Overheard. The lead writer of the story standing by for us. Plus with the iran matter swirling, we meet trumps Fourth National security adviser, by all accounts appointed in the nick of time. And one of our guests tonight believes the democrats are headed for big trouble if they ever let what happened yesterday happen again. All of it as the 11th hour gets under way on a wednesday night. Well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 972 of this trump administration. And as we said, we have a big story in the Washington Post tonight. It involves a whistleblower complaint from inside the administration that the intelligence Inspector General considers credible and urgent. Tonight the post puts it this way, saying this whistleblower complaint involves president Trumps Communications with a foreign leader according to two former u. S. Officials familiar with the matter. They go on to write, trumps interaction with the foreign leader included a promise that was regarded as so troubling that it prompted an official in the u. S. Intelligence community to file a formal whistleblower complaint with the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community. This is obviously potentially explosive. Greg miller, Washington PostNational Security correspondent, is the first name in a threepart byline tonight. He has made himself available to us. Greg, what is the finite list of foreign leaders our president could have been talking to in this case . Well, this complaint, this whistleblower complaint, comes in the early part of august. And if you look through the white house records, trump had interactions with about four or five foreign leaders in the weeks leading up to this complaint. Perhaps the most relevant one is a late july, end of july conversation with Vladimir Putin in which the white house readout was very different from the russian readout afterward, in which the russian government indicated they saw some sort of progress toward restoring bilateral relations between the two countries. But there were others too. He was also interacting with the north korean leader, with the Prime Minister of pakistan, and a couple of others. But i think its safe to say that the speculation is going to center on putin and on kim jongun. Now, i do know that in the s modern era, there have been traditionally in the National Security shop in the west wing, there have been phone listeners, sometimes notetakers, sometimes analyst to recount what went on. That is a way of doing business, though, not all the time. Is there reason to believe there is a permanent record of the conversation because, absent that of course, opens the door to deniability. Right. So there almost undoubtedly is a record of this call. Calls made by president s out of the oval office to foreign leaders are always witnessed. There are always others who participate or witness or record the calls, take notes. In previous administrations, those notes would end up being distributed across the National Security community to keep other people and other Government Employees apprised of what was discussed and what was decided. This white house has curtailed that practice significantly in part because of a story i wrote early in trumps presidency in which he disclosed classified information to russian officials in the oval office. What is the short lesson on whistleblower laws . I know they are written for a reason, and that is the hope that no matter who the person and no matter how explosive the charge, it is supposed to, if its working correctly, bubble up and make its way to the appropriate audience. And in this case, in this rare case, a first in the memory of veterans on capitol hill, this case has been blocked from being heard, correct . Thats right. So far, the director of national intelligence, the nations top intelligence official, is refusing to disclose details about this whistleblower complaint, saying essentially that there are other equities here, that this involves the communications of somebody who is not who doesnt work for me basically. So that has led to some speculation that this might be trump. And we were able to confirm that today. I think its important. One other thing you just said, brian, is very important, which is that this is really, if not uncharted territory, then pretty close to it. Youre basically were sitting on a story where an official who works for the u. S. Intelligence community is troubled enough by what the president of the United States has said in a call with a foreign leader, that he went to the Intelligence Communitys Watchdog Agency to report it. We commend this article to the attention of our viewers. Look for this mans byline. The first of three, a big team working on this for the Washington Post. Greg miller, thank you so much for finding the time to talk to us about it tonight. As we continue, donald trump tonight has made his first move to punish iran after that weekend strike on saudi arabias oil industry. In what passes for official communications these days, he told secretary of the treasury to, quote, substantially increase sanctions on the country of iran. Trumps secretary of state, who is in saudi meeting with officials at the kingdom, came out with his provocative assessment while talking with reporters. This was an iranian attack. We were blessed that there were no americans killed in this attack, but any time you have an act of war of this nature, theres always risk that