BRETT BAIER-TO RESCUE THE CONSTITUTION

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Episode Transcript

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This is Later with Lee Matthews,The Lee Matthews Podcast. More what you
hear weekday afternoons on the Drive.You know Brett Behar, chief political anchor
of Fox News and anchor and executiveeditor of Special Report with Brett Baher.
But I don't know if you alsoknew he's written several books, the latest
of which is to Rescue the Constitution, George Washington and the Fragile American Experiment

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in It, Brett Baer, youcontend that George Washington rescued the nation and
the Constitution three times? What werethose three? Hey, thanks for having
me on. Well, there wasthe time of the Revolutionary War where he
is tapped to be the commander andhe really inspires this ragtag group of soldiers

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to believe that they can win inreally horrible circumstances. Then he is tapped
to be the head of and incharge of Constitutional Convention in seventeen eighty seven,
where arguably without him, it doesnot get across the finish line the
document, nor does it get ratified. And then the third time, obviously,

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is when he's tapped to be thefirst American President. And remember,
you know, I mean, noone's writing a note for him in the
Oval office desk. You know,no one's passing him the torch. He
is the torch, and he ismaking the executive what it is. And
throughout all this research I find thathe is indispensable and without him, arguably

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we would not have a country.Brett Behar, I'm a big fan of
history, and you also may knowsome of the other books that Brett bear
has written to the rest to Rescuethe Republic, three Days at the Brink,
three Days in Moscow, three Daysin January, and his latest is
called to Rescue the Constitution. GeorgeWashington, The Fragile American Experiment. I'm
a fan of history, and oneof the things I've trying to do is

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get past the marblization, if youwill, of our founding fathers. We
read so much about how smart theywere, how brilliant they were. We
don't read about their challenges, theirdoubts, and their fears. And George
Washington had plenty of them. Hedid, and you know it was not
godlike, And you're right, sometimesit's almost myth mythology about some of these

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Founding fathers. But this is avery real portrayal of these Founding fathers and
these men they had false George Washingtondesperately wanted to get home. He didn't
want to do any of this.He wanted to be at Mount Vernon with
his wife, Martha and her twochildren who he adopted and wanted to be

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a farmer. I mean, hebasically was tapped and answered the call each
time, but reluctantly. And hewrites about that extensively, you know,
like the other book, and thisis the fifth of the Presidential series of
books. I'm trying to put thereader in the room and the narrative so

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that you can you know, itreads more like a screenplay than it does
a history book. And I thinkthat with these nuggets of information that kind
of really crackle about the time,I think you can see it like you
haven't seen it before. So that'swhat I'm trying to do. And I

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think it's important for us as acountry to look back at how we were
founded, especially now Brett Behar youknow him from Special Report with Brett Behar
on the Fox News Channel and hisnewest book, To Rescue the Constitution.
George Washington and the Fragile American Experiment. When he became the first General of
the Continental Army. He didn't havea lot of military experience, but it

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seems as though he had a naturalknack for administration. Well he did,
and you know, he actually hadsome failures in military and the Frenchman Indian
War. I mean, he largelywas believed to have started that because he
had some mistakes and you know,he fell up. His failures actually led

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him to other promotions and and inthat experience he figured out how to talk
to men that were fighting and howto inspire them, how to get them
moving, and it eventually led tohis revolutionary war prowess and talking to men

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who you know, their their uniformswere falling apart, they didn't have shoes,
some of them they had bloody feetin the cold winter of Valley Forge.
And yet he convinced them that tostay with it, you're fighting for
liberty. And they did, andto the point where the British forces said,
obviously, live does something to theseforces, because there was no way

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that they should have lost. No, And I often Bret Bear, I
wonder if if it wasn't so muchan out that the Continental Army out militarized
the British Army as much as theyoutspied them, because Washington always seemed to
have the intelligence he needed. Yeah, that's exactly right. He had really

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good intelligence. And you know,throughout the war, Washington's men are underdogs
and losing many more battles than theywon. They and as I mentioned before,
they were kind of the laughing stockof British generals, but they never
gave up. They won the war. And this British captain Marvel's at the
end that this rough, hungry,tired army could beat the British and he

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says to his soldiers, American soldiersstayed, they fought, and this is
what liberty could do. So Ido think that Washington had this ability to
be inspiring and inside the Constitutional Convention, he's not the chattiest guy. He
doesn't say much, but he worksthe room outside of the convention and really

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tries to find common ground. Andthat's the hope here is that descent is
kind of baked in our cake,but descent meshed with union is really what
Washington was able to do. Brettbahar, chief political anchor for Fox News Channel,
his new book, To Rescue theConstitution, George Washington and the Fragile
American Experiment. I wanted to getinto the Constitutional Convention because it required a

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lot of something we don't seem tohave a lot of in our Congress right
now, compromise. And there hadto be a lot between the northern colonies
and the southern colonies, and theurban colonies and the more agrarian colonies.
Yeah, and some of these battlesare the same battles we're fighting today,
states rights for federalism, representation ofbig states and small states. And some

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of the battles were really intense.And you think about writing about a convention,
you're like, how is that exciting? But it really is if you
really delve into it. Many timeswe almost fell apart. We almost didn't
get it across the finish line.And that's the amazing thing is that we
almost fell apart from the start.And it was Washington who really held the

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fabric together. And that's not amyth, it's real, based on writings
of not only him, but othersin the room. And you can read
about it as well. Brett Beharputs you right there in that room,
and to rescue the Constitution, GeorgeWashington and the fragile American experiment. Brett
Bear, thank you for joining usand I hope you get a break after

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all of this book writing and reporting. It'll come sometimes. Thanks so much.
Thanks for listening to Later with LeeMatthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast,
and remember to listen to The DriveLive weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation