Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So pleased to welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Uh, one of the truly great cable news hosts, anchors,
whatever you want to call them, Brett Baer also a
great author.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
And first of.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
All, Brett, welcome back. So it's always so good to
have a chance to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Ross, Yeah, glad to do it.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
And as as as you know, listeners, I'm sure you know,
Brett has written quite a bunch of history books, really
interesting books. And the latest, the latest is called to
Rescue the American Spirit and it is a biography of
Teddy Roosevelt.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
And I finished it last night. And Brett, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
You know a lot a lot of times you'll end
up doing interviews with people.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Who haven't read the book. But I read the book,
and I want to thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I want to I want to start actually with right
at the beginning with the with the dedication page, and
you you dedicate the book, uh, for those who strive
to embody the spirit of America in their daily lives.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
And what I want to ask you is do you
think of yourself that way?
Speaker 4 (01:07):
That's a great question, Ross, I do I mean I
think that I'm trying to strive to make the country
better by covering news as fairly as I can, by
doing segments like common Ground, where I bring Democrats and
Republicans together to talk about what they're working on as
opposed to what they're arguing about. So yeah, I do
think about that. I think about structuring a show every
(01:30):
night and trying to make it as complete as possible
for the viewers so that you have a sense of
what's happening in the US and around the world.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
And I look at that. I was really writing that
for my kids.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
To have them remember how amazing this country is, how
blessed we are to live here, how so many people
around the world want to be here, And embodying the
American spirit is, you know, being a doer, which is
what Teddy Roosevelt was, and he wrote about and he
(02:07):
talked about in speeches, basically, get in the game, be
the man in the arena, and that kind of embodies
the American spirit.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
And it was really a message for them.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
And I should say to listeners, I should have mentioned
this at the beginning. But Brett Behar's fantastic show is
called Special Report and it airs at four pm in
the Mountain time zone.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Here where we are each weeknight on Fox News.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Before we get back to the book, Brett, you've been
traveling around and I'm really curious what your past couple
of days have been like. Nixon Library, Reagan Library. Just
tell us a little something.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, yeah, I listen.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Those places are great to go to just because the
history there and a great base of.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
People who love history.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
So every book I've done, and now this is ross
hard to believe, but the sixth Presidential biography I did Eisenhower,
then Reagan, FDR then Ulysses S.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Grant.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
The last book was about Washington and the Constitutional Convention,
and this is Teddy Roosevelt.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
So each book.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
I've done that track in California, Nixon and Reagan, and
they have these great turnouts, like eight hundred, nine hundred
people who come to listen to a Q and A.
We really get into the weeds and then we do
a Q and A with the audience about whatever else.
And then I signed books. So I left there, I
(03:38):
guess ten pm last night after signing for a long time,
and got on a plane and came to Dallas, and
that's where I'll be today.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
You know, I'm just going to say this in public,
but I want to host you for an event for
your next book in Denver, Okay, in Denver. I've done
a fair bit of this, you know, mostly fiction. I'm
sure you know Jack Carr a little bit. Yeah right,
I've hosted him three or four times, with many, many
hundreds of people like you're talking about. So I would
(04:06):
love to host you for a book the next time around,
if you're up for it.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
All right, done, So.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
One more thing before we get back to the book.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
From the perspective of someone who does what you do
and being in Washington most of the time, does this year,
I mean we're kind of sort of done, almost done
with twenty twenty five? Does this year feel like just
another year in the life of Washington a Washington reporter,
or does something about this feel different?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
And I mean.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Beyond just you know, the personality of the president, or
is something less superficial than that.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, No, it feels a little different.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
I mean it's on fast forward. It's like tricking from
a fire hose every day.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
You know. Teddy Roosevelt was.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Called the human cyclone because of all the energy and
you know, speeches and all.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
The stuff he did with the press.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I've ripped up a lot of rundowns on my show
six times through the day where this president has held
his fifth press conference and the news changed.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
So, yeah, it feels different, The pace feels different. I
think it feels.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Different than the first Trump administration and in various ways.
And I think, you know, we're in for a really
interesting twenty six as we look at the economy, as
we look at foreign policy and hotspots around the world.
