Giller the heave whatting officer for the Ronald Reagan president ial foundation and institute. In honor of the men and women in the armed forces, you please stand my and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to flag of the United States of america and to the republic for chit stands, one nation, under god, inquestionible, with liberty and just for all justice for all. Thank you. So, we havent had the fortune of having Many Political journallities, both print and broadcast, speak here over the years but the one we have with us today has covered six u. S. President s, beginning with president reagan, and seeking of president reagan we were first introduced to ken back in 2002 when he in a hamful of other experts came out the reagan lie bear to share story about president reagan and about airforone, stories we used to make our visitors experience that much more rich help has come two other times to discuss and sign copies of his book, prisoners of the white house and ultimate insider, white house photographers and how they shape history in 2017. Since he has been covering the white house since 1986, im sure he has no lack of material for many more books, especially since today he continues to provide insight into the white house of donald trump and the world of president ial campaign and perhaps if were lucky maybe hell share some insight into the upcoming elects. Hes here tonight to discuss his latest book, president ial leadership in crisis, from franklin relevant to donald trump. One view veer wrote ken walsh, some road on serve of president s takes referreds on a tour how 14 president s resolved crises that came their way and how a 15th, donald trump, regards crisis as the norm rather than the exception, and has incorporated them into his management style. Anyone interested in how power is exercised will come away enriched be the tales of both success and failure at the highest level of american government. So let her from tales. Its my honor to introduce ken walsh. [applause] well, thank you all for coming. Im going to be talk us about some challenging times that president s have face so we have in challenging times getting here tonight, including me. So, i was just in san francisco, where my daughter lives and i did some programs up there for the book, and one thing is being canceled after another so as you all know. But i could also report that all the lyft drivers out there making money from what we used to think is a taxi service, are starting to get the surgical masks now, and its hard to hear them and understand what theyre saying, but all ive heard is they dont help you. Its sort of a precaution theyre taking but im glad theyre doing it, but in any case, i want to thank melissa for having me, and thank you all for coming under these extraordinary circumstances. When youre White House Correspondent im been one more than 40 years and cover six president you always look for different ways to see the president s and get insight into them, and to find out what theyre like as people, the personalities, character, pomaces, alleged and so on, and i found a number of way to do that through the becomes. One i wrote a book about air force one. I came out here and helped in putting together the exhibit, in some mall way. Nancy reagan was nice enough to write a note. To see what the president s are like on air force one if decide a become out president s a sell celebrities and how they participate in popular culture. And and every president ive covered,ary murder president has to deal with a major crisis of some kind. Maybe this wasnt so true earlier in our history when we didnt have mass media, Mass Communications and werent a world power. Now we are, all those things are true and president s always have to teal with some copied of crisis. Ill come back to this later, President Trump is particularly interesting bus he seems to thrive on the idea of crisis. Some of the crises he generates himself. And then he sets the crisis and then likes the idea he emerged victorious in a crisis. Now he is dealing with a crisis unlike any he ever had to teal with before because its completely out of his control to start with, this virus were talking about. He has never dealt with this sort of thing is in profit life, as businessman. Has had some experience with a lot of other things but nose this. I think ill talk about this in a few minute buzz its up in the air now how we evaluate President Trump in dealing with this crosser and he still can correct some of the problems we have had initially. The confuse and the lack of understanding of what the country wants from the president in this situation, but he can recover and thats what well talk but in a little bit. But the we cant resist showing the consecutive of the cover of my become but cant good in much detail on all the president. Just want to give you a sense of some of the thing is discovered in looking at this whole concept of president s in crisis as defining moments for these different president s. And i did come up with a series of standards that i developed as sort of historian good my own right in how president s deal with crisis and i think what the people the public wants and what historians expect from president s in crisis is taking action, secondly, adopting to changing circumstances, balancing principle with what works, persevering and having an instinct for achieving success and thats all wrapped up in what im about to talk to you in evaluating different president s. This is sort of a summary of those standards i just gave you. But ill be talking about them in the next few minutes as we two through the preparation. Like you cant talk but president s in crisis without talking about abraham lincoln. The ultimate crisis in calamity in the United States, the civil war, and lincoln got us through this through a combination of adhering to the standard is talk about and being someone who represented the values and embodied the value he was trying to convey through the civil war and win the civil war. Of course he did not start out being a particular critic of slavery. He felt if he had to keep slavery to save the union would we do that be changed his mind and became a moral issue with him. During the waging of the war, the union had terrible setbacks and lincoln realizing he was he had been in a military earlier in his life briefly, but he had a lot to