conversations around the country and around the world. many more stories about the life of charles krauthammer are head "tucker carlson tonight" ." that was not hard to assemble. people calling in, talking about charles and his life and the stories that they shared and how much they admired this remarkable human being. watch. >> it is my job to call a folly of folly. >> charles krauthammer, fox news commentator, lived his life telling others exactly what he thought. >> you are portraying your whole life if you don't say what you think. if you don't say honestly and politely. >> it was that quality that brought charles to fox news channel. >> this was not a man designed for television. this is not a potential tv star, in fact, he became a huge star, i would almost like a megastar on this channel. it was the sheer force of his intellect and the power of his thinking. on top of that, there was a gentleness about him, personally, if he disagreed with you, you never felt attacked. you know what to mark he just disagreed with you. >> 's delivery, his intellect. >> she was on set with charles every night for years. >> it was an ongoing joke on the panel that bret baier has a signal when people need to wrap up. he puts his arm out. charles was on the show forever, and we always laughed. i don't think he paid attention to that once. if he had something that he was going to say it, no time constraints were going to control him on that. >> born in 1950s new york to jewish parents, charles father raised his son to value the pursuit of knowledge. >> model for us was "i want you to know everything, i want you to learn everything. you don't have to do everything, but you have to know everything." he thought that was part of life. >> the family lived in montreal. >> he was a very physical childhood. he was always insisted that i be included. i got used to be around the big boys and take the slings and arrows. that is how you get toughened u up. >> is a senior at the university and canada, he got captivated by journalism. he applied to medical school to appease his family and was accepted to harvard. krauthammer put off attending and enrolled at oxford instead. it was there that he met fellow student from australia, robbins monterey who would later become his wife. he reversed course and headed back to the u.s. to go why did you choose psychiatry? >> i was looking for something halfway between the reality of medicine and the elegance, if you like, of philosophy. psychology was the obvious thing. >> it was there that one unexpected moment, a tragic diving accident, changed charles' life forever. >> all of the force was transmitted to one spot. that is the cervical vertebrae which severed the spinal cord. >> when did you realize that the accident was life altering? >> the second that it happened. >> despite his permanent paralysis, he is astounded his professors and classmates by graduating on time, near the top of his class. ultimately, he decided the field was not for him. a career reversal, he joked about on fox, decades later. >> doing very well, i have not had a relapse and 25 years. >> in 1978, krauthammer headed to washington, d.c., where a government job. >> i thought once i am in washington, isn't that where they do politics? one thing will lead to another. >> he encouraged him to follow his dreams. he soon landed at the left-leaning republican magazine, just as the reagan administration took office. he found himself agreeing with the new president and questioning his own feelings about the democratic party. >> i ended up supporting just about every element of the reagan foreign policy. >> months after reagan's reelection, krauthammer penned the phrase "the reagan doctrine." and the name stuck. >> created the reagan doctrine. he put together a piece and dumped it, and i have read it many times, it holds up so well. i think charles discovered then that there was a lot to reagan. >> but it would take years before charles fully embraced conservative domestic ideals. >> i was skeptical of tax cuts, i was skeptical of smaller government in the beginning. in the 80s against changing. >> son daniel was born, two years later charles won the biggest honor in journalism, the pulitzer prize. but it was the events of december of september 11th, 2001 that brought a more forceful tone on his commentary. over the years, charles became an audience favorite. >> the biggest mistake we could make was to lose the war because we refused to realize who the enemy is. it is done. and if you are conservative, you should be optimistic. i think it will snow there before the doj is going to go after her. we were all expecting it, it didn't happen. that was a dog that did not bark. >> despite his accomplishments, krauthammer was always humble, and at times, uneasy with the influence his words held. >> i think about it, and i find it worrisome. the reason is, when i was totally unknown, i could say anything that i pleased. >> that included when is a opinions reached presidents. >> he is a brilliant man. >> praise from president clinton and you hear from my side of the aisle, that means that my career is done. i am toast. >> high standards for political leaders were bipartisan for president obama. >> i think he has done just about everything wrong. >> two then, candidate donald trump. >> this is the strongest candidate in 35 years. you could pick a dozen of them at random and have the strongest cabinet america has had in our lifetime. we have said all of our time has been discussing this rodeo clown. i don't think i've ever heard such a stream of disconnected ideas since i quit psychiatry, 30 years ago. >> is as far as charles krauthammer, i'm not a fan of his. >> he put his first money on him. >> i saw that, i could not believe it. >> thank you. >> in recent years as a republican administration took office, charles did not shy away from his trademark, blunt, unabashedly critical analysis when it came to president trout. >> presidents don't talk like this, they never have. this is what it sounds like when you're living in a banana republic. >> aside from politics, he played chess, and he was an avid baseball fan. >> i grew up