Moment how president of trump is dealing with the pandemic. Guest its not that different from the way weve seen him in the past three and a half years. Hes making it a very partisan talking about the democratic mayor isnt doing enough, and how important the National Guard is and i think that he is in a partisan issue where in the past weve seen president s reach out and try to be compassionate and bring people together instead of divide them. So thats something we have seen both in the pandemic and the recent protests. Host how did that come about, what is the genesis of its . Guest ive always been fascinated by what happens behind the scenes. When one new family moves in and another move south, as you know, this swearingin ceremony that we all watch, thats really behind the scene there is controlled chaos at the white house. And in the last inauguration i was fascinated by v. Obama is taking off in a helicopter right after president of trump was sworn in and flew over the white house to look down at the house that they had lived in for eight years and every former president and first lady due to start their lives semiprivate citizens. So i wanted to dig into what happens when you suddenly go from being the most powerful person in the world to being on the sidelines. Host that includes an interview that you conducted in which you recount in the book and here are some of the details. Now a man whos been called a barber and blowhard by his predecessors was sitting behind looking at me intently. I was surprised that meeting would come together at all especially since he occasionally seemed unsure of what i was writing about. I guess youre writing about first ladies come at one point id written about the subject. No, i taught him. This is about the former president. He was subdued and thoughtful. A glass of diet coke on the ice was the only thing on his desk. The room so bright that it felt there were television lights shooting down from the ceiling which would have been appropriate for the first president to have been a reality tv star. There were also three flags and president ial ones on display. Three times as many of each of the predecessors office. Guest i think thats the a lot to how he views the presidency. He understands the importance of the job and is the most powerful person in the world. He doesnt respect his predecessors. I thought it couldnt just be the story of george h. W. Bush and bill clinton. There were remarkable friendships between the president s who wanted to get [inaudible] i had to look at how donald trump wouldv would change the president s club. I think that it united them together in lots of different ways. They are closer now than they would have been had donald trump not been elected. They have more in common than was president of trump. Thats what i wanted to look into is where do they fit into the club and did i ask him that and he laughed. He was very honest in the interview and said i dont think im going to fit in very well. He is under no illusions and i think that he sees that even after. Host we asked about that in an interview last summer. Heres the exchange. Host george w. Bush relied on his father and richard nixon. Have you reached out to former president s, and if so, who and why . Not much. I mean, i speak with george bush, spoke a little bit to thee father but really not too much. Its hard when people are against you. I disagreed with the war in iraq, so its hard to say that all of a sudden i can forget. Im in a situation where they are in theon middle east. Weve defeated as you know the caliphate. And i did that because i wanted to do that. We did 100 of the caliphate. When i was at 99 people said you cant pull out. When i took over, it was a mess. I defeated 100 caliphate. That doesnt mean ie six doesnt go around bombing because they are stone cold crazy. But they have done a great job. But i disagree very strongly. Millions of lives and it was not iraq and it was not saddam hussein. He did knock down the world trade center. We got stuck in this quicksand but they are extricating ourselves into getting out. I call it the endless war. Host president of trump from july of last year. Kate anderson broward, but did he tell you . Guest he was a little bit softer because he had just been invited to a funeral and said he appreciated that gesture. Its fascinating what hes referring to in your interview is his relationship with george w. Bush, and according to my reporting, he used it as like the civil war we got through that we can get through a Trump Presidency. They called to try to get him confirmed in that controversial hearing. Theyve spoken twice on the phone but that was a long time ago. And i know during the pandemic they want to be out service. Why are they uniting and donald trump isnt part of this and so they feel like their hands are tied. Host there is one story in the book involving president jimmy carter. We know he would walk dow she we streets to meet with family and friends, or you talk about that in the book. On a quiet saturday evening in april of 2019 is the former president was about to serve himself at the buffet table at a friends house a call came to the elevator announcing President Trump wanted to talk to him about china and trade. He sat on his plate and picked up the phone. A trump spoke for much of the call but was asked about the process with north korea and to be flexible with the north Korean Leader carter got in a dig about the National Security adviser john bolton, a staunch supporter of the war to which the president replied i call the shots according to a person in the room is left president carter unmoved and after they hung up he went back to the table and quietly filled his plate as though nothing had happened. Guest i dont know if youve had the opportunity that he had this incredible sunday service that he does and they live in a very modest style home i went to visit with my friend last june. We went down and it was an incredible meeting because hes so very modest and different from trump but he used corker as an outsider. Criticizing george w. Bush and the war in iraq and the handling of Hurricane Katrina being very outspoken. He went to haiti, north korea, he was all