Journey To America, is a 90-minute documentary airing on PBS Tuesday night at 9c/10e, telling nine remarkable stories of immigrants who changed America and the world. We ask the executive producer and co-narrator Speaker Newt Gingrich how these stories can reshape the narrative of immigration debates.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Previously on Your Morning Show with Michael dil Choano.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Newt Gingrich and his wife, Calistic Gingrich are the executive
producers and they are the narrators of a ninety minute
documentary that will air tonight at nine pm Central ten
pm Eastern on PBS. It's called Journey to America. And
the speaker joins us, how important is this film for
both sides, the left and the right.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Well, on christ I decided we had to make a
Journey to America because we're both against illegal immigration. Well,
we're both deeply in favor of illegal immigration. And by
the way, that reflects the American people, seventy three percent
of the American people opposed illegal immigrants. Seventy three percent
of the American people favor legal immigration. And we wanted
(00:47):
to give folks who had an open mind that were
willing to look at it, real human stories of people
who came to America legally, who have made this a
better country and given us a better future. And it's
a key part of American exceptionalism that we attract people
from all over the world, and I think in that sense,
(01:07):
Journey to America is a very important documentary. We're thrilled
the PBS is showing it at ten PM. And we
think that a lot of Americans will be reminded, first
of all, that they probably know people.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Who are first generation legal immigrants.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
And they may well in their own family have people
one or two generations back at closer for example, as
a grandmother who came from Poland through Ellis Island in
nineteen oh seven. And so these ties are very real.
President Trump's mother came from Scotland, and Milania obviously came
(01:42):
from Europe. I mean, so when you look at it,
all of us have ties that.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Mean that legal immigration.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Is a key you have to protect, yet at the
very time that you are getting rid of illegal immigrants.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
So, mister speaker, it's kind of like a legal immigration
is this of commission and really strategic wise legal migration
that may have been the sin of omission. We got
to get both right.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Right, No, I'm not quite sure if used it that way,
but I think the point's right.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
You want to have a balance.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
And I'll give you the other example.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Where I feel very strongly.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
And that's the Dreamers. These are young people who were
brought by their parents when they were two or three
years old. Most of them do not speak the language
of their original country origin. Many of them are valedictorians
graduating from high school and college. Many of them become
doctors and nurses. We need to find a path to
citizenship for the dreamers at the same time that we're
(02:42):
finding a path to kick them out for the criminals
and the murderers and the drug dealers, who ought to
be the first wave of deportation should all be everybody.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Who's a criminal.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
It's not a complicated.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Issue because there's narratives on both sides, and we get
both sides, got to get beyond them and to understanding.
And I'm hoping these journeys will do that journey to
America with Newt and Calistic Ingridge executive producers as well
as co hosts. And I actually love that it's going
to be on PBS, you know, to have this discussion,
you know, on PBS and watch these lives and let
(03:16):
these lives tell the story. What are you hoping we
leave watching this with?
Speaker 3 (03:22):
I hope people will leave with a sense of the
remarkable diversity and the remarkable talent that has come to
America to make us a unique place. And I hope
that they will think about, you know, all the different
people that whether it's Hetty Lamar, or it is Mother
Cabrini or Henry Kissinger. I mean, there are just a
(03:46):
ton of stories that you're going to watch and you're
going to think, well, I mean, for example, Maria Dome
grew up in an orphanage in Siberia, came to America
and became the first woman ever to qualify as a
marine combat infantry and just you look at that and
you think, you know, what an amazing country we are
to attract people from everywhere?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
How hard was it to narrow it down to nine?
And why these nine? Did you have a favorite?
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Well, we actually did. Originally we did fifteen, but that
because we just we did this on.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Our own, because we wanted to do it, and when.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
We approached PBS, he said, that's that's too long a show,
and so we had to regretfully, there'll be an executive version,
they'll come out of the director's version.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
That'll come out later. They'll have everybody in it.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
But we we had a hard time getting down to
the nine. You know, I'd hate to. I mean, I've known,
I knew Henry Kissinger for goosh Over forty years. This
may have been his last television interview, and he's a
remarkable person. But I also have to say the great
interesting experiences was Chief Athleet is a good example.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
She was in Loudon County she had as a young girl, then.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
In China for mouse cultural Revolution, and she began to
see the left in America resemble the malice, and so
she and began talking about, Look, I've been there. I
saw what it was like in China. You have to start.