playing the game, i love to play the game. >> he loves nothing more than seeing his washington nationals play and win. >> with the white house on fire, the congress in chaos, and the world going to hell in a handbasket, we need happy news like that. >> this is why god created baseball, late, on the sixth day. >> friends on fox news channel remembered that quick wit and that charles loved talking to everyone. >> there were always in awe of charles and always very, you know, apprehensive about approaching him and i was always, please, go say something to him. he would love to talk to you and he is always overly to everyone. >> in 2013, krauthammer released a book "things that matter. most quote he wrote ," the catastrophe that awaits everyone from a wrong turn, fatal encounter, every life has such a moment. what distinguishes us is whether and how we ever come back." >> there is an element of that in everybody's story, a low point. are you lucky enough? that is part of it too. >> he announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer and doctors had given him just weeks to live. he wrote "i leave this life with no regrets. it was a wonderful life, full and complete with the great loves adds great endeavors that make it worth living. i am sad to leave, but i leave with the knowledge that i lived the life that i intended." >> do you think it you will ever stop writing? >> no, i intend to die at my desk. >> really? >> i would like to, i'm not sure that i can arrange it. >> charles krauthammer was 68 years old. >> martha: our thanks to bret baier for putting together that beautiful compendium that tells us so much about charles and their friendship and all of the wonderful times that they spent together. joining me on the phone is another gentleman who knows esther krauthammer very well. chris wallace is the anchor of "fox news sunday." honestly it is a sad day for everyone around here and for everyone who cared about charles is needed. >> oh, martha, it is such a loss and it is so sad. it is a personal loss, and it is a professional loss, but i would argue that it is a national law spirit and hear me out here, for a second. i think there are some people in the media who, whether you agreed with them or not, whether they are liberal or conservative, become such a central voice to the national conversation, whether it is walter lippmann in the 50s, or bill safire end '90s, or walter cronkite in the '70s, and i think charles krauthammer achieved that status, you could agree or disagree with him, but you had to know what he said and you had to consider what he said. and, to a certain degree, it is interesting because he loved baseball so much, he was the national umpire. he called balls and strikes in a world where there are so many people. you are in one tribe or the other, you are one side or the other, he had the courage of his intellect, the courage of his conviction. and if he thought that the democrats were doing something wrong, he would call it. and when he thought that people on his side of the aisle, conservatives, were portraying what he thought were the right principles, he would call them out as well. it is, i think, and incalculable loss. we can talk about him personall personally, but i really do think it is a loss for the nation. there is no money today like him, martha. >> martha: i have text messages as i'm sure that everyone does, flying in from friends and people who watch the show. just everybody, saying how much they admire charles and how much they loved watching him and his clarity, and his ability to sort of cut through the noise, it has been said so many times "tucker carlson tonight." that is the ability to any one us who writes or who watches, that is what you strive for. he had it and that it is because he was so brilliant and incredibly smart. sometimes i think that he would say would seem fairly simple. you would think yourself, why didn't i say it that way? because it made so much sense. he arrived at it in such a clear concise way because he was charles. and he was able to do leopard one of the quotes in the piece that we just ran, chris, that brett put together from charles, you are betraying your whole life if you don't say what you think. >> well, that is exactly rights. there was an intellectual honesty to the man. a surprising number of people didn't realize it. i think it actually aided that clarity of thought. it was inherent to him. one of the things that struck me when i was substitute for breath and anchor, and he would be on the panel, most of us are lucky if we think and phrases. few of us are good enough to think in sentences. charles thought and paragraphs or even an pages. i think part of it was because he had to form the thoughts in his mind. it wasn't easy for him to be on a computer or keyboard and to noodle with a thought. take your phrase here, and take a phrase out there. you would ask him a question and a mini column would spill out. perfectly phrased, logically, syntactically, and you would have your breath taken away by the status of his intellect. he was quite astonishing. we can talk about other things, how funny he was, how irreverent he was, what good company he was, but boy, i think you have to, when you start with charles and assess the loss, it has to be this extraordinary voice, this extraordinary intellect that we can read and we can remember, but it is lost to us in the future. >> some of the people that you mentioned in terms of the categories that you put him in, i remember growing up reading their columns. charles put together both of those things. he became someone who was known for being on tv and doing that dance that you just described, that great, intellectual dance of pulling his stuff together. and, so many people across the country were able to see him and watch him as he put it all together out there. and i think, you know, that made him a star, as brett humes said, in a somewhat unlikely way. but he really was. all of us, anyone of us, he was always on "special report." whenever i had a mama show coming whenever he was going to be on the panel for a political convention, it was a treat. it was special. people