could happen. So he tossed out the phrase act of war. Today the saudi government revealed what they said were the remains of iranian cruise missiles and drones used in the attack while u. S. Intel reportedly indicates the strike originated from iran, they deny all responsibility. The possibility of military action against iran came up as the president continued his fundraising swing through california. He remembers the one who said the u. S. Is locked and loaded. And he took a different line from his secretary of state today. Are you looking at a military strike . Well see what happens. There are many options as you know, phil. There are many options. Theres the ultimate option, and there are options that are a lot less than that. And well see. Were in a very powerful position. Right now were in a very, very powerful position. When you say the ultimate option no, im saying the ultimate option meaning go in, war. Im not talking about that ultimate option, no. You saw the man standing with the president today. And as we mentioned, trump chose today to introduce his Fourth National security adviser, robert obrien, a californian, a lawyer by trade. He has been the state departments chief hostage negotiator. He will replace john bolton, who left the administration a week ago. He did a tremendous job on hostage negotiation, really tremendous, like unparalleled. I think we have a very Good Chemistry together, and i think were going to have a great relationship. Obrien worked with bolton. Hes been known to hold similar views, especially with regard to iran, russia, and china. New york times has an indepth look at obrien. They write together, quote, his friends all cite an affable, ingratiating personality that has earned him allies throughout the trump administration, notably including secretary of state mike pompeo and mr. Trumps soninlaw and adviser Jared Kushner, both of whom supported his appointment. Questions remain about whether mr. Obriens background has adequately prepared him for the myriad challenges of his new job. Around the same time trump was introducing obrien, john bolton was getting a little revenge. A report in politico now confirmed by nbc news said bolton slammed trumps willing in is to meet with the taliban as house guests at camp david saying it, quote, sent bolton was speaking at a closed door event in new york. He reportedly said any negotiations with north korea and iran were, quote, doomed to failure. Bolton did not mention his former boss by name, but late today, trump was asked about bolton. I was critical of john bolton for getting us involved with a lot of other people in the middle east. John was not able to work with anybody, and a lot of people disagreed with his ideas. Guys like bolton and others wanted to go into iraq, and that didnt work out too well, all right . That didnt work out too well. That was a horrible idea, and i put him in anyway. And frankly everybody knows, if you move wrong, he wants to you know, he doesnt realize that you get stuck. You get stuck. And they got stuck, and im unsticking it. There you have it. And we turn now to our leadoff discussion on a wednesday night. Michael crowley, White House Correspondent for the new york times, covering Foreign Policy. Anita kumar, White House Correspondent and associate editor for politico. And franco ordonez, White House Correspondent for npr, veterans all. Good evening to you all. Anita, id like to begin with you. The last thing we just heard was trump versus bolton. Just about everybody expected bolton to get a big advance and write a book and make his charges there. This is a rather quick turnaround, and it strikes me this could get ugly in a hurry. Oh, i think we saw it get ugly on the first day, on the day of the firing, right . Remember they were back and forth on who got fired, if he got fired, and i think that sort of signaled to us that he was that john bolton was not going to leave and be quiet about this. He is definitely going to be a thorn in the president s side as this goes forward. He is going to express his views. He is going to let everybody know what he thought was good and what was bad. You know, it will be an interesting thing because we see a lot of people who do leave. Some end up writing books. Some end of kind of going quietly, but its clear that yoebl is going to continue to talk. Michael crowley, if youre old enough to remember the top of our broadcast tonight, i want to read this reaction from neal katyal to this whistleblower story. This is going to be huge. Doj and administration are contorting themselves backwards to try to hide this. Truth will come out. There are probably tapes and transcripts documenting a gross abuse of power by trump. Going to be ugly. Enablers should all face consequences. Michael, whats your read on just how ugly this could get . Well, i think i think greg said that, you know, were looking at uncharted territory. How many times have we said that in this president . Were in uncharted territory. Or as we call it, wednesday. Its amazing how we and yet theres still these constantly, unique, new variations on the theme where you say, wow, this one really is we havent seen anything quite like this before. This feels like it do really be it. What can i say, brian . I want to know so much more. I want to know was it Vladimir Putin . What was the magnitude of this promise . But i think that the story what i can say with some confidence, its turned a corner now. Weve got a little more clarity on just what was going on. It was sort of bubbling beneath the surface. Its going to be topic a all day tomorrow. You know, if it really is something that implicates the president , were going to start hearing from him. I mean this president in the last few weeks does not stop talking. He talks to reporters multiple times a day. He will be addressing this tomorrow, and i will be fascinated to see how he handles it. Hey, michael, give me the 30second thumbnail of the new National Security adviser. Interestingly as people pour through his bio, californian, educated at good schools, grew up a catholic, became a mormon later in life. Yeah. And, look, people really love this guy. People who have worked closely with him, i mean i was just struck by how easy it is to find friends of his. In fact, in our reporting todays, i had colleagues who were working on other stories who were calling people about unrelated things, who were saying, i know this guy and i love him. Even National Security professionals didnt know who he was, but it turns out that he is just wired up particularly in republican circles and trump world circles, and people love his personality. And the question is, you know, is he prepared for the intensity of this job . I mean he is an accomplished lawyer. He has had this very challenging job as a hostage negotiator. Those are tense, difficult negotiations. But the interagency process, if hes going to run it the way its traditionally done and youre dealing with the Intelligence Community and the military, diplomats, foreign leaders, managing the president , managing big egos, that is an enormous challenge. I dont know that hes had that kind of managerial experience or that real depth of experience in government and Foreign Policy. But at the end of the day, it may be that getting along with President Trump better than john bolton and h. R. Mcmaster did and getting along with other people in the administration, notably including mike pompeo and Jared Kushner is sort of the key to success, at least by the relative standards internally of this administration. Franco, the fourth guy, same job, 28 months. What does it say about talent . Well, it says that its very hard for them to keep the talent. I mean President Trump has gone through these National Security advisers very quick and in historic fashion, and obrien is coming at a tough time. Not only is it a tough time in the world with issues with iran, north korea, and china, but also theres issues at home, at the National Security council. Were reporting today that theyve had a hard time with morale and trying to keep talent because more and more people fear that going to the nsc is going to kind of taint them as a political operative. This is the kind of thing obrien is going to have to confront and deal with and try and regain some support and kind of a rallying cry to get people because they provide so much positive and Important Information for the president. Franco, please assure us that there are career and military staff, that there is a machinery of the nsa within National Security within the west wing and that job one for him is going to be getting his arms around that. I mean certainly there is, you know, that machinery that its there. There are republicans and democrats in the office doing that work who still believe in supporting the president , in supporting the opinion, giving him all the information that he needs to make the right decisions. But theres no question that from the people that im talking to, theyre also having a harder time getting the best of the best talent. This is a position where it was one of the most prestigious in Foreign Policy circles. But now as i said earlier, people are afraid of being tainted as political operatives. Theyre worried that they may have to say no to an ambassador, and years later when they go back to, say, the state department or their other agency, that may come to haunt them. Anita, the comment by senator Lindsey Graham that iran would take this as a sign of weakness if we did not hit back and even perhaps on behalf of the kingdom, what an interesting kind of soft trolling of his good friend, the president , who was forced to react to that today. Yes. Senator Lindsey Graham knows how to get under President Trumps skin. He clearly knew what he was saying and felt like he wanted to break with the president. Obviously the two are very close. They talk frequently about a variety of issues. And hes an important ally to President Trump in the senate. The Senate Judiciary chairman on so many issues. But yes. You saw the president s response to that. He pushed back on senator graham, said it was not something that he he was mistaken and it was actually a sign of strength, not weakness. He felt like he needed to respond to that. And weve seen that over and over with President Trump. When he is criticized, he pushes back no matter who is doing the criticizing. So he felt like he needed to say that. He talked about the sanctions. And well see if theres anything else. You know, i talked to some people today who were saying, you know, this is what this Trump Presidency is like. Its possible he will go ahead with these sanctions as he mentioned, and then hell move on to something else, at least for the time being. So its unclear whether he plans on doing more. In that respect its only wednesday after all. Three of our returning veterans on this