over the world on behalf of the country. But in the process we are playing messages and then he brought a cnn crew with him before he briefed clinton about what happened in the trip. So he does things his own way and i think thats trump has a kinship that has changed recently when they questioned whether or not trump was a legitimate president. But when i interviewed him he interviewed carter felt he really had an affinity for because he was a fellow outsider. Host one photographs that captured a lot of the former president s after barack obama was elected president during the transition. So as you can see george w. Bush, his father george h. W. Bush, former president s clinton and carter. Kate joining from her home in bethesda. Bob is up from illinois. Good evening. Caller good evening, steve. Love cspan. It is nice to talk to you. Ive been voting straight democrat since 1972. Southside of chicago and i got a photograph of my late wife with obama when he ran in a fund raiser at the 01 helton. Im a little discouraged by what im reading in the news. I hope this doesnt come back to the president. I agree there are some bad actors. Im just hoping it doesnt come back to president obama but if it does is there any offer out there that will write a book about obama that will talk about him as unbiased. Cspan is terrific. We all love cspan. But im afraid history will bend a little bit. Thanks a lot. Host thanks for the call from illinois. Guest i think that people will look at the Trump Presidency fairly. I think theres certainly a degree of liberal bias, but i do think that sometimes when you are just saying things for instance in my interview i asked if he would go to president ia pt obamas president ial library which is something every president has done in history to celebrate the legacy of the president that came before him. He said no, and why would he even invited me. We know hes not going to invite obama to the president ial portrait unveiling. There is a tradition i dont think that its biased marking that but the bigger question is does not matter, do these traditions matter. She wanted her son to finish school in new york. That is something no modern first lady had fun. But i think that it was an interesting move because why should you not be able to make those decisions for your self and your family. So in some ways the instructor is different but it also raises the question of tradition. Host the caller mentioned the former traditions. The graduating class of the historically black colleges and universities didnt mention him but its on his mind. Lets watch. More than anything it is torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they are doing. A lot of them are not even pretending to be in charge. If the world is going to get better, its got to be up to you. With everything suddenly feeling like its upry for grabs this is your time to seize the initiative. Nobody can tell you any more than you should be waiting your turn. Nobody can tell you it that this is how its always been done. This is the word generations of old to shape. Host when you heard that, but was your reaction . Guest i was surprised because president obama had been quiet on the sidelines and he had been criticized for that. I had been reporting in the book about how he felt somewhat like hes in a bind. He does come out and criticize President Trump in and immediately provides a way to galvanize the voters because they want an enemy. Weve heard him talk about this as a theory that he has not proven. I was surprised. I think it shows the pandemic has pushed president obama and president bush into speaking. If you like this is just a bridge too far. It hasnt been handled well. They said it is ironic that the president feels more comfortable calling up autocrats than he does picking up the phone to talk to obama or brush. Would it be helpful for us love them or not a lot of people disagree with the war in iraq. A lot of people have problems with clinton and bush and obama but they do have a certain moral authority and people would like to see that essentially now during the timeout and unprecedented pandemic in modern history and with whats going on around the country, the unrest and protest. It would be very nice for us to see them together. Dorothy is next from north carolina. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to address a couple of things quickly, but that isnt a question i want to ask. I want to make a couple of statements. Number one there is no obama date. The reason the fbi was investigating the Campaign Members is because not the Trump Campaign but trump met him in helsinki. The thing i want to share, trump has been very divisive as far as far as dividing the country. You said trump defended most of the president. When history is written, we have video. The divisiveness and one more thing i want to say and then you can tell me if that is the reason. Cspan had two people on their and he may not be a strategic thinker but we will have a cyber attack and he may still be in office and it will be handled terribly. Two people were on cspan from the intelligence, the congress and it was a republican and a democrat and said not enough is being done for the cyber attack. Host thanks for the call from north carolina. Let me go back to the second point. And im reminded when former president bush released a video praising the frontline workers during the pandemic, President Trumps response was where was he during the impeachment . Guest that was remarkable to me, and to that point it doesnt make a lot of sense because most would see the video and say its wonderful. Lets all come together. That worked for him in 2016 and we are going into an election so that is kind of a cynical thinking. He did think that it was the worst decision in u. S. History. He stuck by these conditions. I think that the presidency if anything cos caused them to bece more of who he is. But i think that he feels like hes an outsider since he will have to embrace that and its worked for him before. Host on the phone from birmingham alabama. Caller thanks for accepting my call. I have a fought about the five president s basically sending the torch over to the future generation. Heres