who watched, looked forward to seeing him so much. i also think that he was able to put together the human side of life, and have an appreciation for family and sports, and all of those things that he talked about and things that matter. i think that is such a wonderful title to his book. isn't that really in life, that all of us ever hope to figure out the answer to. >> things that matter is such a perfect example. what it is, it wasn't new essays, it was a collection of his old columns. i remember when i first saw it, i thought this is a clip job. it's a bunch of old columns. even if they were 20 or 30 years old, there was such clarity, there was timeless wisdom to them, that you found yourself that you couldn't wait to read the next column. as unlikely that it was that he was a tv start, that book became a huge best seller, and he reveled in the fact that it was at the top of "the new york times" best seller list week, after week, after week. there was a timeless quality to what he said. it wasn't just saying, well, here's what happened today in washington. there was a wisdom that transcended the ops, the downs, the news cycle and all of the things that we talk about. this was timeless, this was permanent. this was as you say, "things that matter." >> martha: i get that on my bedside with a bunch of other books. you can pick it up and read it and any one moment. i remember in christmas when it came out, it was almost funny, sitting around the christmas tree, everyone starts opening, and there is about five copies of "things that matter" that everyone came out. it was a perfect book. >> i will say a couple of quick notes. when i substitute for brett, would come in and always say the same thing, he would say, i must be mistaken, is it sunday? it was a little to get me, like i'm surprised that you are working on a thursday or friday, chris. i would make a joke about a little man. >> we would share movies and have you seen that? one time, i told him about a movie that i'm going to see, it is called { " borat" ." i asked him if he liked it, he said he had a comment about how disgusting the movie was. i asked him if he liked it, he said he did but it was a great column is also. it was a delightful person to be around, that was the combination. yes, he was at the towering intellect, yes, he was a vital voice in the national conversation, he was also one hell of a good friend and just wonderful company. and i will miss the one, but i will miss the other as a personal connection would. >> martha: thank you so much. >> thank you for having the opportunity to say what i feel and so many viewers feel. we loved him and we are going to miss him. it is like a death in the family. >> martha: indeed it is. chris, thank you so much. we will talk to you later. let's bring in fox news cohosts of "the five." he is joining us from washington "tucker carlson tonight." chris, your thoughts. >> it is like a death in the family. we relied on charles a great deal. for a lot of things, for his insight, for his support, for his encouragement, for his kindness, but most of all, for his standard. charles set the gold standard for us to live up to as journalists. to be that decent, right? i think this is really the cornerstone of what made charles -- i've heard people say this evening that he was the most influential center right thinker in america. i will go farther. i will say that he is the most influential public generational. he was conversant in most things. he understood the language of the left-hander, and understood the linkage of the right. he never put words in anybody else's mouth. he never assumed the worst about his adversary. he was fair-minded. that made him ultimately more convincing than anything else. what made him ultimately convincing was that he was not giving him short trip. he had heard you out, and you are still wrong. when he nailed you that way, you are wrong. [laughter] >> martha: i had him on the show and i did not agree with him. i challenged him on it. i don't remember thinking, this is the big guy. we had of, a scuffle back and forth. he liked that. he wanted to challenge everybody that he was talking to. it was always in such a kindhearted way. i always thought that when you listen to charles and you hear him out, and listen to what he had to say, you would think, yeah, charles is right. [laughter] i'm going to bring in dana perino who is joining us on the phone. good evening to you. >> thank you, martha, i've had a chance to be on this on the ph. i remember reading him every friday. no matter what. it was the first thing that i went to and i did not bother with the front page even when i was press editor i didn't care what was on the first page. i wanted to see what charles had written. i remember exactly when i read it. it was about 5:45 in the morning and i would be reading it before he took me to the white house. we would go back and forth and say, did you see how charles smoked him today? whoever it was that charles was going after. it was one of the moments at the kitchen island i read this column, it was the 2006 i believe, it was about his brother. it still sticks with me. years later, i had the opportunity, not just to work with him when i was at the white house, but certainly afterwards at fox news in addition, i work as a consultant to the publisher that he eventually did his book with. i said, you should do a collection. the publisher said, it will never sell. usually the clip and paste jobs don't do that well. i said, no, but trust me, he is different. everyone trusted their children over when he is about to talk. i have to say selfishly, i wanted the book for my own collection. i wanted to have it. it became a huge best seller. what i didn't know until recently, i had forgotten, he actually read the book as well. he read the auto book. they might not have known that charles krauthammer over the years that we did, and learned from him, buy that book and listen to it. i learned more from charles krauthammer in my life. and i tried to conduct myself in a way that, as you to describe, i hear it in your voice as well. integrity, honor, and also with joy. he loved his life. he