Nfl. All this growth and Development Runs parallel to the growth of television in america if you look at a chart the number of televisions in america the number of people who had access to television and you drill alliant 1947 through 1965, said said you took the nfl growth and development 1947 through 1965 they run absolutely parallel. That is not an accident the media expert Marshall Mcluhan were talked about this if you watch of the ball game where is the best place . On in your big screen tv in your house. That is the best place. The bessie in the house. Second is that a sports bar. The third set where else fourth or fifth is maybe the stadium so there are long periods where nothing is going on in the think what is going on . I want my replay and my analysis. [laughter] host how are you doing today bill . Guest thanks for taking the time to talk to me. Host your new book killing reagan the first of the killing series . Guest thats correct. Host with the others kennedy and patton and lincoln all of violent death may be pad was accidental but in this particular case it did not kill reagan. It is a bit different. Why reagan . Involved with the assassination attempt was in context with our series very shortly after he was elected president he was that a certain age with the trauma like that it affects you physically and mentally and that certainly happened. It was almost a miracle that he pulled through. And actually change the course of history. Guest no doubt he was different after he cannot of that hospital. Because he was so robust and vigorous that when he appeared with nancy reagan shortly after he was shot. What a miraculous recovery out there in his bathrobe cracking jokes to the medical staff what i the he had a lot of changes that to place physically and mentally that chronicles the situation. Host if the dutchess a back you use a adversely or he could have done more . With the physical and the emotional and mental changes is that what you are suggesting . Guest everyone who worked with reagan in the white house after he recovered said he has good days and bad days. Nobody said that about him when he was governor of california. There was a change. I believe reagan somehow almost miraculously lifted himself but by sheer will to overcame the physical what is on his body. Seven days when reagan was so detached he would watch soap operas in of a private residence he did not come to work. There is something within him holding it together to have a very successful presidency top10 of all president s. This attempt and egos arent to do if anomaly a phenomenal and then to lift them up economically what more could he have done . Where did it change things for the worse . It is impossible for me to say that if you ask a question where could he have done more . Perhaps more stuff himself. Perhaps if he had his full energy level that we did not even know about that was taking place about his knowledge but it is all speculation but his own advisers at one point after he was reelected said we may have to remove him from office because he isnt concentrating and cannot grasp things. That is the key parts of the book. The insert him for a few days then he passed with flying colors it was gsa a concern he may have had a bad day. Just a concern . You dont want to investigation run by a guy named cannon without a reason. Was in justin investigation but they were worried. And they were boiled to him. And then on that date they described he was able to engage all the issues they felt a sigh of relief they did not have to go to the Vice President george bush and invoke the constitution. But believe me there was concern at the highest level it was not undertaken in lightly. Said just before this assassination attempt it was clear during the primary especially and all the political people agreed he should go for days a week and he had monday through thursday because you dont want him to look old as a candidate. But he did tire easily he was almost 70 years old. Not yet but these things happen but to suggest all of a sudden there is an attempt on his life he takes naps in the afternoon of you jump to the conclusion to have these terrific eight years . Suggesting are mentally and physically to do things differently than other vice. You made my case for me. Host i did . Guest news said before the shooting he needed rest. He was an older man. You had to give him time off. That was before he was shot. Then he almost dies and is on the operating table they dont know if he will pull through and the trauma is so intense are you going to tell me that that did not affect them adversely from that moment for word. Were pacing for good reason. After a trauma like that it can only exacerbate that was a play before by reagan was a strong and a lesser man would have died on the operating table. And to embrace s. Stewart Teddy Roosevelt said that is what pulled through. And this is all that was in the book. Now go right to the book. He was the beloved president. There is a reason for that. Not just the accomplishment but a portion of it but the person that he was a good and decent man to come across to talk about affairs and onenight stands. Women talk about Different Things that would suggest intimacy with the former president after his divorce with jade wine and. Via understand if i am reading kitty kelley why this is in there with great detail. To note that he had a wild side all you have to do is say he was a playboy what is the purpose there is no way to know what really happened guest rigo go into great detail it is not a tabloid we dont use anything that was not double sores without names. We took out a bunch of stuff that we could not nail it down so we eighth did not use it. Just as it and the killing kennedy we want to present them as human beings. The overarching is that Ronald Reagan was of great man end with kennedy in the same vein and lincoln in the same vein and also patton George Patton had an affair with a girl while of the battlefront. Were not in the business to deify. When you read the book killing reagan you will get a picture of Ronald Reagan has he truly