learn and thats one important thing but president s in crisis, are they willing to listen and learn and lip lip was willing to do that. His is him visiting general mcclellan, lone as little mac at the time, and talk but adopting to changes circumstances, doing what works, balanced with prim. He hired mcclellan, fired him, hired him again, fired him again, because he wasnt chasing down the confederate arms where the way lincoln wanted him to development so perseverance was lincoln as well, sat that very clearly in his dealing with the civil war. Won the civil war, and ended up abolishing slavery. I just want to show i like to show these pictures when i discuss lincoln. This is before he took office, before he grew his period, giving a famous speech at cooper union in new york to outline his agenda. Keep this in under mind. This is the way he looked when he took over at president before he drew his period. Three weeks before he was killed the ravages of the war had taken so much such a toll on hem he became to embody the suffering the country was going through in the civil war and that was very important to people, even in the south. He became known as among the free enslave evidence people as father abraham because he had been gone through such trauma with all the deaths he was ordering and also lost a son during the civil war, not because of the war but because of a fever. But just amazing how the toll it took on lynn him. Lincoln. He came to end body for many embody for Many Americans, the best crisis manager we have had as president. Now more recently, this the focus of the book think depression, the soup kitchen. During the early 1930s and through the 0s we had a terrible, terrible economic calamity. Unemployment today is 4 , just to report a little less than 4 . We dont like when it gets up to 8 , 9 , it was 35 during the depression. One out of every three people looking for work. Basically men at the time. Thats the way the culture was. Couldnt find i so it they that to go to soup kitchens and this is considered a humiliation to ask for charity to ask for help. People fit it was their fault they cant find work and people were tremendously upset by the whole circumstance. I have a couple of images here and want to get to this one of people lined up just get a cup of consecutive the and doughnuts and this is actually dressed pretty well. Get all dressed up to do this even though they had no work. People were clamoring for some help, just so desperate. A terrible economic calamity for so many people and Franklin Roosevelt step in to do that up one that that root did in addition to the standards i talked pout, he actually persevered in a specific way, and that is reflecting optimism. That is what he is known for and every president since roosevelt has adopted this technique, including president reagan, who admired president roosevelt all his lymph had been a democrat and became a republican, reagan did, but he admired roosevelt because of this optimism he could convey to the country. This is frap frap roosevelt give franklin root giving a fireside chat. He used the medium of radio which almost every american has access to and he scheduled what the called fireside chats, talking directly to the country but the depression and the problems and what he was doing. This is a particular example of him talking about the banks and he had a very clef way of doing what he was doing, having the federal Government Act to improve the economy. Instead of talking about shutting down banks or making sure banks were solvent by terminating their operations he called its bank holiday. Pretty clever term. Much lighter and nonthreatening but a he was closing banks and went out and gave the fire side chat throughout his administration, and you could walk through the city or town or a hamlet around the country and people had their windows ohm you could hear Franklin Roosevelts words because he had such incredible Market Penetration as they call it now, where people wanted to listen to the president , and you could hear him really just about wherever you went. A tremendously effective thing he did with these fireside chat and this is an example of the roosevelt optimism, the jaunty, positive president s that so many people of a certain age remember, and i cant talk too long about each one but theyre all in the book. Now, president root dies in april of 1945. Harry truman becomes president. True. Had a lot to prove. A lot of people didnt think he was up to the job. People felt if we had have had president roosevelt for four terms. How are re going survive without Franklin Roosevelt. During the truman period we had the korean war. This is an example of what the soldiers went through, very terrible, difficult conditions. Initially the war did not go well. And then the war started to get better, partly because we had a general who so Many Americans admired from world war ii in the pacific, douglas macarthur, i suggested to illustrate harry truman was firing general macarthur. A lot of historians will do define moments of president s in terms of military conflict but president s have to teal with so many things now ive chosen to illustrate this book with examples that are not just war and pastless but other things that were war and peace and other things that were defining moments and this one was firing mccar thunder. Took a macarthur. He was one of the most popular people in the country. Dulling the pacific he promised to return to the philippines and became the seem command Supreme Commander of japan and launch evidence brilliant move to do an invasion of the north at a place called en chan, very risky but successful operation. He started after the war was going badly, and he started off and the war was going well the American Forces in the south korea started mushing the now,ans back and got to tao close to the chinese and they spirit thousands of chinese books pushing the allies and americans back again, almost forcing them off the korean peninsula. Then the americans and the al allied force pushed back up generalliful during this period when the chinese entered, macarthur started to say this is a david war now. Need to do things different limit talk about using nuclear weapons, bombing the chinese mainland, talking about bring thing nationalist chinese from tie one in to help, which was absolutely an outrage to the chinese, harry truman kept telling him publicly were not doing that. We might bring the soviets into this, this is a cold war with dont want to have a wider war. For truman is was a concept of civilian control of the military. Going to let this very popular general run the war the way he waned or is the president , who is supposed to be our commander in chief, going to run the war. So true. Went and met macarthur on wake island in the pacific to get a sense of what the general was up. The meeting went gag and then macarthur making aggressive bellicose comments again, and truman fired him imit was a huge firestorm. Historians feel it was the right thing to do. He was defending the constitutional principle of civilian control of the military. Because very popular at the time. It cost truman a lot of support, but he always defend it, and now in revisionist history, people in who write the history becomes feel it 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 i think this president did in the retrospective do very well in dealing with it. President eisenhower. We have to go rapidly because i want to respect your time. President eisenhower is considered a popular president and successful one. Two terms. A lot of americans felt we wanted to return to normalcy and eisenhower delivered that. He initially got along pretty well with the soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev but still worried what the soviets were up to so he authorized the u2 flicks, my spy plains over the soviet union. They flew at high altitudes buns the soviet technology until the soviets improved their technology, and then he authorized several of these spy flights before International Conference in 1960, which he thought was going to be the capstone of his presidency and caused a thaw in the cold warmeet with khrushchev, letters of germany, france and uk in paris but he launched a spy mission but the weeks before this International Conference was supposed to happen, and wouldnt you know it this soviets shot that one down. So a tremendous blow to the prestige of the americans. Looked like we their he warmongers and this sort of thing and initially president eisenhower authorized a lie. He said it was a Weather Mission and his he made a bad judgment here and admitted later it was the worst mistake of his presidency and set beth sides back in the cold war. His feeling from his adviser he got was that the u2 plains could not survive an attack because they were rather fragile and the pilot would not survive, and the pilot had poison needle to injection him with and kill him. Well, the soviets not only found the debris, they captures are the pilot, Francis Gary Powers and khrushchev showed the dee debris in verb well published demonstrations and exhibits in moscow and said, not onlythe americans the war monthers, flowing over our country but eisenhower is a loire, and it was a tremendous blow because eisenhower prided him on being an honest politician and really did hurt his reputation, and the soviets actually played the Public Relations much bet ever than the americans thought they would because they canceled the paris meeting but khrushchev went initially and said he demanded that eisenhower call off any future u2 missions and eisenhower didnt want to seem like he was being bullied so he waffled on that. A real Public Relations mess for the United States. A few weeks after he takes office, we have the bay of pigs invasion where america forces supported cuban exiles. It was an utter failure. A lot of talking and the exile communities didnt think we gave them air support he adopted the plans of the eisenhower administration, for the invasion but it did not work. It was a tremendous setback. He goes ahead and meets with christoph and he has bay of pigs in this meeting in vienna. Christoph says kennedy is weak and inexperience and thanks he can get the better of him. What happens . We have one of the most dramatic and dangerous moments and the cold war it you see how close cuba is they were installing cuban missiles that could have mitch watch much of the mainland and much of the area we had the reconnaissance he mightve seen 13 days with three creations of these in movies some of them are very goes through many, many arguments within the administration on what to do, invading cuba, bombing queued a drink cuba one thing after another comes oath with an announcement of the country of a corn team. So instead than a blockade again language is important. Blockade is an active or calling it a quarantine basically was a blockade, softened the impression of it for the war community. Kennedy gives the speech and a lot of people, i was just a boy then but you can see this little illustration everybody was with this. There people in the Department Store in booktv section watching president kennedy on tv pretty got tremendous coverage when he decided to blockade cuba. It was very dangerous we did know how the soviets were going to response. One thing after another, couple things kim and i drink kennedy demonstrated was perseverance, learning from experience that notion of him changing with circumstances. When he felt they were openings for a peaceful resolution of this and he took them, rather than continuing to push chris jeff into a corner. Hes learning also, he had learned from the cuban initial budget missile crisis he learned from the bay of pigs that some of his military advisors including curtis lemay, a general who is very warlike in many fundamental ways said the militarys pushing him towards a confrontation he did not want to have. He did not listen to his generals as much as he had earlier. This is most historians would agree this was a good thing for him to do. He did not want to be pushed. The confrontation ends, and candidate gets a lot of credit for this. For steering us through this confrontation that could have ended up in a terrible nuclear war. Later it was revealed we had actually traded missiles in turkey and promised not to invade cuba for the removal of the military missiles. That wasnt disclosed at the time it was a deft communication strategy going on here as well. This is my concluding point here is kennedy, unflappable, the guy who was completely misread talk about failing in his own defining moment that kennedy really understood the stakes involved and the risk he was taking. He pursued in the end very prudent and sensible way of dealing