would zoom into the white house with his band like dale earnhardt jr. when you had him for lunch, he loves hot dogs at the white house. he loved to have the hotdocs. it was a real honor to know him. >> martha: it is so interesting to hear your idea that gave birth to his book. i did not know that. i'm reading the piece that was written a couple of weeks ago when charles first gave everybody the news from the editorial board at "the washington post." in the first few sentences, friday has always been charles the day. the strip across the top of the page, we knew to save space on fridays page four charles krauthammer. charles always filled the space with just the right number of words. at the most acute words too. they knew to check any change with charles because he cared about every word. there was never much to change. >> that is true. he wrote "the boat doctrine as well if i could mention one other dimension of his life, chris mentioned support and encouragement. i would say that as a mentor, he was quite incredible. he did not wait to come to you for advice. in april of '09, he invited me to his office. i went there and i thought that i had it all figured out. he said he was a relapser psychiatrist but boy, could he write questions about what you wanted to do with your life. and i remember she was on duty on the anchor desk on the saturday. and there was a terrorist attack it there was hardly anybody around. charles krauthammer came to the studio and was in the studio for six hours as she anchored that day, helping her through it. he was always so generous, and i hope that we can remember that about charles as well. he tried to live our lives as he did. >> he really loved his life. and he embraced it, and was in the moment and all of those things that everybody tries to do. charles did with such grace and such focus. he was extraordinary. chris is still with us. i am looking at the editorial that is recently written by the formal editor of baseball. he said charles krauthammer is one of my heroes. he softly delivered his insights on politics with impressive wits and intelligence. we grew to rely on his electronic companionship and navigational skills. he knew where true north was pointed. although he could fight, he seldom barked. he was a quiet, daily witness. the fates can be cool. >> that is very well said. with charles, the connection that people felt with him was amazing. i have been thinking a lot lately about an evening that i spent with him. we were in cleveland for the republican national convention in 2016. and because of how things worked out, charles was ready to get back to the hotel and it was time. he was worn out. we had to get back there. he did not want to wait for security to get back from where we were. we were starting to make our way through the arena and out through this very long, pathway that the secret service had set up that probably ended up traversing a quarter-half mile, i will tell you that no rock star in history of rock stars could have been more celebrated, more fond over then these republicans. i'm talking bout from the youngest young to little old ladies and elephant hats, they swarmed him. we could barely get 5 feet at a time. we kept making this pilgrim's progress through all of this sea of humanity. even though he was absolutely bone tired, he was gracious with all of these people. and, we get back to him and we finally get into a safe space, we get out of this. he said, you can't complain when people love you. >> martha: no, you really can't. thank you very much, chris. i want to show everybody at home. i tweet from paul paul ryan mos ago, everyone is weighing in this evening. "charles krauthammer was one of the great thinkers of our time. a giant in his intellect and character, and a good, and gracious man, and a great friend. this is such a loss. our prayers are with his family, friends, and colleagues." that from paul ryan, the speaker of the house, this evening. on the phone now, bill bennett, former education secretary. good evening to you. charles really was too young. 68. we all expected him to be around a lot longer than that. that is part of what was such a shock here "tucker carlson tonight." >> you bet it is everything that has been said is true. if charles were listening, and i suspect he has, he would be a little uneasy. he would say, come on guys, you're laying it on heavy. he had a great sense of himself and a fabulous sense of humor and sense of irony. i would think that he would think that some of this was too much, he would love to be ironic about it. i have known charles for a long, long time. i will say a couple of stories. i went to take my 5-year-old son, our oldest son, to a movie. i looked for a movie at work. it was "tom and jerry" a cartoon. it looked like a pretty empty theater. when the movie was over, lights went up. charles was there. that was it. in this movie, martha, a "tom and jerry" cartoon, they had some adult situations. and i was kind of shocked by -- charles was too. we are the only pain customers, and still they have to mistreated. classic, classic charles. you're showing some pictures of the meeting, charless' lodge has started up at the chevy chase lounge, that involves some other lunches. i was part of that lunch. we called ourselves the pariah lunch group. it was charles murray, charles krauthammer and myself. we were the pariah lunch group, because for one reason of another, each of us had a rough day at the office from the media. we got together once every six weeks or so and talked, and talked, and talked about things high and low, things politically incorrect, whatever was on our minds. it was more fun and more laughter. that is the point that i want to make. if charles was listening, he would say, come on you guys, we had a lot of laughs and a lot of fun. you have shown a picture, too of the jets game. he was a great chess player. he would watch the masters. he was just a student. he loved life. he loved to talk about so many aspects of life. we will miss him. but you know, we have his words, we have his words. and, his words mean so much. you have so much good videotape as well. >> martha: we