was with the good of the bad. To the end my dash majestic to inspire fellow americans but not a saint. Host nor did he suggest that he was. Guest i think Ronald Reagan would like the book very much. Host i disagree. It is he said she said. Do you have evidence . All the things we rightabout have a footnote in the book. Host footnote . Guest did you not read the book . Is on the page and in the back of the book as well. And all has the source nothing is anonymous. Host why nancy is her life tossed in there as well . She was three people. First who wanted to bury Ronald Reagan and we have to explain why and how she got to hollywood and what happened and. Then the diva who got the governorship she was with smart and very protective of Ronald Reagan. A lot of people believe he would not have become governor or president without nancy reagan. I cannot say yes or no but i can say the portrait of her is accurate. She was a deep in the white house. She was to some, overbearing or cruel but then nancy reagan emerges in the end of the president s life as a true hero to be unbelievably sensitive to her husbands illness to protect him to devote her whole life for a decade it is an amazing story of love and and we portrayed that very vividly. Host you do in the end but every chance you put a very negative light on her. Guest that is not true. Host it is the first 200 pages to but let me state this for the cspan viewers, you were reading the book on the ideological level. You adore ronald and nancy reagan and for me to put anything they did it one dash dash offends you. I understand you are the ideologue but i am presenting them the way they are. Everything is sourced and footnote controversial or who said it there is no tabloid stuff. It all happened the way we rode it with painstaking three or four scholars is it accurate or out of context or re overstating or understating . And from this point of view as the americans did a good and decent man. Host lets go to another aspect. And still in getting involved in he was Vice President at the time there was that strike that is a wonderful story of the kind of person that he was to suggest to go through the l. A. Tunnels. Host that is in is to question i just called the dual now will complement you. What you put your finger on is the genesis of Ronald Reagan. When he first arrived in hollywood was shallow not a sophisticated man and in the almost miraculous way that we document. Into almost orenda communist party they did not want them because they did not feel he had that gravitas. It pitted the communist against the Screen Actors Guild which wanted to continue to make movies and the studio heads. It got so vicious the communists strikers were threatening to vacate the to the set so the actors had to go into a tunnel to go underground to get to the studio and they had to go on the floor of the best and refuse to go back door he sat on the bus everybody could see him he was threatened and so was his family by the communist who threatened him by phone calls and what reagan did wides got a gun. He carried a gun. But that experience turned him against the communist and stayed with him whole life and that was the piece of his president ial administration a man of courage all the things that he did all the things he stood up for bad as you know, restated he did inform on others it hollywood to the fbi were telling the truth about Ronald Reagan and that is why this book if you are really interested in the man would like that we balance it as he did with kennedy and patton and jesus. Then with the leader of the strike how he used to intimidate and fas and gene kelly threw his resume we write about it and reagan never backed down. But needed to reagan as the inner steel that her husband blacks. Is that something that occurred before he knew nancy he was close to 40 years old when he married nancy but this occur before some here is a man and you are suggesting he lacks the inner steel. Guest you took it out of context. What we say about nancy reagan is she would do the dirty work that reagan did not want to do because as you pointed out he was a very kind man and did not have the heart to fire a buddy or scold anybody. Not like jimmy carter. So while he was a man of courage and was not afraid of people who wanted to hurt him he did not have the heart to yell or fire to tell them they were not to read the job. [laughter] that is what nancy reagan brought that is the steel we are talking about a. Host this was the first note that i took concerning that nancy is the individual running the show like he is the puppet the one that becomes dominant in their personality tuesday she has more influence over him. Guest she had the last word. This is where the clarification needs to take place but she never interfered with policy. Guest i thank you are correct. Nancy was id lockstep with Ronald Reagan on policy. We didnt find any disagreements that they had politically. Reagan was anticommunist so was nancy reagan was. Marketplace Smaller Government so was nancy. We didnt see any tension there but what she did after the assassination attempt she took off the stuff he did not have to deal with and that was a lot. Nobody got to see them without her saying yes. That is power where did the and rod old ma dash Ronald Reagan agreed on all policy she didnt pull him aside to say maybe we do this and that is incorrect they were pretty much of one mind. Guest . Host there is a mixed message on his religion or the depth of his police. That he did not go to church added his belief out of god. But at the same time there is a spirituality there a and it your words what message are you trying to relate to the reader . Is the religious man in your opinion . Gimmicky was spiritual and certainly he used his belief in god to define Public Policy i will give you an exclusive. Are you ready . I have a handwritten letter by Ronald Reagan that he wrote to the abortionrights person in 1980 that says he opposes abortion because it is his belief that god created all human life and it is sacrosanct. He formed his position on abortion, which he changed by the