Morning Joe

Reagan's life from Hubble beginnings in Illinois through his two terms in the White House is subject of a new comprehensive biography titled Reagan his life and legend.

it's neither a hegeography nor a hit job it's really trying to tell the story of Reagan in a fair and balanced line

the new book entitled Reagan his life and legend goes on sale next Tuesday September 10th

Reagan's life from Hubble beginnings in Illinois through his two terms in the White House is subject of a new comprehensive biography titled Reagan his life and legend in the New York times

the new book entitled Reagan his life and legend goes on sale next Tuesday September 10th

He didn't deserve to die but we need to be clear about who he was and too many in the media were not.

...a Saudi Arabian Bob Woodward who was martyred for bravely criticizing the Saudi royal family through his opinion articles in the Washington Post.

...and as even the New York Times reported, Khashoggi was cozy with the terrorist-supporting Muslim Brotherhood.

...Well, I'm not blaming the victim, but...

On July 21st, 2024, when Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing Kamala Harris, the dream of seeing a woman in the Oval Office was suddenly back within reach.

She is talented, experienced and ready to be president.

She told us she wanted to earn the nomination. I'm going to need your help, she said. We'll do whatever you need, I told her.

After I got off the phone with the vice president, I looked at Bill with a huge smile and said, this is exciting. I felt promise. I felt possibility. It was exhilarating.

When I imagine Kamala standing before the Capitol next January, taking the oath of office as our first woman president, my heart leaps.

On July 21st, 2024, when Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing Kamala Harris, the dream of seeing a woman in the Oval Office was suddenly back within reach.

She is talented, experienced and ready to be president.

I'm going to need your help, she said.

History is full of cautionary tales, but 2024 is not 2016.

After I got off the phone with the vice president, I looked at Bill with a huge smile and said, this is exciting. I felt promise. I felt possibility. It was exhilarating.

Gaye Tolis's book, The Kingdom and the Power, which came out just when I was just before I went to college, is the gold standard, not just of journalism books probably, but of any kind of narrative nonfiction. It's an extraordinary book, and many people have tried since then to duplicate it.

Gates, Gates, Elise's book, The Kingdom and the Power, which came out just when I was just before I went to college, is the gold standard, not just of journalism books, probably, but of any kind of narrative nonfiction.

The banks showered him with money. The press almost deified him, but Monopoly is a tricky game. When you borrow as much money as Donald Trump did, nearly $2 billion and the economy goes into a tailspin and you can't pay the interest on your loans, the bankers move in and they have.

He was certainly to start with born lucky. He was born into a very wealthy family and he inherited hundreds of millions of dollars,

He was born, born into luck. And he, he ended up being able to use his father's connections and his father's money to get his start in Manhattan.

He hasn't built that much. When you look at the skyline from almost anywhere, you're not going to see Donald Trump's buildings along there.

The new book is entitled Lucky Loser, How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success.

The game of Monopoly could have been invented for Donald Trump wheeling and dealing from his office on Fifth Avenue surveying his realm from his personal helicopter striding through his casino like Moses parting the Red Sea.

The banks showered him with money. The press almost deified him, but Monopoly is a tricky game. When you borrow as much money as Donald Trump did, nearly $2 billion and the economy goes into a tailspin and you can't pay the interest on your loans, the bankers move in and they have.

He was certainly to start with born lucky. He was born into a very wealthy family and he inherited hundreds of millions of dollars, but he grew up, he, he, Fred Trump, his father was an incredibly successful builder in the outer boroughs. And Donald Trump took over that empire and he was born, born into luck.

He hasn't built that much. When you look at the skyline from almost anywhere, you're not going to see Donald Trump's buildings along there. There are other builders that are much bigger and have had a bigger role, especially in the last 40 years.

And now he is facing potentially crushing fines, hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. Just think of the New York attorney general's case. We don't know how that's going to play out if that case is on appeal, but that bill could be coming due.

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell. I grew up in the front row of the spectator section in courtrooms my father was a Boston cop who became a lawyer and he had me in the courtrooms all the time and I was learning literally the rules of evidence when I was in high school my first book was about a case that went on for seven years and so everything that happens in courtrooms makes perfect sense to me and my job is to try to make it make sense to an

When I was working in the Senate I didn't realize that it's the perfect training for the job that I have now Covering government, covering politics

Three years ago, I was doing my normal jobs. And unfortunately, that tragic day ended my career due to the injuries that I sustained, both physical and mental as well.

I have been able to overcome a lot of the adversities that came about with the physical therapy and whatnot.

It's having that separation in time away from the Capitol and not dealing with protecting the same people who are now saying that nothing happened on January 6th allowed me to heal.

I was assaulted by more than 40 people on January 6th. It's recorded, it's on video, it's on pictures.

Well, they should have thought about those things before they committed those crimes, before they assaulted me and my colleagues.

Former U.S. Capitol Police Sergeant Gunel joins us now. He's out with a new memoir titled American Shield, the immigrant sergeant who defended democracy.

So, Sergeant, on the topic of your book, American Shield, which is available now, tell us a little bit more about your long road to recovery after the injuries you suffered there on January 6th. And what you think about your own future.

And it is a great disservice to people like me and people around the country because they are clearly lying to to the American people when they say nothing happened on January 6.