breaking news night. To michael crowley, anita kumar, franco ordonez, our thanks for coming along for the ride. And coming up for us, nancy pelosi has a message to her fellow democrats on impeachment, and she doesnt care who leaks it. And it did. And later, ken burns is here to talk about his new documentary on the past and the future of Country Music. The 11th hour just Getting Started on a wednesday night. Ss been omitted to avoid spoiling this is us for the few who havent seen it. Season 4 of this is us is almost here. To catch every past episode, just say this is us into your xfinity voice remote. Like the one where i. [ buzzer ] or the one where we show. [ buzzer ] when he was a. [ buzzer ] plus you can watch this is us anywhere with Xfinity Stream app. Especially the. [ buzzer ] episode. Awww, that ones my favorite. Catch every episode of this is us with xfinity. Welcome back. The divide over impeachment between the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, and some of her own democrats on the House Judiciary Committee appears to be growing. For that matter, you can watch it on television every day. But this was said in private. Politico reports that during a closeddoor meeting pelosi complained Democratic Committee staffers are pushing the issue when the votes for impeachment are simply not there. She reportedly added, feel free to leak this. And someone dutifully did. Tonight the Washington Post reports the speaker was heard saying she would have held Corey Lewandowski in contempt during yesterdays committee hearing. Rachel bay reports, in a small huddle with lawmakers from across the caucus, pelosi complained that no witness should be able to treat members of Congress LikePresident Trumps former Campaign Manager did, according to three people familiar with the exchange. I would have held him in contempt right then and there, she said. The post says several lawmakers in the room saw that as a dig at chairman jerry nadler. Back with us again tonight, rick wilson, veteran florida man, veteran republican strategist whose views about our 45th president best expressed by the title of his book everything trump touches dies. Rick, i was following you, following your every word yesterday. We quoted you on this broadcast last night as accusing the democrats of having brought a soup ladle to a gunfight. Among your best work. They got rolled. They got played. And, again, the football was snatched out in front of jerry nadler again on a national audience. Your point has been for the last 24 hours if Corey Lewandowski is going to do that to you, imagine when you get a professional in front of that committee. Exactly, brian. It is an absolute sign that they are not prepared to execute on a plan to impeach this guy. Should he be . Make that argument all day long. Will they be able to pull it off . If theyre at the performance level they showed yesterday, i would put Donald Trumps odds of even getting enough votes to vote on impeachment in the house, you know, to stop it as excellent. Not to mention whats going to happen in the senate. Mitch mcconnell is going to have every single republican vote in the senate and probably three or four democrats if theyre this incompetent at handling this. Im not arguing about whether he should be impeached. Im arguing about their technical ability to handle it. Corey lewandowski yesterday went out there and did everything but drop his pants and wave his ass at these people. He insulted them. He lied to them. He was in contempt from the minute he opened his piehole. This is a guy who should have been held in contempt. The words that should have come out of Jerry Nadlers mouth were sergeant at arms, take that man into custody. He is in contempt. They let him treat them like dirt. And its astounding to me. What happens when they get people who do have immunity . What happens when they get people who can exercise executive privilege . This is an astounding lift. They think theyre going to get a miracle of impeachment and remove him from office . Theyre out of their damn minds. Im going to ask you a question im assuming you know the answer to. Tell the good folks watching tonight why guys like you and me who have some miles on them, how it is we first heard the names Fred Thompson and samuel dash. Fred thompson and samuel dash were on the watergate hearing, watergate committee, as counsel, asking questions of the watergate conspirators. And what youve got right now is an example of why you want to bring in the pros. Yesterdays circus didnt get really didnt get started until almost at the end of the day when they finally had burke come out and ask questions in a way that put lewandowski on the defensive, that didnt let him play his little games and didnt let him cutely roll his eyes and smirk the entire day. Thats what they needed to do in the front end. This committee, these guys all wanted their five minutes. They all wanted their moment to strut and get out there in front of it. What happened in watergate when you had guys like Fred Thompson and sam dash taking apart the watergate conspirators and grinding down on the details, that altered the tone and the texture of it. If they had led with this yesterday, wed be in an entirely different position right now because Corey Lewandowski basically did five hours of vamping until daddy came out to spank him. Why do you think it is not a greater priority for the democrats to try to win the senate . Look, winning