She ended up being on television. She wrote two books.
(05:21):
She said, her.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Former speaker, Nude Gingrich, the PBS special Tonight, the ninety
minute documentary Jurney to America, and the narration for the
documentary is done by Nute Gingrich and Calistic Gingrich. The
former speaker and I have something in common. We're both
celebrating twenty fifth wedding anniversaries this year, and we asked
him what it was like to work with his wife.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Well, I mean, she's really the driving force with us.
She loves media, she's very good at it. She's a
music major by background, so she has a very artistic
kind of rhythm and she drives us, along with some
friends of our seven Na Bloc, who has only done
ten films within now, so she really likes doing films.
(06:07):
I really like doing books. But somehow we won't together.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I'm gonna do one last question off topic, if you'll
allow me. I'm gonna say, sure, I want to. I
want to say to your face what I say behind
your back. You were hands down, and I know that
some will debate Tip O'Neil and you. Those are conversations
that people have often. I've always said, hands down, you
were the most consequential and effective speaker in my lifetime,
and perhaps the contract with America, our legislative branch's best
(06:35):
and truest to our intent. My question is can we
have that again? And why not? And why not now?
And is it needed now more than ever?
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Look, we can have that again. It'll come in a
different form, it's a different dance. But the fact is
it all comes down to the American people. It's the
American Ronald Reagan said, it was the American people that
his legislative agenda. It's the American people who supported the contract.
It was the American people who wanted to balance budgets,
(07:07):
and we did four in a row for the only
time in a century. If Trump can mobilize the American people,
working with Speaker Mike Johnson and working with Majority Leader
John Thune, they will get amazing things done. And this
will be one of the most consequential presidencies, certainly rivaling
say Andrew Jackson. And I think that it's very possible.
(07:30):
And I'm a big fan of Mike Johnson. He has
the hardest job in Washington. He only has a two
or three vote margin, and that means any given morning,
four of his members.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Can causing chaos.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
So the level of patience he has listening to everybody,
understanding their problems, trying to solve their problems, it's an
astonishingly hard job, and Mike Johnson does it.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Very very well.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, because we have you know, there's a feeling in
the air, mister Speaker, that something is changed, and it's
not just Donald Trump. It goes beyond that. We're even
seeing it with the fires in Los Angeles, that America
is awakening to these narratives, these false narratives, and they've
kind of died of consequence in reality, and the people
are kind of going back to the table and assuming
(08:16):
their role in our in our founder's intent and they're
ready for real servant leadership, and they're ready for people
to solve problems. How do you see this new future
forming and what might it mean for not just you know,
dysfunctional government starting to work together, but for kind of
a cultural revolution that could go beyond anything that we
(08:39):
would call a Reagan revolution again, grich revolution, or even
a Trump revolution, a reawakening.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
And I think, look, I think there's a real possibility
that having seen left wing culture fail totally, both in
performance and in values, that you could have a very
dramatic shift back towards a work ethic, back towards patriotism.
And in that process, one of the things I'm trying
(09:06):
to get it launched is a reform movement in Chicago
or Baltimore City, or New York or Los Angeles that says,
we get parties, everybody who agrees that the machine doesn't work,
that the bosses aren't competent. Everybody ought to be in
the same room, and we ought to collectively figure out
(09:27):
how do we change these systems? Because they are disasters,
and they the Los Angeles fire is simply the most
obvious example of disaster. But I could take you city
by city and show.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
You disaster after disaster after disaster.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
And the solution is found in true competent leaders right
getting beyond me.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
The solution is found in the American people rising up
as they did with the Progressive movement. Or there's an
amazing book called The Shame of the Cities published in
nineteen oh four, and it's sparked a reform movement against
all the big city machines. And once you have today,
California is the worst example. You look at a place
like Chicago, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
How bad they are, the machine wins.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
You look at New York City, I mean it's absurd.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
The machine wins.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
So there has to be an anti machine movement across
the whole country that builds a citizen network and that
sets out to fundly, fundamentally, profoundly change the way government
has been run.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Speaker New Gingrich and his wife Callista have put together
a Journey to America ninety minute documentary film. You can
see it tonight at ninth Central, ten eastern on PBS.