The new book is entitled American Shield, the immigrant sergeant who defended democracy. What a great American story, Mika. It makes me proud to be an American.

I actually I've got my dad's book, which really has a lot of his diaries in it, Power and Principle.

I went through some old pictures and also my father's book, Power and Principle, which has his diaries from the White House that he goes through.

The book is based on over 100 interviews I did during the past 15 years with people who've covered China for the US media from 1945 and the start of the Chinese Civil War right through the covid pandemic up to the present day.

The idea is that most folks who watch the news or read the news don't have any idea how that news got there.

What was it like to be in Shanghai when the communist army rolled in in 1949? What was it like to go on the press plane to China with Richard Nixon or to be in Tiananmen Square as I was in 1989 or to try to cover China under the very, very tight repression and restrictions that exist today?

The central theme in Assignment China has been this endless struggle that American and other foreign journalists have had to go through to sort of penetrate the secrecy and that the Chinese Communist Party has imposed.

The book is based on over 100 interviews I did during the past 15 years with people who've covered China for the US media from 1945 and the start of the Chinese Civil War, right through the covid pandemic up to the present day.

The idea is that most folks who watch the news or read the news don't have any idea how that news got there. But as anyone who's in the news business knows, the process by which people report and write and transmit the news is central to what folks see.

So I thought it would be interesting to get people who have been on the front lines, the people who've told the China story to tell their own story.

What was it like to be in Shanghai when the Communist Army rolled in in 1949? What was it like to go on the press plane to China with Richard Nixon or to be in Tiananmen Square as I was in 1989 or to try to cover China under the very, very tight repression and restrictions that exist today?

The central theme in Assignment China has been this endless struggle that American and other foreign journalists have had to go through to sort of penetrate the secrecy and that the Chinese Communist Party has imposed.

Our next guest has a look at how the John Birch Society's teachings are being mirrored in the Trump MAGA movement.

And joining us now, George Washington University professor Matthew Dallek. He's the author of the new book entitled Birchers, How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right.

The thing I'm so struck by is the first 40, 50 minutes of your show. Much of what we heard from Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, other leaders of the Republican Party, strikes a birch key. The conspiracism, this idea of a George Soros plot, right? A Jewish international figure.

All right, the new book is Birchers, How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right. Matthew Dalek, thank you very much for coming on this morning.

Our next guest has a look at how the John Birch society's teachings are being mirrored in the Trump MAGA movement and joining us now, George Washington University professor Matthew Dalek. He's the author of the new book entitled Birchers, how the John Birch society radicalized the American right.

The new book is Birchers, how the John Birch society radicalized the American right.

Michael Schmidt...is out next week with the paperback edition of his book Donald Trump vs. the United States.

and among the new material featured in it is a 13,000 word profile of former president Donald Trump's longest serving chief of staff John Kelly...

in one on one conversations Kelly tried gently nudge Trump away from his incendiary language toward North Korea telling him that he could unintentionally set off a conflict if his language was misread you're pushing him to prove he's a man Kelly said to Trump if you push him into a corner he may strike out you don't want to box him in

Donald Trump according to General Kelly of Nicky Haley she has that skin thing she doesn't look good for me didn't like her complexion he said there was something wrong I don't know what he's talking about there

why the F do you think they're heroes they're losers

I didn't think they created people like this

behind closed doors in front of his aid Trump would talk cavalierly about using force against North Korea and there were deep concerns about this because Trump was saying things publicly that were signaling the potential of military conflict

reading Eric Foner's The Fiery Trial you see this you see Lincoln

Reading your instant classic Reading Eric Foner's The Fiery Trial You see Lincoln and you get to

Remember, You Are a Wiley is what my father's mother, my grandmother would say to her six children, her six black children when they would leave her doorway every day and go out into a white world that was also a racist world, but one in which they were as a very religious family.

They always believed in both pushing as hard as you can for justice, for what was right, for being bold, for thinking that you can end poverty and knowing that you should try whether you can or not.

The fight itself was worth fighting and you were going to do something and you were going to do it for someone if you just kept doing it.

They could be militant. They were they were very radical in their day. Right. They were calling for a real change.

But anger isn't about abusing another person or denying the possibility of reaching another person.

Remember, You Are a Wiley is what my father's mother, my grandmother would say to her six children, her six black children when they would leave her doorway every day and go out into a white world that was also a racist world, but one in which they were as a very religious family.

My parents both believe in my mother was white and grew up in racist West Texas, so I know exactly what you're talking about and how you actually try to cross that bridge of racial divide, of recognizing that that very poverty that your family experienced, Joe, and that so many black families were experiencing was exactly the bridge my father was also trying to build, but confronting race.

In his 2004 autobiography, My Prison Without Bars, Rose would finally admit to gambling on baseball while managing the Reds but said it was never against his own team.

In his 2004 autobiography, My Prison Without Bars, Rose would finally admit to gambling on baseball while managing the Reds

Also ahead, former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams. She'll join the conversation with her new book, Stacey Speaks Up, which empowers children to make a difference.

She'll join the conversation with her new book, Stacey Speaks Up, which empowers children to make a difference.

Read Larry Tye's biography on on John McCarthy, Demagogue.