what about governor? that peaked is interest. he began going around the state taking sounding's, doing local business groups and civic groups and other organized groups and getting feedback and feedback from the people was good so that is when he decided to run for governor of california. now he has just completely broken from hollywood. now he called himself not just a politician but a citizen politician. let's go forward from a time to choose which is the title of the speech. an amazing speech and you can go on youtube and wash it. very clear, there's a landslide for johnson over goldwater. we come forward in time then from the time he spends in as a governor in sacramento, and now we are in the nixon era. and here comes ronald reagan to challenge the party at a moment when the party is shaking and things aren't clear but they want to gerald ford. he is the establishment candidate. in this book, you take us through some of these very difficult shows for a man who is popular, who says that he is in keeping with the real conservative ideology of the time. but finds that his party is somewhere else. >> the party is still somewhat in the wilderness. the republican party from 1932 up until the late seventies doesn't have a coherent philosophy. democrats have a coherent philosophy and they are also the party of optimism, the party of hope, the part of the future. franklin roosevelt runs for president, happy days are here again, john kennedy says we need to get this country moving again. the democratic party from 32 until 76 and beyond, is the party of hope, optimism and the future. the republican party is the green i spate green eyeshade, eat your spinach, balance the budget party and their message is basically metoo-ism. there were a lot of conservative accusing moderate republicans of all the time, metoo-ism. we can manage better than the democrats, we can do a better. that was basically their pitch, it wasn't very inspirational pitch, obviously. which is why they are in the minority from 32 up until 68 and even beyond. 68 was an aberration. reagan comes forward, the early leaders of the conservative movement like bill buckley and others, have a coherent message that was based on the framers, based on the founders, based on the constitution, which had been cast aside or at least put on the sidelines from 32 on. we're reaching an era now, i have to go backwards, from 32 to the sixties, most americans believe that government is working, and government is working for them. it didn't solve the great depression but it did a good effort and people appreciated it. but it did defeat the empire of japan. it did defeat nazi germany, it did build the interstate highway system, it did build roads, bridges and public education. at one point we had the finest public education system in the world, in the forties, fifties and sixties. by the sixties, government is starting to fail. it doesn't save jon kennedy. government doesn't save mart in the king junior. government doesn't save robert kennedy, senator robert kennedy. in the seventies, government can't win the vietnam war, government can't stop hyperinflation, government can't stop high interest rates, government can't stop gas lines. it seems carter runs and 76, he is an outsider and was not wedded to the idea of a government. he's a reformer, he's got to clean up washington, he's going to go after the corruption, he's got to cut taxes. he is really much more of a populist, almost conservative, who sees that people are frustrated in the seventies, they don't believe government is working for them anymore. but reagan also sees this. carter attacks from somewhat the left but not really. reagan is on the right, which is why they emerge as the two most interesting candidates in 1976. reagan to come to the convention, loses the nomination gerald ford by 69 delegate votes out of 2269 cast in kansas city. for a lot of reasons. the mississippi delegation, the ohio delegation, the new york delegation, reagan is convinced that ford has not stolen the nomination but not one entirely legitimately. and now we are getting down to the weeds. but this really wets reagan's appetite to run again, even though at the time he 65 years old and a lot of people said, you have been around the track twice, you lost twice, you give your best shot, you gave a deal kaletra. but now it's time to step aside for 1980 and that some new young fresh blood run for the nomination and reagan says no, no, we're running. >> you didn't mention forward in much detail but tell me what is his view of gerald ford? is for the establishment? >> 14 reagan don't like each other. mrs. reagan and mrs. ford can even be in the same state with each other. that is how little they like each other. for distance to the presidency by way of his 22nd amendment when nixon picks him after resigning, taking kickbacks and maryland while the governor of maryland. and still taking kickbacks you don't he's vice president of the united states. nixon need somebody who is going to placate all elements of the party but someone who is not going to threaten him, not want to cause him to look over his shoulders. he quickly deduce is a jared ford fills the bill, gerald ford, his lifelong dream was to be speaker of the houston by 1974, that is never going to happen. becoming vice president is kind of a nice capitalist career. but then the smoking gun tape is revealed in july of 1974. it's all the news now. >> there is an elephant in the tenth. >> that's right. i say smoking gun, six months ago, people would've said what what are you talking about? anyway, nixon is revealed ordering the cia to help the fbi investigation into watergate and that is the end of richard nixon. drove forward a sense to the presidency but gerald ford has no republicans made a psychic investment in gerald ford. nobody outside of one congressional district in maryland has voted for gerald ford he his hold on the republican party is very tenuous and he wants to run for 76. but he confuses nixon's appeal nixon's policies. he was by and large, he was fairly conservative but not as conservative as reagan. 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