way of the spiritual belief system i have that in his own and. Organized religion never really attracted Ronald Reagan his ancestors were catholic but he never embraced it very much however i do believe that he believes his country was founded to have a special place in the world that came from god that shining light on the hill concept that he endorsed. Although not enamored of organized religion. Host i interviewed his pastor. He was ted pasadena and i talked to him about that. But its when he went into the church for Sundays Service is better everybody would turn and look in there would be and excitement he thought that was not fair to disrupt the spirit that was there and certainly that was true with secret service attended the services were with him. And likewise to suggest he was a religious person and all aspects. Guest may be better you know, who else says that . Host probably obama. Guest yes. Barack obama. Exactly what his pastor told me and probably took that from reagan. However i will tell you when Ronald Reagan got married this sacrament of marriage, he got married in a secular way in there were only two people at his wedding. To remember . Mr. And mrs. Holden. And they despised each other and for fighting during the wedding ceremony. We can say organized religion was not at the top of his list his marriage was conducted in a way to have no religious connotation at all. His children are all secularists except michael faqs religious bias not sure. So once again reach tell you about the man what he did and what he did not do a and inaccurate way. Host he believed a crusade against communism was part of his spiritual struggle . Guest it is not what i believe it is what Ronald Reagan believes. He believed that communist totalitarians violated the laws that god gave us. To be free and express ourselves to earn ad express ourselves to earn a living the way we want to or hold private property. The inalienable rights that we talked about in the constitution he really believed that america ago was the shining light in the world and the communist was the evil empire with the forces of darkness and in that belief was centered around spirituality more than politics. You are absolutely right. If he does have this Strong Spiritual belief grounded in a strong belief but yet you indicate of course, no bandage is perfect with those idiosyncrasies that must be kept quiet they both use stargazers to why in the future i see a twist of contradiction. Guest i can explain. Ronald reagan could not care less about the astrologer. Nancy loved the astrologer so to make nancy happy and keep her happy he went along with that. Absolutely we say that that nancy was striding the trader wasnt Ronald Reagan making the appointments or phone calls. It was nancy. Wait. Its a river so involved with astrology and the stars that the inaugural ceremony when he won a the governorship was held when . Host midnight. Guest why . Because that is when the stars were aligned. Du. Guest due to be there . Come on. [laughter] host i had no trouble if you mentioned it as nancy guest we lay that out for you. Host such as his trusted in astrologers is not her. That is where i have the issue. Guest if you want to get mitt peaky he went along with nancy just like she went along politically he went along with her arm the stars but in my opinion he could care less it kept him up platy wanted to be in the sack he would rather have the inauguration and 2 00 in the afternoon. Host go into another issue. At least twice and suggested while reagan was not a great intellect struggling to maintain a c average in college. The in that same paragraph so what is it . Guest another excellent question. Reagan was not a philosopher a proactive baker that he was introspective but he had a brilliant talent to absorb information to cut out the bs to communicate the information to the folks which is why he was successful politically. But was rated a great thinker like jefferson or lincoln . No cookie define problems a burst the affecting the United States . Yes. It was a different type of intellect. Not book smart but he did absorb the information and give it to him up until the time of the shooting dead after the shooting he had a little more trouble but some days he was brilliant other days he was not that is the lynch point we wanted to mate. With respect to the shooting and his difficulties, he went on to inspire the nation and a landslide reelection and he was on his game constantly. What a brilliant. He was very good it big moments but it and know who is responsible to turn that situation. Host you claim is right trails. Guest thats right. My boss he saw that reagan was failing and was not up to it. So he went in there to kick his but. Not physically but he said you have to bear down and here is what you have to do. And reagan absorbed everything roger gave him and he went out to count mondale. Host to fly to fly go to the first debate ibis there jimmy baker with there and they had pumped him full of information and facts and figures. Had a need to show how smart you are. He wasnt in his personality did not come through. Guest isnt that what we write . That is exactly what we wrote. Host you suggested he was not affected his game he did not have the and permission he was having a bad day and it showed. Guest i have to respectfully disagree period about the part of roger ailes he says the cable and your overwhelming demand with facts and figures he was becoming befuddles you had to strip away the heart of the matter all that is in the book. Host but you use this as one of the examples to show the president faltering that it was moving in. Guest lets say a he was not comfortable to absorb a tremendous amount of information to spit it back. That was not his strong suit. Host and never was the one before the assassination attempt he could have done that a lot better than after. This is to he was never a policy wonk and not because he couldnt be but it because it is not who he was. And had to develop a contract and all of the other stuff for the people he had to be detailed and was secretary before president.