with this. He is given credit for that in history and his defining moment. Lyndon johnson takes over after kennedys assassination. This is the vietnam war, photographed from the ted offensive its january is a surprise move, the north vietnamese and the vietcong, the communist forces in South Vietnam he launched attacks all over the country of South Vietnam it took the americans and South Vietnamese by surprise. Basically the United States in the South Vietnamese one most of the battles. The problem wasnt made clear we were a long way from winning in vietnam. The enemy was not going to give up even though president johnson said they were, there was light at the end of the title. It was a Public Relations victory for the communist forces if not a military one. This led to even more intense antiwar feeling. Remember the protests that johnson had to deal with, as a war criminal, vietnam veterans, people in vietnam and is protests, veterans and others protesting it. I remember then, i was in college in these days. Johnson could not speak outside of the white house because he would have these often violent protests. He had to speak at military bases where he had the respect of the soldiers as a commanderinchief and conservative college campuses. He was pretty much a prisoner of the white house for much of his time. And the chance that would go up, hey hey lbj how many kids did you kill today . We talk about Politics Today but that was pretty harsh. Then Lyndon Johnson has to decide what hes going to do about this think theres a lot of interpretation, its a political crisis that i think 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 accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president. This caught the country by surprise. It was a tremendous shock, people were stunned that johnson would do this. He sought this office all of his life and loves being president. But i think in reconstructing this is one of his defining moments that ended his presidency, that he really did the right thing. Because he knew he would face a real struggle being reelected, and he could have been reelected actually because he was a very strong figure. People had doubts about other people running for president. But he did not want to polarize the country and he knew would rip the country apart. So in the end it was the right thing for him to do. I think most historians would agree with that these days. Again, moving quickly, president nixon, he always wanted to be the tough, firm leader. And when he was faced with the watergate scandal, which is the issue i chose to deal with with nixon, he violates all the standards that i have come up with to look at president s under crisis conditions. He doesnt adjust to changing circumstances, he perseveres and trying to save his presidency but not in dealing with the fundamental problems and abuses the watergate scandal showed. He did not take action too late, it goes on and on. So, he lost congress in as the houses moving to impeach him, he resigns. He stopped the impeachment, you remember the scene, you can see the pain and pat nixons face there his wife is leaving the white house in the famous photograph of nixon as he gets on the helicopter flies away to go to california. This is another case where the president does not do wellin a crisis situation. I think initially of nixon had owned up to what happened the watergate burglary and not try to cover it all up, he probably couldve survived it. The democrats were not offering alternatives so what he was doing was what the country was going to accept. This is a case where he was his own worst enemy in this way in handling his definitive crisis as president. General ford takes over his vice president. He pardons nixon pray that the case i use for ford. Would often talk about a great deal explain it in the book. Ford decides that if he does not and the nixon controversy somehow, hes going to be bedeviled by and for the rest of his presidency theyre going to ask about hes going to be a figure casting a shadow on his whole presidency. So he does pardon richard nixon, another big gamble he took. It probably cost him his own bid for the presidency in 1976 when jimmy carter won. People really wanted nixon to pay more of a price. Ford felt that nixon had paid a price in the terrible humiliation and leaving office. All of the findings that were made about what went on in that administration. So we parted nixon. At the time, very unpopular decision but it took a lot of political courage for him to do this. He was sort of exonerated by history for this. And even the kennedy family, ted kennedy was very critical of ford for pardoning nixon later gave him a profile award inset i was wrong. That ford was right in pardoning nixon so theres kinda been a historic redemption here for gerry ford. We remember this is jimmy carter with the iranian hospice crisis. We still have iran in the news today. Heres where he left the country, the result led just zealots took over, and took control of iran. America was widely despised in iran for supporting the shaw who is very brutal and guilty of oppressing his people. So one day, when the shaw had left, he wanted to have treatment for some terrible physical problems he was having in the United States. The question was whether we were going to let him in the United States and maybe stir up opposition in iran that we were supporting this hated figure there. This is after he had been deposed. Carter said, well okay its probably the humane thing to do let him have the treatment here. He was a good illini for the United States for long time. But if these people go in and take over embassy and take over our people, im going to come to back to you advisors and ask you what we say now . And thats exactly what happens. Students and other radicals took over our embassy, they captured about 60 of our people and they held them for one year. Carter was unable to get them out. He tried everything that he could possibly do. This is a case where he was derided, instead of taking action which is one of the standards i have for president s and defining moments, he called for prayer, he said to pray for our captive americans and this is a case where there is at National Cathedral at ceremony. He was really stricken by it and almost froze his presidency for that whole year. And finally, after the pressure was going on him, he launched