the senate, it takes a couple of big things right now. It takes focus. It takes the ability to get good candidates into these races. And right now seemingly every democrat who can walk on two legs is still in the president ial field. Im shocked that theyre not working harder to get bullock into the race. Im shocked theyre not working harder to ensure that hickenlooper is in a strong position in colorado. They should be working very hard in maine where theyve got an opportunity. But right now theyre scattered. There is still this idea that youre going to somehow impeach trump in the house and magic things happen. He goes to the senate. Mitch mcconnell laughs his tail off and says no. And its over. Trump claims exoneration. Hes raised 250 million off of the impeachment scare to his base. And here we go. Theyre not going to capture the senate if they dont get focused on it, though. And that should be a strategic goal. But right now the democratic partys got way too many people running for president and not enough running for senate. Well, speaking of that very thing, first of all, the preternaturally cautioned rick wilson is going to stay with us and take part in this next conversation. But coming up, despite some alarming new poll numbers, the Harris Campaign for president says its doing just fine, thank you very much, though with did find out about their travel plans today. How are you feeling about your campaign and where youre at . Im feeling good. Tell me. Im feeling good. There is an incredible amount of enthusiasm. I mean, rachel, were going obviously a lot is the primary states New Hampshire, iowa, south carolina, nevada. People are standing in line for hours. Of course heres the problem. Heres why people like rachel ask people like the senator, the new nbc news wall street journal poll shows Kamala Harris dropping eight points since just july to fifth place now with 5 . And this summer shes been missing from the early states. Look at this. As of today its been 72 days since shes been to south carolina, 37 since shes visited iowa, 21 since her last visit to nevada. 10 days since her last trip to New Hampshire though prior to that visit, it was 53 days since she had been up to the granite state. A Harris Campaign spokesperson told nbc news shell be on the trail a lot more in october. Quote, were not playing to win a summer news cycle in the off year. Were playing to win an election. And theres this. Journalist matt lazlo posted on twitter today, and we quote, i am fing moving to iowa senator Kamala Harris joked to senator hirono of hawaii before she noticed me. With us for our conversation, jim warren, a veteran around here, a veteran print journalist, now executive editor of the new startup newsguard that rates the veracity of news and information sites and still kind enough to stay with us is rick wilson. So, jim, is october an okay time to recalibrate lets take them on their word to recalibrate a president ial campaign . First of all, if i strike folks as boring, stay tuned. Were the warmup act for ken burns. We are all the warmup act for ken burns. Folks, stay up for ken burns, please. No, its not too early to recalibrate, but its a little too early to go overboard. On the way here i was looking at gallup polling 2007. Thats really sad. 2007 not as sad as the play i saw tonight that is really depressing called the height of the storm about a guy coming up with dementia. 2007 gallup analysis made quite clear that Hillary Clinton would romp over an illinois senator named barack obama. She was up by about 30 points. And remember in iowa that year voting was in january, not like this year in february. Who was the republican leader clearly in the gallup polling . Rudy giuliani. Oh, yes. President giuliani. President giuliani. So its you know, just dont go overboard. Now, does she have reason to be concerned . Yeah, she has reason to be concerned. Her strategy doesnt seem to have been terribly consistent. Her three debate performances were very uneven. This polling is not very good. But there are a lot of things to potentially be said for her candidacy. If you are a democrat who is rightfully concerned about elements like having to have a lot better turnout in big midwestern cities like detroit and philadelphia and milwaukee and pittsburgh, and she probably plays, well, pretty well down south. But, yeah, theres concern. But there is a long time to go. Otherwise, we would have said Rudy Giuliani was a lock to be president. Okay, rick wilson, since we established you used to beat or try to beat democrats for a living, look at all these campaigns. All the democrats who can fog up a mirror as you mentioned are in the race for president. What campaign would you like to work for . What campaign would you be least apt to want to work for . Well, i can give you the least apt thing right now. I would least like to work for communist ron paul, bernie sanders. I think the guys a recipe for electoral disaster, and i know whats going to happen now. My twitter feed is about to turn into a hot, radioactive stew of bernie bots. And it never is. But go ahead. No, not at all. I think the candidate right now whos having her breakout moment is elizabeth warren. She may be having that moment she needs to establish herself as the frontrunner, but well see. Biden is still in the fight. Hes going to be in the fight until the last dog dies because hes got high name i. D. Hes got a lot of resources. Hes