You know, every day is something different, but it's it's
big consequential.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
When you're doing your job.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
And this question I'm ask you is not a not
a political question. And Trump really does drive the news
a lot. Is it awesome and exciting because there's always
something to talk about. You know, you're never going to
be bored, or do you sometimes wish, like, oh, I
wish I could take a breath, or I wish Trump
would take a breath, and and it gets a little
(05:57):
bit exhausting. And whether or not you agree or with
what Trump does, which isn't really your thing anyway to
talk about what you agree with.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Yeah, No, there are some days where you know you're
on the fourth day of head spinning. You know, news
that's coming out of your fifth press conference out of
the White House.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
And yeah, you.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Yearn for the quiet Biden days where there'd be a
lid at nine am in.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
The morning right at the White House.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
But I think, listen, everybody says different things about how
they handle the news. I do know I was over
at the White House recently to do an interview and
to do the show, and those those poor White House
pool reporters and photographers and sound guys, you know, the
(06:52):
poor sound guys holding the microphone for you know, hours
on end as these press conferences go forever, and they look.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Like they can take a break.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
We're talking with Brett Bair.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
His new book, his sixth presidential biography, is called to
Rescue the American Spirit, Teddy Roosevelt and the Birth of
a Superpower. So maybe a third of the way through
the book or so, you talk about Teddy Roosevelt being
frustrated with what he perceives as America's lack of preparation
(07:26):
in case in case there is sort of a bad
word but needs to be a war, right, And I'm
going to quote you quoting him, there's no more utterly
useless and often utterly mischievous citizen than the piece at
any price, universal arbitration type of being who was always complaining,
(07:47):
either about war or else about the cost of armaments
which act as the insurance against war.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
It goes on, but in the interesting time, I'll stop.
I'll stop there. I'd love to hear your your thoughts
about that. It's an interesting quote.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
So Teddy, Yeah it is.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
And Teddy Roosevelt was one of our most active presidents
in building up the US military, specifically the US Navy.
And this is where this book is focused is kind
of each one of these six biographies has been a
so to straw look through, looked through a straw at
a moment in history that maybe history overlooked or was undercovered.
(08:27):
For Wright, the Eisenhower it was the handover between Eisenhower
and Kennedy and the speech that it was military industrial complex.
But really it's had a lot more. And that was
a really interesting time. For Reagan, It's the Moscow summit
with Gorbachev and he delivers a speech to Moscow State
(08:47):
University students where he says communism is never going to work,
and he does it under a bust of Lenin.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
It was largely overlooked as he's at.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
That Summit FDR's summit with Churchill and Stalin and Tehran.
That summit is really not memorized in history or memorialized.
Grants the presidency and where he saves the country from
slipping into a second Civil war in eighteen seventy six,
overlooked the Constitutional Convention and the role of George Washington,
(09:17):
and if he's not there, we just don't get off
the starting line as a country. So each one of
these things is a sort of strong moment. This one
is Roosevelt's wish to have his legacy be that America
is a great world power at the turn of the century,
that America is respected on the world and maybe even
revered on the world. And how he does that is
(09:41):
he sees Russia and Japan fighting over territory and it's
devolving into possibly a world war. He reaches out to
the leaders of Russia and Japan telegrams and letters and says,
I want to host a peace negotiation in the US.
He gets the delegations to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he
does the shuttle diplomacy, going from delegation to delegation, he
(10:04):
does the logistics. After intense days of negotiation, they come
up with a peace treaty and the war stops, and
Roosevelt is the only president at that point to get
the Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
You know, let's stick with that for a second, rather
than my moving to the next thing. I was thinking
of asking you because I wanted to ask you, and
now I have multiple listener texts wanting me to ask
you about any kind of comparison or contrast you would
want to make between Teddy Roosevelt and Donald Trump. And
(10:39):
of course, when I read that in your book about
Teddy Roosevelt and the Japan Russia peace negotiation, to me,
I thought.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
The comparison with Trump and the.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Middle East stuff was pretty glaring in a good way
for Trump, I guess.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Oh yeah, listen.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
I wrote this book and started this book well before
the second Trump administration, and so I didn't know that
they were going to be focusing on global outreach and
solving the India Pakistan dispute and Congo, Rwanda and Armenia
and Azerbaijan, Israel Hamas, which obviously is bumpy right now,
(11:21):
and aspiring to do Russia Ukraine. I didn't know any
of that, and so this is something each one of
these books when it hits current time, seems to plug
in on a presidential level to that. That's a comparison
a similarity. Another one is what I talked about the
human cyclone aspects the NonStop energy, and there's that the
(11:47):
use of the press. Teddy Roosevelt used reporters embedded almost
all throughout his life as New York City Police commissioner.