a mission. This is at the center of my critique of carter for the iranian hostage situation. He launched a mission to save to get the hostages and it was an utter failure. What happened was, the military later said that they told carter this, but everything had to go perfectly for this mission to have any chance of succeeding. Helicopters who had to go into the desert, meet up with other helicopters, find people from the country how to go and get into the embassy. Fly them to tehran, a hostile city, not a small place. Get to the embassy, fight your way through the embassy, find the hostages, get them out, get them back on the helicopters get the helicopters back to the ships. So every phase something could go wrong. What happens, it went wrong on the first phase. The helicopters ran into each other. Eight americans were initially killed. And it got worse from there. It was a terrible blow to carters presidency. Of course president reagan got them out. The day he took office how much of it was reagan or how much the iranians were afraid of him, nevertheless the hostage situation was a terrible blow to carters presidency that he never recovered from. Because he handled things innate rather hamhanded way. Now we get to president reagan. Of course this is him as he was shot, this is a case i use in the book for his crisis. The ultimate personal crisis because he almost died from the spirit he was giving a speech in washington, only a few weeks after he took office in 1981 is getting into his limousine and when he reached the limousine John Hinckley junior, a starstruck deranged young man who wanted to impress the Actress Jodie Foster shot the president pretty ended up hitting the press secretary d. C. Policemen, secret servicemen and one of the rounds bounced off the side of the limousine and hit reagan in the side. This is reagan, the exact moment he was hit by the piece of the ebola. You can see the aides and secret service guys looking over at the shooter. This picture won a Pulitzer Prize by the way. So what happens is, they push reagan into the limousine. He feels tremendous pain and he thanks the secret Service Agent that pushed him into the limousine had broken one of his ribs so he cost him. By this time he was bleeding from the mouth and he was frothing. The agent said were not taking you back to the white house mr. President were taking to the emergency room. If they would not have done that he most surely would have died. What youve got in the situation is a personal courage and the personal grace under pressure of an individual person under this tremendous version of being shot. He gets to the hospital and he always felt like the president should act like the president. This happened by instinct because reagan had been a movie actor im not saying this critically, he understood there was a role to play. He gets out of the limousine, buttons up his suit jacket, walks into the emergency under his own power and then he collapses. He didnt want people to see vulnerability. He does almost die. The doctors do their best to save him. He benefits from amazing good fortune. It turned out the day he was at the hospital was a conference with some of the most prestigious specialists in many types of surgery were there for a conference. They were all there when he got shot so they could all help them. They left the conference to help with the surgery. So then came the post operative part of it. Which was also a brilliant in many ways because reagan understood the ports of the spotlight he was on and he had to show the country that he was capable of recovering. He was a man in his 70s, remember. At that time we have two president ial candidates are going to be in the 70s now, actually three if you consider bernie sanders. He understands the country needs to see him. So he handled that very, very well. His advisers handle it was very well ask orchestrated. I put this is a plus it was a very important time for the country, the soviet union to see if our president was so weak they could take advantage of him. So he conveyed the idea that he was up to this and he could rise to the occasion and he could recover and almost a miraculous way. They arranged for him to meet at the hospital with the senior advisors. He does here, you can see he looks frail to me doesnt he look to you . Obviously has had a trauma here. But it works, and the country is very respectful of him and believes the president does have this personal courage and this grace under pressure. He perseveres and passes all of the standards i have talked about in dealing with the crisis. He also shows that he support around the country. This is a card that the staff arranged to be sent to him with white house staffers being photographed as a get well card to the president. He does other things that were very clever. He did that to show he could recover, an elderly man pumping iron and so on rather soon after being shot. So i think it was an amazing thing for president ragan and trent reagan to do this personal calamity he was going there. It helped with his agenda. I was covering congress at this time just before he began to cover the white house. A lot of americans felt they were going to give him the benefit of the doubt because of how he dealt with this personal crisis. I can rent the, i always like to cab drivers when im around to see what everyday people think. I cant tie the number of cab driver said he took a ebola to the chest and he kept coming. I didnt like him at first, but i like him now. Think thats the way a lot of people felt. This is the image of course that you are left with. There is no entrant never another calamity like that he did have skin cancer and colon cancer as such. But he didnt and trent did end up with this image of the leader charging ahead with his agenda. Which is the image he wanted all along. President bush takes over, he wins in 1988 election, he has the persian gulf war. President bush was a master Coalition Building pretty apply my standards to this, he does live up to all of the standards of taking action, combining principle with reality, persevering and so on. This is him when he visits the troops after he has organized this Massive International coalition to drive iraq out of kuwait, which they invaded to get their oil in 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 of the years ive covered the white house this is when i saw the white house operate better than ive ever seen it before. The National Security staff so on with the persian gulf war. Well know it this is. [laughter] this is the big crisis for bill clinton, the Monica Lewinsky and lies scandals. He had an affair at 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 best comments he had was hilary there and hes saying i did not have sexual relations with that woman, ms. Lewinsky, thats exactly what he said. But he did. That was a lie. He was caught in that whole year he was investigated and under impeachment proceedings, as a journalist i was covering things i would never dream i would be covering ever in my career about the president of the United States and his behavior with this young woman. Just unbelievable and people felt betrayed, that he had taken this on the mental risk and was so selfindulgent to risk his presidency, the job hed wanted all of his life was something that ended up being a salacious and dangerous as what he did. He was impeached, course impeachment is a charge that the house levees. And then the senate acquitted him. And thats just what has happened to President Trump by the way. But 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 is partisan. Certainly it was but it is in the history books. What happens with clinton, is that by the end of his presidency he is persuaded the country that his public leadership as president was more important in evaluating him that his private behavior. A lot of people felt he was a scoundrel. By the end of his presidency is impeached and acquitted, his popularity goes up, he becomes a popular president again because people feel well, i guess we cant have the president as a role model anymore. So 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 because americans have one of the president to be a role model for most of our history. A lot of president s have done what clinton did but its kept quiet. Now its different. Thats a big change. The other point about clinton is if we had the Metoo Movement today back then i dont think he wouldve survived. Women who had charges were not taking seriously back then as they are now, at least much more intensely. If we had had that back then, that he never wouldve made that through. Then of course 911. The destruction of the world trade towers, hijacked aircraft, terrorist, this is president bushs son he was initially 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 sitting hitting the second tower. Of course hes coming into presidency at this time. He was at an Elementary School in sarasota florida. One of his people told them a plainness at 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 unrealistic initial impression. But nonetheless he is goes out and is on camera. And the chief of staff whispers in his ear a second plane has had the second tower, america is under attack. That starts the global war on terrorism that he launches. He is off balance, for the first day. He doesnt come back right away to washington, which i was critical of initially but i think he was right about that because there is such chaos. For Example Air Force one the pilot of the plane was so unsure of what was happening he asked a secret Service Agent who was a friend of his to stand guard at the cockpit so no one would take over the plane. I always thought that was amazing. The pilot of air force one asking a secret service guy to protect the pilot for being taken over while the plane is flying. I always thought that was amazing but thats what happens. There is an initial period of chaos and uncertainty. Then president bush settles in and this is probably the most memorable moment of his presidency. He goes to the site where the trade towers had been, smoldering in the background. He is on the burnedout fire truck, a starstudded talk and the First Responder say we cannot hear you, we cannot hear you. He grabs a bullhorn in pulls up a guy from the cloud trip from the crowd and ends up being a retired fireman that ended up to help that day. Since i hear you, and the people who knocked down these buildings will heal hundred hear all of us very soon. Thats exactly what the country once you hear from the president he does pass the initial test of handling 911. Now, as time goes on you can reassess how he handled the longterm crisis. The war in afghanistan, and iraq, occupying the countries that his father did not do because he felt it would be too much of an obligation and burden for the United States to handle. President bush does that and relives a dread living with the consequences today. But the initial reaction to the attacks he handled himself very well. President obama and the crisis when he took over. This is a clever Time Magazine cover comparing him to Franklin Roosevelt who had to deal with the depression, which i talked about a little while ago. President obama had to deal with a real meltdown it was a fundamental economic crisis. You remember that era with major Banking Institutions and lending houses were going under and so on. He had to decide whether it was a best to just get it over with the soonest possible and alienate some people who thought he was going too far with the federal government or was he going far enough . And punishing the bankers and so on. A lot of liberals of the Democratic Party felt he did not go far enough that he should have punish the banks, he shouldve put these people in jail but he did not do that. He does get past the initial meltdown and the economy does recover. We have to give him credit for that part he does persevere, he balances principle of pragmatism. He understands taking action was important and he does have an instinct for success in this. One of the things he did that was particularly controversial is the rescues the Auto Industry. He gives the Auto Industry loans and financial aid. Which was tremendously controversial. A lot of americans felt it was the Auto Industrys own fault they were all going bankrupt. That they were making cars americans wanted that was turning out to be true. They were not as fuelefficient and so impaired he decides to bail out the Auto Industry pretty does save the Auto Industry in some fundamental ways. So i think you have to look on that as a case where he took a very risky and unpopular decision and ran with it. So that was probably a good judgment on his part. Again we can quarrel about my