got a lot of relationships. Hes very strongly polling with africanamericans right now. But for the good of their party there are democrats who need to consider how much longer you want to grind this thing out. I mean do we really need to hear much more from bill de blasio . And, look, harris is now polling in a zone right around yang. And, you know, if a guy mostly who is running his campaign off of reddit is outdoing somebody who is a major u. S. Senator and a National Political figure, you might want to think about whether youre going to stay in this fight the whole way through. And jims point about rudy was leading and hillary was leading in 2007, those were two very much National Brand people. You knew who they were. Name i. D. Was the strongest influencer in the polling at that point. These democrats are mostly not nationally known figures, and i think youre going to see a sorting thats going to be inestable. But it would be sal yew tory for the field, for some of these folks to make a decision sooner rather than later. Then he throws down a sal yew tory out of nowhere. Listen to this, along with our audience, jimmy carter has a way of endearing himself to his fellow democrats. I hope theres no age limit. You know, if i were just 80 years old, if i was 58 years younger, i dont believe i could undertake the duties that i experienced when i was president. But one thing, you had to be very flexible with your mind. You had to be able to go from one subject to another and concentrate on each one adequately, and then put them all together in a comprehensive way. Jimmy carter saying there should be an age limit on president. I wonder what issue that refers to in our common news coverage. Oh my gosh, thats not one wants to go too heavy with in a campaign, particularly if you look at some of the upper midwest states, where its interesting. Since the last election, things have gotten quite a bit older in places like michigan. The number of folks 65 and older has grown at a much higher rate than those like 18 to 25. We all know folks who are, you know, vital into their 80s. And what do we have on the slate here . Weve got trump, biden, sanders, and elizabeth warren, 70 or over. You want to simply say now that once they get to a certain age, theyre out . No, absolutely not. To both of these gentlemen, towering american names each, warren and wilson, it occurs to me, thank you very much for sharing your part of your evening with us. Coming up, you heard it mentioned. A very special guest whose latest film is more like eight films because thats what the subject matter demanded. Ken burns is here to talk about his latest work involving, in part, that man. In the last year, there were three victims of cybercrime every second. When a criminal has your personal information, they can do all sorts of things in your name. Criminals can use ransomware, spyware, or malware to gain access to information like your name, your birthday, and even your Social Security number. [announcer] thats why norton and lifelock are now part of one company, providing an all in one membership for your cyber safety that gives you identify theft protection, device security, a vpn for online privacy, and more. And if you have an Identity Theft problem, well work to fix it with our Million Dollar protection package. There are new Cyber Threats out there everyday, so protecting yourself isnt a one time job, its an ongoing need. Now is the time to make sure that you have the right plan in place. Dont wait. [announcer] norton 360 with lifelock. Use promo code get25 to save 25 off your first year and get a free shredder with annual membership. Call now to start your membership or visit lifelock. Com tv Country Music comes from right in here, this heart and soul that we all have. You can dance to it. You can make love to it. You can play it at a funeral. It has something in it for everybody. Lets Say Something here. When a final accounting is made of the age were living in now, there will be a large section thanks to those who have contributed to our culture like writers and composers and soldiers and astronauts, like Country Music musicians and like the filmmaker ken burns. He has given us so much, reflecting ourselves back to us, our civil war, our vietnam war, our national parks, our national pastime, and now our highly decorated National Filmmaker gives us Country Music, 16 hours of it airing on pbs. We are so thrilled to have ken burns with us. Thank you for coming. Thank you, my friend. Thank you. How on earth . Is there a whiteboard in your studio that we need to see like a Beautiful Mind . Are there post its . How do you take something this vast, any of the topics and organize them into pieces . Most of the credit goes to my longtime producing partner dayton douncan duncan. Wrestled the larger intertwining of this sort of russian novel of a story into the eight episodes and our coproducer julie dunphy who set off the team that was finding the photographs and finding the footage and conducting the interviews. Its been an amazing thing. I remember in jazz, the late critic nat hentoff told us of this time when Charlie Parker was on 52nd street perfecting the bebop that he invented and between sets hes feeding the jukebox, putting in nickels, playing Country Music, playing hank williams, playing im so lonesome i could cry. And the cats are going, bird, why are you playing that . And he goes, listen to the stories. So when we