have, as bret said, he sets the standard for all of us. that will be a legacy for him as well. bill, thank you very, very much. thank you, bill. >> thank you for asking me. >> martha: always, we love having you. a spring and one williams who was listening to all of those with us, thank you both, so much for being here. i heard your elegant words about being france with charles print your thoughts as we hear all of these thoughts weighing in. >> there were emotions and memories that will be difficult but cutting through that is -- i sat opposite charles, he would be the strong, conservative voice, i would be his opposite on the liberal side on "special report" ." sometimes we would watch the nationals. we were both big, baseball has been what strikes me as we were talking, he was jewish, and he had this strong sense of god. not necessarily in practice. we talk about god, imagine his intellect, then, applied to faith. at this moment of his death, i think about the fact that he was the one indisputable fact was that there is a god. you can go back and forth about agnostic, atheist, catholic, jewish, whatever, but charles was like, no matter where you are in this conversation was much like a chess match. that's how his mind works. it was a calculation. you have to acknowledge the presence of god. i remember after that and the jewish community, there was charles. he had questions about the practice and all that. and he was telling me the history. to get to that tent, we had to drive in his car. even to go to ball games, i would say to him, charles, this is scaring the daylights out of me. you know, he is driving a car, and he is fast. he is not slowing down. he has the most expensive car in the washington, d.c., parking lot. it's not belong to bret or me or hume, it belonged to him. he had a new one made, in fact. the big point, i think, from journalism, going back to people that we heard. you think, wait a minute, there is a tradition here in terms of leading conservative voices. william s buckley come if you think back to the 1950s and standing up to things like, you know, so many of the negatives, but also developing conservatives thought at the time, you could come forward to robert novak in a different era. but i think for our era, there is no doubt that he was a leading, conservative thinker. for me, what an honor to be able to engage with him. he was not one to belittle, bully, or put down people. he wanted to argue with you, to play the chase game with you. for me, it was quite a learning opportunity. it was one filled with love, love not only filled for him, but let me tell you, his love for daniel, overflowing. there is a picture that we just showed, martha, where he has daniel on his chest. >> martha: it was a beautiful picture. >> i think one of the other part to say was about love. for men, sometimes we get a little uncomfortable talking about love. but for him, i think that there was such love, not only for his family, you know, but i think that he could express love in ways for friends, for people who are visiting fox, for people whose needing mentoring. >> martha: i was the beneficiary of some of that mentoring. a quote that i was here "tucker carlson tonight," and i didn't even say it when the story was breaking on june 8th on a statement on outnumbered, we were on the couch. we read ordered the cohost so that we would have people on the couch who were so close to charles. he told me, never settle for what you think you know. he said, if you are so hungry for all of the facts. be just as hungry for the search at the truth. that is the intellectual collision of the facts of what we think we know and what others can give us through their life experience. he makes such an impression on me in terms of the questions that i ask is a journalist. with that one quote. he was talking about how he would go into the debate. i always liked watching. charles got tb. he had patients enough for an evolution of thought to have been on television. he would take perspective or point of view, he would wait for his opponent's side, usually you, juan. he would take you on, point by point. not personally come about point by point. when the argument was over, i never knew, but i thought you guys had a drink. >> that is true. >> it felt like that. he got tv. for those of us who were in the room, or in the studio, or in the building, or even at home watching, it made you better on the air to see charles krauthammer do what he did. and then, there was the intellectual side. he had gone from a doctor to being someone who enjoyed that evolution of thought and debate and politics. he had so much on his plate. >> martha: i always think about the injury and how he dealt with it. that is something that, for some people, would be game over. they would become depressed, -- charles channeled it into his desire to continue to be educated. his father always told him, i want you to know everything. i want you to learn everything, i want you to know everything and the stories about them holding the medical book over him, above him, as he lay flat. he spent his hours reading and learning. and advancing his life, he also had the flexibility in his life to change and to evolve through all of that learning. because, he came into his career -- first of all he became a psychologist, any thought he didn't want to spend his life like that. i want to spend my life thinking about politics and the world. he started off from a more liberal perspective over time. influenced by ronald reagan, became conservative. he never stopped growing and changing, and learning, and being flexible to that. which i admire so much. >> i was talking about the evolution of thought. he lived his life that way. on june 8th, we read these words from outnumbered from his own statement. it was such a fabulous writer. he wrote the words that maybe we thought that we would not be able to say because we were caught up in emotion pit but when he wrote this, there was no sign of it, meaning the cancer, as recently as a month ago. that means that is aggressive and spreading rapidly. by dr. say, the best estimate is that i have a few weeks to live. this is the