something that i think speaking with hundreds of people from 20 to 30 years bringing their payroll into the same system that the states have its the same thing that we live under within our states yet they have their own systems. For incentivizing peoples payrolls to create some type of productivity. They would produce if their payrolls and insurance were back home. Host think of a call from alabama. For the call from alabama. Kate anderson broward, comment . Guest im not sure if this is exactly what hes talking about, but the former president s cashing in on the president and how its become a situation where shes powerful in her own right and you look back at the jimmy carter who didnt profit from the presidency. He was endorsing companies that wouldnt even sign the memoir that had a brand name on it as he was concerned it would look like he was endorsing this brand of penn. So weve seen this enormous amounts of money and if so theres a sense of profiting and i think about that in the buck but at the same time weve given lots of money to charity. But theres something about getting paid 500,000 for an hourlong speech it seems ridiculous. Host her latest book is team up to five in the age of trump and also the author of the bestselling residence and first women who contributed to the new york times, vanity fair, Washington Post and al is joining from st. Petersburg florida. Host caller in regards to the book cover i really like that five politicians and youre absolutely right politicians and donald trump isnt a politician as we all know and the one thing when you are interviewing him and he answered one of the questions straight out, no lie, straightforward and that speaks to me and thats the way that i would rather have a president act into the woman who called earlier and said shes the most divisive first a reaction to his comment. I think its right absolutely the thing is voters like most is that he does tell it like it is. Thats what he thinks and he speaks very openly and plainly. I was very impressed when i went to the oval office looking very intensely at the focus of the time he really wanted to get into and he was very honest but he doesn doesnt sit well withf the former living president s. So to this point, yes that is what appeals most to voters. Host one thought about the cover and the body language you can see president s bush, obama and clinton relatively close together and then a bit of a distance to the former president jimmy carter. I know its just a photograph, but what does that tell you . Guest it took me a while to even get that version of the photograph. Many of them had jimmy carter further away standing to the side. He isnt part of this group in the way that he would like to be. He would get a call back from tomball in and was an intern in the Carter White House and if you are getting a return call for someone who works for you you are supposed to be called back by the president. And i think he feels like he hasnt been given the proper respect. Host lets go to ruth joining from illinois. Good morning. Caller good morning, everyone. Sorry about how the country is going. But i want to ask two questions. When the riots happened when president obama was in office, what was his comment on the riots . Guest caller they were the same as President Trump. These people keep calling in about separating their children at the border. There was a good reason that he felt to separate families. It was to find out what kids belonged to what families. Guest one thing that i found interesting is when i spoke to the bush family they have naturalization ceremonies at the bush center these are just things they would do anyway so now even very simple things about how freedom of the press are you criticizing President Trump he sometimes takes these things very personally. So i dont know if that answers the question, but it made me think about that. Host you indicated that the library would be in florida can you explain . Guest he said he hadnt given it much thought he said he knew the real estate better than anyone and my thoughts are that it would probably make more sense to have it in florida because new york city especially havent welcomed donald trump. It doesnt make sense for him to have a president ial library there. I could see it absolutely. In the postpresidency it will have a lot of revelations and be much less guarded than others have been. Host duane is next from jamaica new york. Good morning. Caller good morning. Donald trump has hijacked the Republican Party and we all know this. He grew up in new york and he is totally bamboozled the Republican Party. The real conservatives are looking at him saying he could destroy the party for many years. Right now its just with him, get him out of office and bring the country back. They will fit into this anyway donald trump certainly wont because it reaches across the aisle. When he was a senator he worked with republicans and cared very much about these institutions, but i would also think my book is also about these relationships and friendships between republicans and democrats and to the callers point, there has always been respected, even grudging admiration. I have a story about his two days before he passed and the two of them were close. They had a lot of respect for bush 41 and among the last of the greatest and obama respected that. So i think there will be a time that they can go back to the feeling of respect and admiration that theyve traditionally had for one another to some extent. Host i asked the President Trumpeted was a difficult decision that cost the famous desk because the most difficult decisions reached the president and have given him a new understanding and empathy for the man who had come before him. No, he replied. He shouted say hi to president bush in a voice late and with sarcasm. Guest i found the interview very defensive. It was literally sit at the top and i couldnt imagine obama doing Something Like that. He was an outsider and i was just really struck by that. There was also the topsecret letter from the north Korean Leader that shows this to be you cant report within this letter but look at what im doing in north korea that no one else has been able to accomplish