said yes, when we got down on our knees and proposed to Country Music, we knew this was going to be about stories and a way in which you could surround the songs with those stories and lift them up. So when you find out why dolly parton wrote i will always love you, a kind of declaration, a womans declaration of independence, we all remember Whitney Houstons version, it raises the hair on the back of our necks still. But when you hear the story of why dolly wrote it and dollys version taking nothing away from whitney goes up to that level. The Carter Family early recordings, is it the equivalent of having the federalist papers . Its exactly that. And maybe with Jimmie Rodgers offering some of the opposing views. So the Carter Family, motherer maybelle is the original american lead guitarist. Sarah carter has the original voice of country. The sort of keening things that roseanne cash says comes from the Bedrock Foundation of us. A. P. Carters out collecting those songs with an africanamerican song collector named leslie riddle who brings a song from the africanamerican church when the worlds on fire. They drop the lyrics, take the same melody and do little darling pal of mine, one of their big hits. Woody guthrie, takes the thing, drops the lyric, keeps the tune, and does this land is your land. I mean you cant make any of this stuff up. And i guarantee, brian, when hollywood hears the Merle Haggard story, there will be a biopic in the works because this guy escapes from juvenile detention 17 times. Hes in san quentin, has a chance to escape, doesnt. The guy who escapes murders a cop. He comes back, gets executed. He hears johnny cash play, and he becomes Merle Haggard, the poet of the common man. Whom Emmylou Harris says if you want to know about Country Music, get a merg haggard album, any Merle Haggard album. Put it on a track, any track. And you will learn what Country Music is. Your playlist, which is available on the interwebs to the folks watching tonight, is so extraordinary. Tumbling tumbleweeds. By the way, i wanted to tell you Michael Nesmith has an excellent remake of that song worth a listen. Hank williams. Patsy cline singing crazy, willie nelsons opus. Emmylou, merle. Girl from north country, bravo. Kristofferson, bravo. You mentioned the essential, the elegant roseanne cash and her masterpiece seven year ache. And if you hadnt done poncho and lefty i would have lost hope. If you hadnt our entire seventh episode revolved around poncho and lefty moving through the snake of Country Music and ending up starting with Townes Van Zandt and going through all these permutations and at the end of our longest episode, which is over two hours and feels like our shortest one, you end up with it being sung again and the journey that it takes. We have one of the longest sentences weve ever written in our 40 years of making films, which dayton wrote, as beautiful as you can get. Peter coyote read about poncho and lefty. If you hadnt done he stopped loving her today by george jones i would have expected Nashville Police to come to your home and lock you up. And they would have been within their rights. They would have been completely within their rights. Ken burns is not going anywhere luckily for us. Were going to take a quick break. Coming up, the history of our country is complicated. Ergo, the history of Country Music is complicated because both of them involve our original sin. Well delve into that when we come back. Through ancestry i learned so much about my grandparents that i never knew. Im a lawyer now, but i had no idea that my grandfather was a federal judge in guatemala. My grandfather used his legal degree and his knowledge to help people that were voiceless in his country. That put a fire in my heart. It made me realize where i got my passion for social justice. Bring your Family History to life like never before. Get started for free at ancestry. Com int easy. 12 hours . 20 dogs . Wheres your belly rubs . After a day of chasing dogs you shouldnt have to chase down payments. vo send invoices and accept payments to get paid twice as fast. danny its time to get yours vo quickbooks. Backing you. Like so much other music of the time, it drew deeply from socalled race music. Even if that music was performed almost exclusively by whites, most of them southerners. You have the cultures coming together. They want to deal with these contradictions together in the south. You have a lot of the opposites that create a richness. If theres a theme that runs through all 16 hours of this new ken burns documentary, it might be that Country Music is so uniquely american, its origins and history are complicated and at one point we look up at the screen and see two words, hard times. So with that as the fusing, tell us how you take on the intersection of race. You know, ive had the great privilege to spend my entire professional life talking about the u. S. , capital u, capital s. But im also talking about us, the twoletter pronounce, and we and our. What Country Music showed me is that theres only us and no them, which our die electric tick, our binary media and computer world would like to convince us. At the heart of us and the u. S. Is this startling contradiction that we proclaim to the world that all men are created equal. But the guy who wrote that sentence owned more than 200 human beings. Most of my work charts the indignities that flow from that, and Country Music is not immune to