Mister speaker, the privilege was online. Thank you, sir, great
being with you.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Thank you all right.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
That's tonight ninth Central, ten eastern on PBS.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Miss a little, miss a lot, miss a lot, and
We'll miss you. It's your Morning Show with Michael del
Chourno
Previously on Your Morning Show with Michael dil Choano.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Newt Gingrich and his wife, Calistic Gingrich are the executive
producers and they are the narrators of a ninety minute
documentary that will air tonight at nine pm Central ten
pm Eastern on PBS. It's called Journey to America. And
the speaker joins us, how important is this film for
both sides, the left and the right.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Well, on christ I decided we had to make a
Journey to America because we're both against illegal immigration. Well,
we're both deeply in favor of illegal immigration. And by
the way, that reflects the American people, seventy three percent
of the American people opposed illegal immigrants. Seventy three percent
of the American people favor legal immigration. And we wanted
(00:47):
to give folks who had an open mind that were
willing to look at it, real human stories of people
who came to America legally, who have made this a
better country and given us a better future. And it's
a key part of American exceptionalism that we attract people
from all over the world, and I think in that sense,
(01:07):
Journey to America is a very important documentary. We're thrilled
the PBS is showing it at ten PM. And we
think that a lot of Americans will be reminded, first
of all, that they probably know people.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Who are first generation legal immigrants.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
And they may well in their own family have people
one or two generations back at closer for example, as
a grandmother who came from Poland through Ellis Island in
nineteen oh seven. And so these ties are very real.
President Trump's mother came from Scotland, and Milania obviously came
(01:42):
from Europe. I mean, so when you look at it,
all of us have ties that.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Mean that legal immigration.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Is a key you have to protect, yet at the
very time that you are getting rid of illegal immigrants.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
So, mister speaker, it's kind of like a legal immigration
is this of commission and really strategic wise legal migration
that may have been the sin of omission. We got
to get both right.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Right, No, I'm not quite sure if used it that way,
but I think the point's right.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
You want to have a balance.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
And I'll give you the other example.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Where I feel very strongly.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
And that's the Dreamers. These are young people who were
brought by their parents when they were two or three
years old. Most of them do not speak the language
of their original country origin. Many of them are valedictorians
graduating from high school and college. Many of them become
doctors and nurses. We need to find a path to
citizenship for the dreamers at the same time that we're
(02:42):
finding a path to kick them out for the criminals
and the murderers and the drug dealers, who ought to
be the first wave of deportation should all be everybody.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Who's a criminal.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
It's not a complicated.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Issue because there's narratives on both sides, and we get
both sides, got to get beyond them and to understanding.
And I'm hoping these journeys will do that journey to
America with Newt and Calistic Ingridge executive producers as well
as co hosts. And I actually love that it's going
to be on PBS, you know, to have this discussion,
you know, on PBS and watch these lives and let
(03:16):
these lives tell the story. What are you hoping we
leave watching this with?
Speaker 3 (03:22):
I hope people will leave with a sense of the
remarkable diversity and the remarkable talent that has come to
America to make us a unique place. And I hope
that they will think about, you know, all the different
people that whether it's Hetty Lamar, or it is Mother
Cabrini or Henry Kissinger. I mean, there are just a
(03:46):
ton of stories that you're going to watch and you're
going to think, well, I mean, for example, Maria Dome
grew up in an orphanage in Siberia, came to America
and became the first woman ever to qualify as a
marine combat infantry and just you look at that and
you think, you know, what an amazing country we are
to attract people from everywhere?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
How hard was it to narrow it down to nine?
And why these nine? Did you have a favorite?
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Well, we actually did. Originally we did fifteen, but that
because we just we did this on.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Our own, because we wanted to do it, and when.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
We approached PBS, he said, that's that's too long a show,
and so we had to regretfully, there'll be an executive version,
they'll come out of the director's version.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
That'll come out later. They'll have everybody in it.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
But we we had a hard time getting down to
the nine. You know, I'd hate to. I mean, I've known,
I knew Henry Kissinger for goosh Over forty years. This
may have been his last television interview, and he's a
remarkable person. But I also have to say the great
interesting experiences was Chief Athleet is a good example.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
She was in Loudon County she had as a young girl, then.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
In China for mouse cultural Revolution, and she began to
see the left in America resemble the malice, and so
she and began talking about, Look, I've been there. I
saw what it was like in China. You have to start.
She ended up being on television. She wrote two books.
