[inaudible conversations] tom standage appeared on cspans communicators to discuss his latest book writing on the wall social media going back to the times of cicero. This is about 30 minutes. Bestselling author tom standage has a new book out called writing on the wall. Tom standage, what do cicero and twitter have in common . Guest well, the idea of the book is that social media is a very old idea. We think that its recent and that only people alive today have ever done it. But really what im arguing theres a very long and rich tradition of social media that goes back in fact to the era of cicero, the late roman republican of the First Century bc. The point is you dont need a Digital Network to do social media. If you have one it goes faster but cicero did it with papyrus rolls, and members of the legion were linked to him and they spoke to each other. And there were many other examples that occur throughout history. Martin luther, using pamphlets. Poetry. Tom paine and his pamphlet,
Have a queasy feeling too. I think we need to more know about that and thats the only way to know about it and have the Judiciary Committee look at that. This comes as Jeff Sessions is scheduled to appear before the Senate Intelligence committee tomorrow and its unclear if he will testify in open or closed session. Thats not the only target democrats are call to go testify. Senate minority Chuck Schumer inviting President Trump to address the cloud hanging over the presidency. I would like to invite the president to testify before the senate. I think we could work out a way that could be dignified with questions with leader mcconnell. Republicans have become frustrated and fed up with the russia probe citing lack of evidence, rnc chairmanwoman says its time to move on. Im calling for an end to the investigations about the President Trumps campaign colluding on with the russians. Theres been no evidence of it. I dont think it should continue. Of course, we have to figure out what russia
Lucien were russian interference is real 2 i think on the big picture he is situation with james comey. The president has authority to take action. Ainsley the president thank goodness he has the authority to hire attorneys. If mueller is going after him and his character he is saying im going to fight back. No investigation here. The fbi, james comey, former fbi director said three times in his meetings with him were not investigating you. Steve you are not under investigation. So far they have been investigating over a year no evidence of collusion. We know and we were talking to the author of the new book that came out a couple months out called shattered on the night Hillary Clinton lost the presidency. It was a advised by robby mook and john podesta that they would say essentially continued that narrative to today. Look how its manifested itself. Extraordinary. Brian one of the most extraordinary under reported things. Not unreported but under reported things that came out of jame
Despite the fact that he doesnt represent them which would, you know, i think open yourself up to an ethics complaint. I think one of the people who is the lawyer for the president told the rest of the team not to get lawyers, although they have not quite sensibly decided to get lawyers. Because by telling Donald Trumps workers not to get lawyers, what you are in fact doing is offering legal advice that actually works against the best interests of the other people and for your client. If youre not careful, that could have legal ramifications. As you can see, we have john heilemann, a plig wriler from the New York Times and also press secretary for president obama, josh earnest. Josh who speaks on behalf of the president . It is fascinating because we didnt really get an announcement that jay secretaar with everybody. But there has been no announcement that he is part the trump team. Well, first of all, there are a lot of people who are reluctant to defend the president on tv, so it pro
Earlier. I dont. I did. See how much on camera there is. I mean, look, i think as i said, your referenced the comments i made on monday. Ive made the same comments, similar comments in december and january. Some days well do it. I think its great for us to come out here and have a substantive and discussion about policies. I dont think that the be all and end all is whether its on television or not. Weve made ourselves available a lot of times and well continue to do it. But id rather sit here and have a very enjoyable conversation with you on issues, on a friday afternoon, and let the president s comments stand on the great things that hes doing on behalf of our nations veterans. A followup on the tapes. You were also on fox this morning i was. Thank you for watching. Yeah. But you indicated that the president s tweet on the tapes successfully influenced comey to tell the truth in his testimony. So, do you believe that he lied about is it the white houses position that he still lied a