those indignities. But one of the Amazing Things is that the banjo comes from africa, and the fiddle comes from the British Isles in europe, and that the influence of africanamericans on this music that comes down to us as essentially white and rural, we think nashville is the capital and southern is in fact completely interrelated with all other american forms of music. Its not an island nation in which you need a passport or a visa or some relaxed immigration laws. It is abutting the blues. Is abutting jazz. It is a budding rhythm and blues. It abuts rock and roll and gospel and folk and pop and even classical and rap. And what you find is that a. P. Kafrter needs that black song catcher. Hank williams said the only education he needed was from rufus tee to the pain. Even bill monroe, the father of bluegrass, had arnold schultz, who is an africanamerican fiddle player. Interwoven into all of this music is the blues and our history that we dont always focus on but is there, and is there in Country Music from the very beginning. And so we shouldnt be surprised that lil nas x, a black gay rapper, has just had the number one country song of all time this year. We ought not to be surprised, but we continually allow ourselves to be surprised because we forget in our topdown version of the past, that race is central to the u. S. And to us in both of the intimacy of that and the majesty and the breadth and the complexity and the controversy. What a pleasure. Thank you so much. Thank you. Ken burns. The next episode of his new documentary Country Music airs sunday on pbs. While we want to remind you to support your local pbs station because its important, there are a number of ways to catch up on the first few episodes and stream the entire series in order because did we mention . It was made by ken burns. Our thanks. Coming up, the president campaigned on it. Mexico isnt paying a dime for it, but he sure talked about it again today. These folks dont have time to go to the post office they use stamps. Com all the services of the post office only cheaper get a 4week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps. Com tv and never go to the post office again. Get a 4week trial plus in the last year, aof cybercrime every second. When a criminal has your personal information, they can do all sorts of things in your name. Criminals can use ransomware, spyware, or malware to gain access to information like your name, your birthday, and even your Social Security number. [announcer] thats why norton and lifelock are now part of one company, providing an all in one membership for your cyber safety that gives you identify theft protection, device security, a vpn for online privacy, and more. And if you have an Identity Theft problem, well work to fix it with our Million Dollar protection package. There are new Cyber Threats out there everyday, so protecting yourself isnt a one time job, its an ongoing need. Now is the time to make sure that you have the right plan in place. Dont wait. [announcer] norton 360 with lifelock. Use promo code get25 to save 25 off your first year and get a free shredder with annual membership. Call now to start your membership or visit lifelock. Com tv last thing before we go here tonight, as you may know, the president likes talking about walls, pretty much any wall. But more than likely what he sees as his wall, real or imagined, along the mexico border. So there he was today at a section of wall on the california side thats been made higher. It gave him the opportunity to talk about his wall. I wanted them to show you the interior of parts of the wall. So you have the rebar. You have the outer crust, and you have the inside is concrete, and itsconcrete. After the wall is up, we pour concrete. Its a very powerful concrete. The concrete, you see it right here. Concrete goes into the tube. Again, the concrete is poured after its up. They pour it through funnels. A lot of technological advances have been made with concrete. If you think youre going to cut it with a blowtorch, that doesnt work because you hit concrete. I said fellas, how about doing the less experience version . They said this is the version that works. Its the rollsroyce version. It all fits together like a puzzle. Its an anticlimb device if you look at the steel on top. We actually built prototypes, and we have i guess you could say worldclass mountain climbers. This wall cant be climbed. This is very, very hard. We had 20 mountain climbers. Thats all they do. They love to climb mountains. They can have it. Me, i dont want to climb mountains. Plus its designed to absorb heat, so its extremely hot. You can fry an egg on that wall. So if theyre going to climb it, theyre going to have bring hoses and water, and we dont know where theyre going to hook it up because theres not a lot of water out here. Nobody is going over the wall. Going over it is virtually impossible. I guess maybe one of the greatest pole vaulters in history can get over the low one, but its going to be very painful when they land. The president talking about his wall to take us off the air on a wednesday night. And that is our broadcast for this evening. We thank you so very much for being here with us. Good night from our nbc news headquarters in new york. Tonight on all in the hotel opened about two weeks ago, and its been amazing. Brandnew revelations about military spending at Donald Trumps luxury resort. I think today we can finally