final verdict. my fight is over. it is the longest day of the year, and we miss the man. we wish he had been with us longer. >> the kind of thing that i will always remember with charles is the end of one of the columns that appears and "things that matter." he died even younger than charles. and at the end of the column, charles remembers him on a dock out here in long island where they spent their summers. there he wrote, "forever brothers, forever young, forever summer." to me, robin, and daniel, "forever charles." an even greater level of love and heart and one human being who would be so courageous throughout a lifetime that he could inspire others and have us open our eyes and our hearts with his hand. god bless you charles. >> martha: "forever summer, on the first day." thank you both, very, very much. moments ago, president george w. bush writing this. "laura and i are deeply saddened by the laws of an intellectual giant and deep friend, charles krauthammer. for decades charles words have strengthened our democracy. while his voice will be deeply missed, his ideas and values will always be part of our country. we send our thoughts and prayers to the entire krauthammer family." that is from george w. bush as remembering has continued to float in and was respected by some of the people across this nation. joining me now is brit hume. very good to have you with us this evening. you're listening to all of this. as juan says, the more you listen to it, the more things come up as you remember the man that charles was. >> indeed, martha, i think we all, now, reflect back as we have a chance, knowing that he was terminal. we have a chance, all of us, i think, to check back over our expenses with him here at the extraordinary things that you are hearing from everyone is how many people he became close to, at least how they saw him, how many he was kind to. there were people, i have heard from "tucker carlson tonight," but i don't think they knew him that well. it turns out that he was an important factor in their life. he was a giant, martha. this man was a child. it was his courage. it was his unbelievable sweetness, i believe he was overlooked, because he was so piercing and sharp in his writings. his analysis on television that if you did know him, you might miss that. but who did not know him, did miss it. it was a powerful thing. it was touching. it made you think, if this man, with all he has become, and all have the mic he has overcome, do i ever have a right to be unkind to anyone? >> martha: that is such a great point. you think about all that charles went through and how he never, rarely discussed it. it was not an issue. it was something that was in the background as he moved through life. a great sense of joy and wonder and curiosity, all the time. at the end of the statement that he gave us, just a few weeks ago, i leave this life with no regrets. it was a wonderful life, full and complete with a great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. i am sad to leave, but i leave with the knowledge that i lived the life that i intended." it is hard to imagine that any of us would want more than that. >> so like him. that is so was charles. that statement. when i first read it it broke my heart. and i think now, i think the loss that we all feel, we all knew him as professional colleagues, and friends we knew, from working with him and so on. think of his amazing wife. charles, the dazzling son of his who was so proud. his mom, who looked almost exactly like him. have a thought for them tonight. >> martha: we will, and we do. in the days ahead, obviously there will be so much reflecting on charles life, i encourage everybody to pick up things that matter. go back to it, and read those columns, especially about his brother. it is so interesting, because it seems to resonate across the board. he talked about his older brother would always insist to the other guys that he hung out with, that he was not going with them unless he could bring charles. charles talked about how much that meant to him as a younger brother and how much he learned from hanging around with the older kids and the kindness, that obviously was so important to charles as he dealt with other people in his life. >> that is it exactly right, martha. we all looked up to him in a way that you would look up to an older brother. somebody who knew more and had done more, and is superior to you. all of us, that was charles. we were not charles 'equal. the way he treated us all, the kindness that he treated us all was a powerful thing. it was what i think all of us would remember about him. more than his intellectual achievements. >> martha: very special, very special man. brit, thank you so much. >> martha: let's bring in general jack keane. he was able to talk about other things that are going on in the world, but we are talking about charles this evening. the amazing gift of his writing and his sweetness. >> it is so typical of him that he prepared us for tonight. and that eloquence, touching letter when he said goodbye to america and to the world. and to everybody than of him. it was really, quite remarkable. it is so typical of charles lif life. one thing that struck me about him is dealing with this tragic illness that he had. i had soldiers reach out to me, three of them, over the last six years who had serious injuries like his. and the first time i approached charles about it, they wanted to talk to him. he said, of course. i would be more than happy. here is a way -- i said, i know you probably do a lot of this, this goes on in my life. and he just dealt with that issue. he said, i'm going to tell him something that they may not want to hear. and he said, -- he doesn't talk about this publicly, of course. and he says, i am going to tell them, the thing that enabled me to go on with my life and have a meaningful life, despite this tragic illness was a hundred percent acceptance of what happened. without that acceptance and knowing that i will never walk again, i will never be, i will never be the previous charles krauthammer. i will never have any of that previously. i'm not going to throw the rest of my life away, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually because of it. that's is what i'm going to tell them. hopefully, it will be of some assistance to them. we had a relationship in and around the greenroom and fox. we never, martha -- >> martha: that is where the best conversations happen, by the way. >> we talk about baseball, we characterized it as a thinking man's sport. we were a little bit arrogant about that in terms of people's fascinations with other endeavors in america. but we loved that. then, always, it got around to charles knew that i had a background different from his. it was always after some kernel of information. what about this? what do you think about this? what is this issue, here, dealing with iraq, or afghanistan? has mind was always working. we actually had some fun with it, a couple of times. i am sitting in the greenroom, i talked to at about the mock him about it >> martha: did he give you any critic >> he breaks his back in that wheelchair. make sure that he hasn't gone. he said, okay general. i was a again tonight. i took the information, i give absolutely no credit whatsoever. i was so honored and humbled by charles krauthammer using anything that he ever had to say. what a critical thinker, his ability to analyze, a wise man to be sure. and then, martha, as you know, so gracious and humble about it. god gave him a giant of a mind and he used it. he used it to its fullest. he made life better and let people understand complicated, and tricycle issues i can imagine all of the issues in this country that have been made better because of charles krauthammer. they been absolutely extra ordinary. and on top of all that, he is a regular guy. he is so approachable. he is a real guy. and you can have fun with him, and enjoyed his company. i did not have the long, personal relationship that so many others have had. but i will tell you up, my relationship with him was meaningful. aunt, i love to being around the guy and i miss him terribly. >> martha: you didn't mess around with that. >> he drove the conversation. >> martha: absolutely. let's take a look. i think we have the moment of silence at nationals park this evening in memory of charles. this is an image from that, earlier this evening. obviously, it was a place that he loved so much, and they loved the fact that he loved them. they were his team. and that charles krauthammer loved nothing more than to be in the stadium. i really enjoy the pictures in the videos of bret baier and him there. he went with so many of his friends from "special report." it is definitely a heartbreaking and potent moment for all the people and national stadium. >> they will celebrate charles for years to come. baseball was an extension of his life. it had real meaning to him. he understood the game, the complication. most people get bored by baseball because it is too slow. but the truth of the matter is, if you are really into the game, you are watching every pitch, and you're thinking what the picture is going to do, what the batter is going to do, and he understood the game fully and completely. in terms of what was happening out there. he loved the game, he loved the game as much as he loved life. >> martha: thank you very much, good to have you with us today. so, my next guest recently wrote of charles, "he had a singular presence there, a towering intellect, free of arrogance. here now, editor and a dear friend of charles, ab, i thought your call and that you wrote about him was so beautiful and one that he would be very, very proud of. the opening line just struck me so deeply. he once told me, the way i look at life, it is all an accident. everything. >> i can remember that moment. it was so searing, martha, as you can imagine. charles was looking up at me from his wheelchair. he had been in it since the age of 22. we were already good friends and we had all of those deep conversations that the general just described and brit in all of your guest. by the ones that you have had with him, by the way, you have done an amazing job tonight, i don't know how you're getting through it. but i have enjoyed all of these incredible recollections. i was surprised. i was waiting to hear from something. he was out psychologist, a philosopher, historian, a giant oven and select intellect as everyone said. it was an interesting moment it is all that i was taken back, he said you will have to go along with the right. it always stayed with me, and i was expecting that there would be a righteous, peaceful and for him. i really wasn't ready to accept that he could have an end with cancer he had battled the great battle, and he had overcome, and he had taught everyone. i read on the internet tonight a letter that he had written. someone's father who had data spinal cord injury. just like the general said, he shared his struggle with so many people going through similar struggles, he took the time. he gave them perspective and in this beautiful letter that i just read half an hour ago, he said, it is possible to have a good life. you don't know it now, but i am looking back, you are looking forward. this is scant comfort, but there is a possibility for a good life and you can reach for it. there was so encouragement. it was interesting that he was stoic too. but that becomes from the strength he built through the recovery from that experience. and, around the other side of that, he became incredibly warm person once he realized how many people he touched. he was such a people person as you know. i think when people first came across him, they saw this professor ariel cool energy, but once you started talking to him, he just delighted in different personalities and what was going on. once in a while, he was definitely up for some gossip. he made us laugh, as everyone knows, sometimes just breaking us up on the show. in unexpected moments that really sent me reeling. he was so droll and so hilarious. but i struggled with that piece because i wanted to talk about all of the things that i wanted people to not only read about in the book, like you mentioned, but in brit's book, staggering stories that will take your breath away and inspire