(05:21):
She said, her.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Former speaker, Nude Gingrich, the PBS special Tonight, the ninety
minute documentary Jurney to America, and the narration for the
documentary is done by Nute Gingrich and Calistic Gingrich. The
former speaker and I have something in common. We're both
celebrating twenty fifth wedding anniversaries this year, and we asked
him what it was like to work with his wife.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Well, I mean, she's really the driving force with us.
She loves media, she's very good at it. She's a
music major by background, so she has a very artistic
kind of rhythm and she drives us, along with some
friends of our seven Na Bloc, who has only done
ten films within now, so she really likes doing films.
(06:07):
I really like doing books. But somehow we won't together.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I'm gonna do one last question off topic, if you'll
allow me. I'm gonna say, sure, I want to. I
want to say to your face what I say behind
your back. You were hands down, and I know that
some will debate Tip O'Neil and you. Those are conversations
that people have often. I've always said, hands down, you
were the most consequential and effective speaker in my lifetime,
and perhaps the contract with America, our legislative branch's best
(06:35):
and truest to our intent. My question is can we
have that again? And why not? And why not now?
And is it needed now more than ever?
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Look, we can have that again. It'll come in a
different form, it's a different dance. But the fact is
it all comes down to the American people. It's the
American Ronald Reagan said, it was the American people that
his legislative agenda. It's the American people who supported the contract.
It was the American people who wanted to balance budgets,
(07:07):
and we did four in a row for the only
time in a century. If Trump can mobilize the American people,
working with Speaker Mike Johnson and working with Majority Leader
John Thune, they will get amazing things done. And this
will be one of the most consequential presidencies, certainly rivaling
say Andrew Jackson. And I think that it's very possible.
(07:30):
And I'm a big fan of Mike Johnson. He has
the hardest job in Washington. He only has a two
or three vote margin, and that means any given morning,
four of his members.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Can causing chaos.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
So the level of patience he has listening to everybody,
understanding their problems, trying to solve their problems, it's an
astonishingly hard job, and Mike Johnson does it.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Very very well.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, because we have you know, there's a feeling in
the air, mister Speaker, that something is changed, and it's
not just Donald Trump. It goes beyond that. We're even
seeing it with the fires in Los Angeles, that America
is awakening to these narratives, these false narratives, and they've
kind of died of consequence in reality, and the people
are kind of going back to the table and assuming
(08:16):
their role in our in our founder's intent and they're
ready for real servant leadership, and they're ready for people
to solve problems. How do you see this new future
forming and what might it mean for not just you know,
dysfunctional government starting to work together, but for kind of
a cultural revolution that could go beyond anything that we
(08:39):
would call a Reagan revolution again, grich revolution, or even
a Trump revolution, a reawakening.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
And I think, look, I think there's a real possibility
that having seen left wing culture fail totally, both in
performance and in values, that you could have a very
dramatic shift back towards a work ethic, back towards patriotism.
And in that process, one of the things I'm trying
(09:06):
to get it launched is a reform movement in Chicago
or Baltimore City, or New York or Los Angeles that says,
we get parties, everybody who agrees that the machine doesn't work,
that the bosses aren't competent. Everybody ought to be in
the same room, and we ought to collectively figure out
(09:27):
how do we change these systems? Because they are disasters,
and they the Los Angeles fire is simply the most
obvious example of disaster. But I could take you city
by city and show.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
You disaster after disaster after disaster.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
And the solution is found in true competent leaders right
getting beyond me.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
The solution is found in the American people rising up
as they did with the Progressive movement. Or there's an
amazing book called The Shame of the Cities published in
nineteen oh four, and it's sparked a reform movement against
all the big city machines. And once you have today,
California is the worst example. You look at a place
like Chicago, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
How bad they are, the machine wins.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
You look at New York City, I mean it's absurd.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
The machine wins.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
So there has to be an anti machine movement across
the whole country that builds a citizen network and that
sets out to fundly, fundamentally, profoundly change the way government
has been run.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Speaker New Gingrich and his wife Callista have put together
a Journey to America ninety minute documentary film. You can
see it tonight at ninth Central, ten eastern on PBS.
Mister speaker, the privilege was online. Thank you, sir, great
being with you.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Thank you all right.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
That's tonight ninth Central, ten eastern on PBS.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Miss a little, miss a lot, miss a lot, and
We'll miss you. It's your Morning Show with Michael del
Chourno
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