conclusions, but just laying out the parameters of the discussion here is interesting and how he dealt with this. Now were up to President Trump. President trump has made a presidency of crisis. We have had a perpetual series of crisis. We can argue whether hes handled them well or badly, but he seems to thrive in a crisis atmosphere. A lot of president s with think like a Government Shutdown would be enough of a crisis for a first term. We have had a Government Shutdown weve had confrontations with north korean neck, confrontations with iraq. Weve had terrorists instance we, 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 that 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 the 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 it wasnt going to pay for the wall, then President Trump declared a national emergency, a crisis at the border so he could move money from other accounts to pay for the wall. That is still being contested in court by the way. Hes taking action here but its against the very resistant congress. as a funmentam crisis hes dealing with. He is impeached, deals with robert muller, the special counsel who investigated him. The report was inconclude shift shut the democrats ran with it anyway and then nancy pelosi did not want to impeach him officially but decided to do it after the famous phone call with trump talking to the ukrainian deeder lawsuit the investigation of joe biden, and corruption, volunteering bidens son, hunter. Now, that still floating around out there, by the way, because a lot of republicans dont want to let go of that and want to investigate hunter biden, bidens son, joe bidens son. This is the issue that caused the impeachment because the argument of the torontos is theres an abuse of power, the president tried to corner an ally an adversary by forcing an ally to investigate this guy. Now, the other part is that trump says that biden was trying to joe biden was trying to remove a prosecutor from ukraine, the prosecutor might have been trying to investigate hunter biden, joes son. A its complaining bitted by both sides were not giving up on their interpretation of what joe biden was trying to do while he was vice president. Fight corruption or get his son off. That sort of thing. Envelopes, this is joe biden and his son, what happens is, the house leader, adam schiff from california and others push impeachment and trump is impede, as clinton was, but also acquitted so he has the impeachment on his record but the acquittal and thats still going on. I tend to think that trump would have been hard to avoid impeachment because the partisan atmosphere in washington right enough but he might if softened the blow if he had not been as resistant as nixon was to cooperating with the investigation; not allowing testimony. But his conclusion was that its never going to be fair and he was never going to be treated decently, and so ill let you decide what was the proper interpretation of that. One thing that i wanted to end with is that we have now, right now going on, what we started talking about, earlier in the discussion, the coronavirus discussion. That could be the biggest crisis of his presidency. Because it affects so many people. Now, are people panicking . Is is worth panicking over . Thats the question. We have this kind of story floating around the country, how are you treat to do we have enough tests. Thats something that the president needs to be careful of this in particular because a lot of people in the Public Health service, very nonpartisan people, say we really do have a problem getting tests for this. We need to get the government the government needs to get on the ball and get the tests out there so we know who has this and its taken a very long tomorrow for that to happen. Now, President Trump, still recover from this, i think, from the initial missteps or slowness of the response, because he said its just like any other flu initially. Now, it turns out people are just really scared about it. Maybe theyre overdoing it but its a real problem in peoples minds. So President Trump has to deal with this now, and this is him announce something of his programs. And he is now taking action. Which is probably want the americans want to see most of all and recognizing the severity of the problem in peoples minds. Thats i think a step in the right direction. This is a case where i couldnt accommodate in my book which had already been published best this coronavirus is an example of a crisis that could really undermine or propel the president. Its right in play right now. And that is what were all looking at at this moment. So, with that i just want to thank you for coming and i hope that was helpful in understanding this notion of president s in defining moments. Thank you. [applause] we have time for a few questions. We are going to ask that because this is being recorded you do not ask the question until our staff member brings the microphone to you. I think i saw a womans hand. Hello. Thank you for the excellent presentation. Thank you. What would you recommend President Trump to do next to make this crisis something that he comes out as handling well. I think theres two things. Recognize reality, that tell people what is really happening here and not minimize that this is something nobody has should worry about which is the impression he gave initially. I whether it was fair or unfar he gave the impression its going to go away. Wait until the warmer weather. Its the flu. But people are so worried about it. Think thats part of the changing circumstances he has to address. He has to recognize you see signs he is dog this that this is a big deal for people. Theyre really worried about it. So one is putting up information that people really want about what is happening, and second, that means working with the Public Health service and other professionals and the second is taking action. People in a crisis want the president to do something. And he is now starting to do that. Now, is it too late to create a different impression that he is on the case . I dont think so. I think he could still do. That. Think he has to stay with it. This is a defining moment for him. And he has got to show he is capable of leading us through the crisis, whether people are exaggerating or not, he has to recognize, think, that the public wants the president to be decisive in either calming