you. i want to include so many of those in the column but i got to 2,000 words or more and i started to have to hack it down. his addiction to online chess, all of these incredible things about him. so, i stuck with the stories that took place between the two of us. and how much you talk about parenting and how much he talked about dogs, and all of the things that he shared, charles, the man. other people and speak to his writing and the legend that he leaves behind with his spoken and written words. >> martha: you talk about in your piece, the importance of imprinting memories and our children. i remember when he wrote about the summers, the long summers in new york, and how the summer felt like it would go on forever. and, we always have the feeling of being a kid and a teenager and riding your bike all day long, going to the same place for a soda. all of those beautiful memories that he had of his brother, and the imprints that he made on charles life. >> it really is so beautiful. i'm glad that you encouraged everyone to read that column. the ending will rip your heart out. talking about, he's looking back to a photo of them. i don't think i wore a shirt until i was 21. he just lived and the streets in the summer. i love that he said that his father is a treat. he loved him so much. he would take them out of school early in canada to bring them down to long island to be at the summer cottage and set them free to go from baseball park to baseball park and all of the games that they made up togethe together. in the sun. it will take your breath away. it is really an amazing -- his memories of childhood and what he brought to fatherhood. his physical mirror image looks exactly like him. when he spoke about daniel, and just the honor of being a dead, it was almost with a somber reverence. it was so beautiful. he always wanted to hear about my kids as if he was sort of their grandfather. he didn't know them. but he was so interested. in the journey of parenthood. it was a time when my kids were little. >> martha: that is a great point. a lot of people who are anything like charles at all like to talk mostly about themselves. but, that was not his quality at all. he almost always had questions in general. in the conversations that i had with him, he always wanted to know about you. i think that is such a gracious quality and someone who is such a giant. as i said, some people like that want to talk about themselves. but he loved people. >> one of the famous stories that he tells and the special, he gets charles to talk about it. it was when he was in med school and trying to become a psychiatrist. he was required in his residency to attend group therapy. he hated it, so he skipped the session. he got in trouble for it. he was wheeled in and brought in to face the repercussions of this and take in order that he had to attend group. he said, i came into psychiatry to do with psychotics. people who came into my office and tell me that they are john the baptist. but this is the amazing thing about charles, he loved psychotics. he loved people, he loved anyone who came up to him in a baseball park. i sent an email from someone who went up to tell him what offense she was. one night at the nationals game, his friend had canceled him from a. he just left people. it was an amazing gift that he knew that we reviewed him an almost, as you can hear from you guys tonight, and you know, martha, he was the only person i know that people worship him. and charles knew that. he knew that people really wanted to reward him. but he wasn't doing it to make them feel good. he was doing it because he knew it as well. >> martha: if you don't say what you think, you are betraying who you are supposed to be. i think, in this moment, a.b., there is so much divisiveness that we talk about. there is so much fighting that becomes ugly at judgmental and charles was not like that. i think if there's one thing that we need to remember in terms of bringing with him, to our lives, especially in this moment, is that. >> it is an incredible kindness and in placing himself and other people who are suffering are struggling. certainly, always in the political debate that everyone across the table or across the divide who might disagree with him was always a worthy debate partner. he was never personal. always respectful. it is an example for all of us. now, and forever. >> martha: just to read that final message from charles that he wrote to everyone. i leave this life with no regrets. it was a wonderful life. full and complete with the great love and great endeavors that make it worth living. i am sad to leave. but i leave with the knowledge that i have lived the life that i attended." 8b, thank you very much. i encourage everyone to read your piece. thank you for sharing it. >> martha: that will be tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. as you want to make sure to take that and tomorrow evening. bret baier had an amazing relationship with charles all of those years. he really brought charles out in the conversations that they had. that will be tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. i encourage all of you to read a little bit of charles tonight and keeping with your hearts and in your prayers, and in your families as well. that is our story for this evening. we will be back again tomorrow night. good night, everyone. ♪ >> tucker: good evening, and welcome to "tucker carlson tonight." we have sad news. writer, physician, and longtime contributor charles krauthammer died today at the age of 68. he leaves behind his wife, he made in 1964, and their son, daniel. also mourning his death are his many friends at this network and millions of viewers who knew and loved charles from watching him every night as they did. ask any fox anchor, who is the person people at the airport ask about the most, every single one will tell you, charles krauthammer. fox viewers loved charles, and it wasn't because he pandered to them. he didn't. sometimes he took positions they disliked or hated, but viewers not only forgive him for doing that, they seemed to love

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