From fashion retailers to healthcare providers, jewelers to Sporting Good stores, we provide Financing Solutions for all sorts of businesses. Banking. Loyalty. Analytics. Synchrony financial. Engage with us. A deeply personal topic for the hard charging journalist who died yesterday at the age of fae. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to we have Nicole Wallace with us cohost of the view. And Democratic National committee howard dean. Good to have you both on board
with joe and me this morning. The New York Times this morning are quoting somebody said that ben bradlee was the last of the lion king newspaper editors. He could be classy or approach fame, an energetic figure with a boxers nose and almost invarably dressed in a white collar bold stripe. And very salty language all the time. He was, its described elsewhere, a lot of tom brokaw remembers ben in a few minutes here with us and was, it was said that he drove the Washington Post too fast around corners. He drove it to its greatness, really. Only four pulitzers before he got there. I guess 16, 17 after he was there. A remarkable flg in the history of person media. I think its bradlee the for Washington Post executor who led the coverage of the watergate and the pentagon papers died tuesday at his home in washington, d. C. Tom brokaw has more on bradlees life and incredible legacy. Reporter benjamin bradlee, boston harvard man. Heavy action during world war ii. He made news week into a power journalism and palled around with another man jfk. Bradlee became the most famous newspaper editor in the world him he guided two rookie reporters through watergate. The him. Nixon is involved, wiretapping. Lives at steak. This is going the distance. His question was, what the hell
do we do now . Which is the question of somebody who realizes we are in totally uncharted water. We asked ours a lot of questions. You could all of the be true . How could somebody with all that much to lose put it at risk every day . Bradlee, woodward and bernstein had help, but they were the team that nailed the nixon coverup. And ben was in charge. He had daring, he had lets call it by its proper name he had balls. He was willing to be dangerous. He wanted to be first with the story. But he never wanted to be wrong. Reporter the legendary editor and young fighters became rich and famous on and on the big screen in all the president s men. God dam it when is somebody going on record on this story. Reporter the fourth member of the team was katherine graham, former editor of theWashington Post, kay as she was known stood fast by ben when nixons allies were threatening to take down the newspaper. Hold it. Haldeman only happens to be the second most important man in this country, conducting a conspiracy from inside the white house. It would be nice if we were right. Reporter bradlee and his third wife, samly quinn, shorthand for power couple. He was known for his charm, star power and profanity. Jesus, what kind could have a [ bleep ] story is this . He was the epitome of newsman charisma. Even when he walked across the newsroom, which he would do a couple times a day, he had this effect that made you want to do better. Reporter bradlee stumbled after watergate, publishing a prize series on an 8yearold heroin addict. It was a hoax. That salty have have been a larry, a dashing journalist off the front page. Its my kind of hard. I lithat. If you are right, it isnt hard. Joining us from washington, contributing writer for the fork times magazine jeff hymnmelman. He spent four years working with ben bradlee writing his biography, yours in truth. A personal portrait of ben bradlee, a man in search of the truth, really, jeff . Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you for having me here. Its a sad day for all the obvious reasons. Jeff, so its interesting the question it was a asked that woodward said that he asked, after finding out that richard nixon, the president of the United States, was involved in a conspiracy, what the hell do we do now might be a question that any editor ask, what made that question so pressing for a guy like ben bradlee is ben came from the old school. Right. He was really good friends with president s. He was really close to jfk. He pal ed around on president s, reported on them. Watergate changed all of that, for ben bradlee to go from the insiders insider to be the guy that blew up the white house had to be remarkably vertigennous for him lets say. At a time like this you tend to think about what someones legacy is. With ben the legacy is its so enormous. I think one of the things that can be safely said about ben is he safely walked that track. I think when he took over the walk post, he became the managing editor and took the reigns in 1968. One of the first things he did was to try to separate the postinterests from the interests of the establishment. There was a famous case the mayor of the city of washington, for the one wanted the post to leak it. The post decided to leak it
because they decide were not the mouthpiece for the governor area. It was a stance that ben really took from the very beginning of his time at the post. He had newsweek when he was paling in around with jfk. I think it put a stamp on it in a way nobody will forget. Howard dean, chime in on what you see. I would love to know this guy was the giant in my lifetime. They wont make anybody like him anymore. The reason is the media has changed so much. I wondered when you interviewed him as you did for four years, what did he think of the new media . What did he think of the new standards, get it fast and not so much get it right . You know, its interesting. I think ben would have been the first to say, he didnt want to say much about new media, blocks and things like that were something that never interested him. What struck me when he would go