As in the Spanish American War, he brings in the
York Times reporter with the rough riders, which is why
we know all the details about charging up San Juan Hill.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
But he also rips the press, calls.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Them muckrakers, and says they're not fair to them. That
sounds very familiar, and I think it's also a similarity
that you can't pin them down ideologically. Sometimes you don't
know where exactly they're going to come down. And for Roosevelt,
he was a conservative Republican. He definitely had a global vision,
(12:34):
but he was also a progressive who fought for the
little guy in labor. First president to get involved in
the labor dispute and the coal mining strike in nineteen
oh two, files forty anti trust lawsuits against big business.
Was not a big fan or Roosevelt was not a
fan of JP Morgan and vice versa, and so there
(12:56):
are idiosyncrasies that are interesting too as far as ideology.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
A couple of quick listener texts I want to share
with you Ross. I really respect and trust Brett Bear
Special Report is one of the best shows on cable.
I especially enjoy when Britt Hume comes on and they
start Britt Brett, Britt Brett.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
So that's yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
And then another listener says, I'm undergoing chemotherapy and I
love watching Brett's show every day, and I bought his
book to read.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
While I'm while I'm dealing with this. So there you go.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Well, best of luck, and we'll both for you as
you're going through that. I know that's not an easy time,
but I you know, listen to viewers have been really.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
A great outpouring of support for the book and for
the show. I took over from for Britt my mentor
and friend sixteen years ago January two thousand and nine,
So coming up on seventeen years, and it's hard to believe,
but you know, I've been at Fox for twenty seven years.
(14:07):
The Atlanta Bureau started in my apartment with a sax
machine and the cell phone.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
So I've been around the block there and they.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Really supported the news product and let me put horse
blenders on every day to focus on my show the
one hour, and I think, you know, I have a
great staff and we've been doing well.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Knock on wood, you got a few more minutes for me?
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yeah, sure, okay.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
And we're talking with Brett Baer about his book To
Rescue the American Spirit Teddy Roosevelt in the Birth of
a Superpower. So one of the things that occurred to
me as I was reading this, Brett, is that I
think most people think of Teddy Roosevelt as a relatively
modern guy, in part because of the progressivism that you describe.
They think of him as a twentieth century guy, twentieth
(14:55):
century president kind of guy. But actually, and as you
lay this out so clearly in the book, and it
sort of took a minute for me to process just
how relevant it was, he was actually not very distant
from the Civil War. I mean, right, So he was
much or at least somewhat closer to the Civil War
(15:17):
than to World War Two, just for example.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
And you talk a bit in the book about how that.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Was really a factor in his life, especially growing up
with a family that was part Northern and part Southern,
which I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Yeah, the mother's side of the family was the Southern part.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
And his father actually chose not to fight in the
Civil War. Donated large amounts of money to help families
that were split by soldiers that were going to war,
but he did not fight, and you know, he kind
of regretted it, felt ashamed by it. Teddy seems affected
by it, actually, and that's why he's so anxious to
(15:59):
get in the fight in the Spanish American War, recruiting
his group of rough riders from Dakota Territories and his
college Harvard, putting them together in this kind of Star
Wars bar of Army Army regimen to fight in Cuba.
But so, yeah, you're right, the disconnect. I mean, it's
close timing wise, the Civil War. It's his father and
(16:22):
it's only one generation, and you know, you think about
all of that time, and you know, the Grant book
falls in there and.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
The efforts for reconstruction and how.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
Really bumpy that ride was for the country. You know,
whenever somebody says to me, we have such a divided
country and we're so pulled apart, and social media is horrible.
I don't disagree about social media. You can look at
my x feed and see some dark things some days.
But I think, you know, we're not where we have
(16:56):
been as a country.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
We have been in very, very.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Dark places where we are almost slipping into a second
civil war, where we're just barely hanging on, where we
don't get off the starting line. And I think history
is a good perspective sometimes on that.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I agree, and I think I think too many people
talk about America as being in that kind of position
right now. And you know, I'm kind of ambivalent about Trump.
