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The Bill Press Pod

A President's Team. With Historian Doug Brinkley

The Bill Press Pod

BP Pods

Fox News, Hillary Clinton, Young Turks, Donald Trump, Jamie Benson, Progressive, News, Bernie Sanders, Progressive Talk, Liberal, Cnn, Msnbc, Stephanie Miller, Bill Press, Thom Hartmann

4.7601 Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, Bill continues his four-part series on the American presidency with guest Doug Brinkley, a presidential historian who is a professor at Rice University and as the official presidential historian at CNN. He’s the author of dozens of books and scholarly articles and is considered one of the top presidential scholars in the country. They discuss the importance of the people a president surrounds themselves with and how it impacts their administration. They mention examples of presidents who had strong teams, such as Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt. They also discuss the role of the vice president and first lady in shaping a president's decisions. They then compare the teams of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, noting the high turnover and lack of cohesion in Trump's team, while praising the loyalty and unity of Biden's team. They also mention the very powerful influence of Jill Biden on the administration. 

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, good friends and neighbors.

0:08.4

Good to see you back on the Bill Press pod as we continue our four-part series on the American presidency.

0:16.0

And our goal is to examine yesterday's presidents in order to help us make today's choice and the right choice

0:23.6

for our next president. Again, as we point out every time, our goal is not to convince you

0:30.1

to vote for Joe Biden. I know you've probably already decided that's what you're going to do.

0:35.1

I certainly have. Our goal is just to put this choice

0:38.2

in perspective, looking at the American presidency, to reinforce our own thinking about Donald Trump,

0:45.3

and to provide us with some good ammunition we can use to convince our friends not to sit this one out

0:51.7

and to take it very, very seriously and to get behind Joe Biden.

0:56.3

Now, our goal for this in this four-part series, we're so lucky to have one of our leading presidential historians with us.

1:04.4

I think he's the best, actually.

1:06.3

Doug Brinkley, CNN historian, professor of history at Rice University,

1:12.6

and author of several books on presidents and the presidency.

1:15.1

Now in our first segment, you may remember with Professor Brinkley, we asked what it takes

1:19.2

to be president, what qualities should we be looking for in any candidate?

1:24.6

Last week, we looked at those presidents whom historians rate among the best. What made them so great?

1:31.4

Today, in our third segment, recognizing that nobody, not even a president, stands alone,

1:37.9

we asked Doug Brinkley, how important are the people that a president surrounds himself with?

1:45.9

If it does take a village,

1:53.3

as Hillary said, which presidents have put together the best team? And of course, as we do every week, we'll flash forward to apply what we learned today to the big choice we have to make

1:59.0

between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Doug Brinkley, welcome back to the big choice we have to make between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

2:01.9

Doug Brinkley, welcome back to the Bill Press pod and welcome back to our series on

...

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