to panels and people asked that very question. What he would always say he never knew what form it was going to take, he was optimistic that this pursuit of the truth and this need for people to know the truth to find the truth that rely that somebody out there digging. I think he alwaysed a faith somebody would carry on that work, whatever form it took. I think he was right. Hes not very comfortable with computers and things like that. I think he was right and that optimistic struck me. Its called gut instinct. Thank you so much. We have a lot of politics to get to there is a personal side to this they had ben and samly, one of our first book parties at their home, they were so kind to do that and just think one other side to this is their personal story and if you check out the c span interview that they did on bens final days and how they shared them together, it is extremely beautiful the way she
helped him leave this world. I remember you telling, calling me after in tears. Beautiful. Your comments. My god. The most important part of his life. They loved each other so much. We got a ton of politics. A ton of new polls. I just have to ask you, though, Nicole Wallace, obviously, somebody at the center of things at the white house, some people might ask, whats worse . A system where the press pal ed around with president s like ben bradlee pal ed around with jfk or a situation we have now where the white house hates the press so much and not just this white house, but white houses hate the press so much that there is absolutely no access him so at the end of the day you Never Get Close to the president. I think that anyone in journalism and 97 politics would agree what we have now in far
worse. I went to Journalism School because of ben bradlee, i went to forth western. The person that everyone wanted to grow up and work for was ben bradlee. That was the fantasy. So, you know, that he sort of birthed at least two generations of aspiring truth seekers is part of his legacy that he may not even have known about in life. And i think that what he reigned over was a washington that everybody misses. Chris matthews on his show talks a lot. He wrote a book about it. Reagan and tip oneill, it was a washington where after they were done punping each other, they had a beer or a cigar or drink. It is a washington that everybody in journalism and everybody in politics misses. All right. Well have much more on this ahead. Lets get to politics now a. Lot of fee, last night t. Candidates for u. S. Senate seat in New Hampshire both came out swinging if their first televised debate. Polls show jean shaheen and
former for scott brown running neck and neck in a race that could clash obamacare and why brown was even running at all. You had two chances to run for the u. S. Senate in massachusetts in 2013 and 2014. Why not take those . Because i live here. I mean i live here. I live here. I was born at the portsmouth faithful ship yard. My mom was a waitress at hampton beach. I have long and strong ties. I am running because i care about New Hampshire and restoreing america. Thats why im running. When he lost his race, he didnt move to New Hampshire and say i want to get lost in this state. He ran for massachusetts and went out to iowa and said he was thinking about running for president. Well, i dont think New Hampshire is a cons lakes prides. I think we feed a senator, we need a senator who is going to put New Hampshire first. Imagine you are at home wearing your New Hampshirecitizen hat and you get a call from a pollster asking the following question, do you approve of the job president obama is doing . Now, there will be a chance to follow up. This is a yes or no answer. Do you approve, yes or no . In some ways aapprove and some things i dont approve. So, you know. Like most questions, that we deal with as policy makers, there arent simple answers yes or no. Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren will head to New Hampshire to campaign for senator shaheen this saturday almost two years sense she won in massachusetts. Its within 3 of the margin of error. This race is so tight. There are so many races that can go either way. You wonder whether states like colorado and New Hampshire that usually break democratic are going to break democratic the
time and states like kansas that usually and georgia that usually break republican are going to break republican. There are a lot of really, really close races. This i think is not one of them. I know what the polls say. At the end of the day, since i come from the sister state of New Hampshire and im in the sister state of nortch now, there is a strong feeling in Northern New England that carpet bagging is not okay and i dont care if scott browns mother worked for the portsmouth whatever it was dairy queen or whatever as a waitress. I agree with you that from 30,000 feet you would think this would be a bicker problem. Why is this race so close against an established physical like jean shaheen . Because, because of president obamas approval ratings. Thats, you look, the republican versus done a terrific job in this way. Theyve nationalized the election, first of all, which is a good thing in a sixth year of
the president. More importantly, theyve made the issue the president. So they can avoid all this controversial stuff that theyve gotten if trouble with in the past you know too much abandoning abortion entirely, being antigay, antiimmigrant, the crazy stuff of ebola coming across the border from mexico. Most of that has been drowned out. The other races are close. The reason i think this one isnt is when you go into the both as you know well, there is a sort of a little switch that goes on. Those that are under tide is sided, something flips them over. The something is scott brown close to race and decided not to. A lot of midterm fireworks to get to coming up. I wanted to show you one other piece of video, Chris Christie talking about the minimum wage at a chamber of commerce event yesterday in walk. Take a look. To tell you the truth, im tired of hearing about the minimum wage. I really am. I dont think will is a mother
or a father sitting around a Kitchen Table tonight in america saying, you know, honey, if our son or daughter could just make a higher minimum wage, my god, all our dreams will be realized. Is that what parents aspire to for their children . They aspire to a greater growing america where their children have the ability to make much more money and have much greater success than theyve had and thats not about a higher minimum wage, everybody. What do you think of that, mica . I would counter what Elizabeth Warren said earlier this week, her mother had to step in after her father became ill and get a job that she went to go work at sears and had a minimum wage job that paid for the family and got them through hard times. We think that in a big way. I think to christies point, he gave us a speech. I remember we talked about it here. It was the republican response to income and equality. He talks about income and
equality. I think we should be cautious not to take his comments of minimum wage out of isolation from his larger message about opportunity and equality. Did you think those comments were taken out of i think his larger point about minimum wage, which hes made many times in battleground states, he should be more careful. He wouldnt be sitting back stage clinching a bit if. I have heard him make these comments about minimum wage shining the light on the wrong side of the economy. He has a larger message that is very powerful. I wish more republicans would adapt about opportunity to equality and aspiring to a minimum wage job. I says you all foe as we all know the sense coming out of this is im tired of hearing about the minimum wage. Its not a good one. I hate to say this is the kind of stuff i used to do on the campaign trail. You cant do it. Your press people boat into you, you do not say sentences like
that. There are also some issues, the republicans have to get smart on. Give up. On the cane trail. Can i sit and have an economic debate about the minimum wage. Sewer, you could. You could win the debate if you want. I was against raising the minimum wage when i was in congress. But this is an issue the republicans need to wake unto its fallen far behind where it should be. If you believe in the minimum wage and most americans believe in the minimum wage, yes, a republican can go on the campaign trail and say minimum wage is really about taking money out of the pockets of some poor people and giving it to other poor people. Republicans have lost the debate by that point. Theyve lost the debate by that point. You are never going to be able to give people a living wage on minimum wage by jumping up to 15 to 20 an hour. But republicans need to get smart on this issue before the 2016 race because right now it needs to be raised. It needs to be indecked. Yes, i can have the philosophic am debate how states should decide what a minimum wage would be. In a Perfect World that would be fine. If we want to go to teach xiblgs, we can do that. If we want to win president ial elections, we feed to understand there are single moms out there right now that arent sick and tired about discussions about the minimum wage. At all. There are people struggling praying the minimum wage goes up a little bit. I think Chris Christie is one of them is my only point. Why did he say that to the chamber . If he had said that in lets say a tough part of newark, nuvenlg i would respect him tan in the claim ber of commerce, where its a very safe callous sounding thing to say. I dont disagree with you at all. We have to wait to see how he responds to this i have heard him say more similar things than you have said about the minimum
wage. His only point, i believe is that the opportunity in equality is as grave and peril on the minimum wage as is the actual low wage in there i know you understand the, republicans need to understand the greatest threat to the Republican Party being a permanent minority, if we continue to be callous to working or sound callous. We have lost not only the working class, we have lost the middle class. We lose it by sounding overly and young people. Still ahead on morning joe, we are down to the home stretch to the election. The chairman of the Democratic National committee. Coming woman Debbie Waserman Schultz joins us and Valerie Plame is here. Well show you what happened after the singer got the officer to read the actual policy out loud. Also, mcdonalds take big
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