There's stuff he does that I like and stuff that
he does that I don't like, and I just try
to be honest.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
About it all.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
But I think that a lot of the folks who
are saying were you know, we're on the edge of
an American Civil war, part of me feels like they
want that, and it really, it really troubles me. I've
got about two minutes left or so, and a listener
sent in a text that I think represents what a
lot of people think about Teddy Roosevelt, but you actually
addressed it. In your book, and I learned something on
(17:47):
this as well. The listener text is Teddy Roosevelt murder
as many big, beautiful animals as you can just for sport.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
You actually address that in the book.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Yeah, he was actually a conservation and really cared about
the animals and tried to protect them. And you know,
he signs thirteen hundred executive orders, many of them and
by the way, just for a perspective, George Washington to McKinley,
the twenty fifth president collectively signed twelve hundred, the twenty
(18:18):
sixth president, Roosevelt signs thirteen hundred executive orders, and so
a lot of them have to do with protecting lands
for bison, for to make sure that these animals live. Yes,
he was a hunter, but he was also our biggest conservationist.
The whole story about the Teddy Bear comes from the
(18:39):
story where he's hunting in Mississippi in nineteen oh two
and they're not getting anything, and somebody, in an effort
to please the President, gets a cub.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
And they tie him to a.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Tree and say, look, here's a bear. Shoot him and
the cub is tied to the tree and he says,
I'm not doing that.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Let the cub go. Untie it.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
You can't do that as a hunter, and so they
let it go. The story gets out there and.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
A candy store.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Owner who was making stuffed animals, here's the story, and
makes Teddy's Bear wow and then asks Roosevelt to use
the name, and they start the Ideal Toy Company and
make Teddy.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Bear unbelievable, unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
And I'll also just note to this listener that Brett
talks in the book about a trip that Teddy Roosevelt
takes to Africa and they do shoot a bunch of
animals to come back to museums, and Roosevelt said about
that we could have killed lots, lots lots more animals
if we wanted to, but we didn't want to, which
I you know, that's just another thing I learned from
(19:49):
from your book, Brett.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
I like prime numbers.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
So I'm gonna give you the last seventeen seconds to
say anything you want.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Thanks a lot, I think.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Listen, this is a out a character that jumps off
the page. Who is a consequential president who really moved
the needle in our country. Obviously he's on Mount Rushmore,
but this looks at his wish for America to be
a global power. And I think it's of the six
(20:19):
one of the best, and it's probably you know, it's
like the.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Same format, very readable. You could read it on the
beach over a weekend. Ross. I don't know how long
it took you, but hopefully it was enjoyable.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Very very enjoyable.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I love reading history, but not all history is as
readable as yours. Is Brett Baher's new book, to Rescue
the American Spirit Teddy Roosevelt in the Birth of a Superpower.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
All right, man, I know you're super busy.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I really appreciate you making some time for me and
my listeners. And congratulations and good luck, not that you
really need it with this book.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Oh thanks Ross, next book, I'm coming out there.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah, that'll be great. We'll keep in touch. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Osseem Zia
So pleased to welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Uh, one of the truly great cable news hosts, anchors,
whatever you want to call them, Brett Baer also a
great author.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
And first of.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
All, Brett, welcome back. So it's always so good to
have a chance to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Ross, Yeah, glad to do it.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
And as as as you know, listeners, I'm sure you know,
Brett has written quite a bunch of history books, really
interesting books. And the latest, the latest is called to
Rescue the American Spirit and it is a biography of
Teddy Roosevelt.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
And I finished it last night. And Brett, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
You know a lot a lot of times you'll end
up doing interviews with people.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Who haven't read the book. But I read the book,
and I want to thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I want to I want to start actually with right
at the beginning with the with the dedication page, and
you you dedicate the book, uh, for those who strive
to embody the spirit of America in their daily lives.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
And what I want to ask you is do you
think of yourself that way?