our fears or showing us the way out, and i think thats the key to what he needs to do. Could you tell us a little bit about the korean war . You talked vietnam but tell us a little bit well, the question about the korean war. Basically im by tea way one of the few journalists in washington who was in the army. Not the korean war but the vietnam era. The korean war was one of these interventions the United States has gone into, including vietnam and other places, where americans didnt like because it did not have clean resolution. What happened was, the north korea now,ans the peninsula of korea was divided within north and south and thats a demarcation line, the dmz. The middle of the country. North koreans feel like they can finally take over the south, so they invade the south. They push the american traps, who are allies of south korea, almost off the peninsula. We were in a little compartment there at the bottom of south korea where we had been stuck, push by the North Koreans, and then we pushed troops and supplies in and started to publish the North Koreans bark wear very clever strategy with general macarthur. Youll say the conditions, cold weather, very desperate fighting, americans were very outnumbered. We had the tech nothing but it was a very difficult slog. We just had world war ii in 1945 and now were in the early 50s in war again, in a very difficult situation. So we our government and our allies and the south koreans dont understand how perilus it is to get close to that chinese border. So as our troops are moving up closer to the river, the key place of demarcation, be get to the river and then hundreds of thousands of chinese storm cross the river and push us back again. Then it becomes even more desperate. We have many soldiers dying, and terrible conditions, and so then it becomes a real tough slog and it becomes a stalemate and thats why so Many Americans hated the korean war because we didnt win it because we were stick and we still dont have a peace treaty. We have an armistice, and were style dealing with that situation now. Thats the story in a nutshell. I hope that was helpful. How do you feel that the president obama handled benghazi and what was his relationship with valerie jarrett. Okay. Well, on benghazi, i think that was more of a Hillary Clinton thing. I think president obama could have stepped in. This was a situation where did Hillary Clinton allow our dip president s and our americans in this benghazi situation to be stranded and killed without trying to rescue them . If she didnt move quickly enough . I think it was such a fastmoving situation maybe obama should have jumped in but he deferred to Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. Its still a big criticism of Hillary Clinton, she didnt take action to save our people when they were under attack in benghazi. Thats the a lot more to say but just in the interests of time, i think president obama just didnted he would let Hillary Clinton handle that, and he didnt enter veep help let Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state deal with this. Still a big criticism of her among conservatives and republicans. President obamas relationship with valerie jarrett. Very close, disclose in chicago where he came up as a political figure. She was initially a friend of michelle obama, his wife, and then became a friend of his. She became a senior white house adviser, didnt get actually 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. Now, we still dont havent got to to bottom of what role she played put she was certainly one of the fundamental players in that government, and that is a case where maybe we need to maybe the media should have paid more attention to that, but by and large, she was very few people in the Obama Administration more important than valerie jarrett. Jibing one. One more question. Thanks again for a very informative talk. Two things. You mentioned president eisenhower mentioning his big muff stains walk the u2. I think theres another story when he was leaving office, somebody asked him, have youve made my mistakes as president , and he said, yes, ive made two, and theyre both sitting on the supreme court. So maybe theres other ones. Thats interesting. Ive heard that story, too. But i think later on, i think he midnight have written in memoirs and subsequent interviews, that the single mistake he made bass handling the u2. He really providessed himself on being the truthteller and he wasnt in that case and it hurt him that he made that mistake. Think thats personal personally troubled he was in that position. My question is your comment if you have any other president clintons words a few days ago that in his sexual escapades were a way of relieving the stress of the presidency. That you picked up on that, and a lot of people tide. President clinton i its a sad case in some ways because he was considered like the best politician of his generationally to, through the campaign. The guy not the least of reasons because he could talk his way out of everything. And he was proud of that. And many, many stories how clinton would say, when im in a roomful of people ill go to the person who i think hates me the most and i want to convert them. I want to persuade them to support me. So he would good right for that notion. But that is where im goetting at im getting at with the Metoo Movement. That opportunity work. Im under great anxiety and stress, and so i need to prey on this intern, and mon monica lieu lewinski as change her vow. He sass he is saying he is the most powerful man in the world and i was enthralled. He is paying attention to me. Im 22 years old, and so he handled that in just about the worst way you could. And he was impeached over it. As i say those times were different and i dont think it would work today. Anyway, but i did see that comment, and im sure that kind of thing will be floating around, the politicked of our country for a long time. I want to thank you again all for braving the weather and join us tonight. I want to thank ken foring here. Its fascinating. Right hadnt you well keep you indoors. The public store is right behind us and he will there and we did announce today that pause of the coronavirus, we are closing our doors so tomorrow is the last day at the Reagan Library and museum will be open until further notice. Were glad you are here tonight. [applause]