Speaker 4 (01:07):
That's a great question, Ross, I do I mean I
think that I'm trying to strive to make the country
better by covering news as fairly as I can, by
doing segments like common Ground, where I bring Democrats and
Republicans together to talk about what they're working on as
opposed to what they're arguing about. So yeah, I do
think about that. I think about structuring a show every
(01:30):
night and trying to make it as complete as possible
for the viewers so that you have a sense of
what's happening in the US and around the world.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
And I look at that. I was really writing that
for my kids.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
To have them remember how amazing this country is, how
blessed we are to live here, how so many people
around the world want to be here, And embodying the
American spirit is, you know, being a doer, which is
what Teddy Roosevelt was, and he wrote about and he
(02:07):
talked about in speeches, basically, get in the game, be
the man in the arena, and that kind of embodies
the American spirit.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
And it was really a message for them.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
And I should say to listeners, I should have mentioned
this at the beginning. But Brett Behar's fantastic show is
called Special Report and it airs at four pm in
the Mountain time zone.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Here where we are each weeknight on Fox News.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Before we get back to the book, Brett, you've been
traveling around and I'm really curious what your past couple
of days have been like. Nixon Library, Reagan Library. Just
tell us a little something.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, yeah, I listen.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Those places are great to go to just because the
history there and a great base of.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
People who love history.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
So every book I've done, and now this is ross
hard to believe, but the sixth Presidential biography I did Eisenhower,
then Reagan, FDR then Ulysses S.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Grant.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
The last book was about Washington and the Constitutional Convention,
and this is Teddy Roosevelt.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
So each book.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
I've done that track in California, Nixon and Reagan, and
they have these great turnouts, like eight hundred, nine hundred
people who come to listen to a Q and A.
We really get into the weeds and then we do
a Q and A with the audience about whatever else.
And then I signed books. So I left there, I
(03:38):
guess ten pm last night after signing for a long time,
and got on a plane and came to Dallas, and
that's where I'll be today.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
You know, I'm just going to say this in public,
but I want to host you for an event for
your next book in Denver, Okay, in Denver. I've done
a fair bit of this, you know, mostly fiction. I'm
sure you know Jack Carr a little bit. Yeah right,
I've hosted him three or four times, with many, many
hundreds of people like you're talking about. So I would
(04:06):
love to host you for a book the next time around,
if you're up for it.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
All right, done, So.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
One more thing before we get back to the book.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
From the perspective of someone who does what you do
and being in Washington most of the time, does this year,
I mean we're kind of sort of done, almost done
with twenty twenty five? Does this year feel like just
another year in the life of Washington a Washington reporter,
or does something about this feel different?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
And I mean.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Beyond just you know, the personality of the president, or
is something less superficial than that.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, No, it feels a little different.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
I mean it's on fast forward. It's like tricking from
a fire hose every day.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
You know. Teddy Roosevelt was.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Called the human cyclone because of all the energy and
you know, speeches and all.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
The stuff he did with the press.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I've ripped up a lot of rundowns on my show
six times through the day where this president has held
his fifth press conference and the news changed.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
So, yeah, it feels different, The pace feels different. I
think it feels.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Different than the first Trump administration and in various ways.
And I think, you know, we're in for a really
interesting twenty six as we look at the economy, as
we look at foreign policy and hotspots around the world.
You know, every day is something different, but it's it's
big consequential.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
When you're doing your job.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
And this question I'm ask you is not a not
a political question. And Trump really does drive the news
a lot. Is it awesome and exciting because there's always
something to talk about. You know, you're never going to
be bored, or do you sometimes wish, like, oh, I
wish I could take a breath, or I wish Trump
would take a breath, and and it gets a little
(05:57):
bit exhausting. And whether or not you agree or with
what Trump does, which isn't really your thing anyway to
talk about what you agree with.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Yeah, No, there are some days where you know you're
on the fourth day of head spinning. You know, news
that's coming out of your fifth press conference out of
the White House.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
And yeah, you.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Yearn for the quiet Biden days where there'd be a
lid at nine am in.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
The morning right at the White House.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
But I think, listen, everybody says different things about how
they handle the news. I do know I was over
at the White House recently to do an interview and
to do the show, and those those poor White House
pool reporters and photographers and sound guys, you know, the
(06:52):
poor sound guys holding the microphone for you know, hours
on end as these press conferences go forever, and they look.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Like they can take a break.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
We're talking with Brett Bair.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
His new book, his sixth presidential biography, is called to
Rescue the American Spirit, Teddy Roosevelt and the Birth of
a Superpower. So maybe a third of the way through
the book or so, you talk about Teddy Roosevelt being
frustrated with what he perceives as America's lack of preparation
(07:26):
in case in case there is sort of a bad
word but needs to be a war, right, And I'm
going to quote you quoting him, there's no more utterly
useless and often utterly mischievous citizen than the piece at
any price, universal arbitration type of being who was always complaining,
(07:47):
either about war or else about the cost of armaments
which act as the insurance against war.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
It goes on, but in the interesting time, I'll stop.
I'll stop there. I'd love to hear your your thoughts
about that. It's an interesting quote.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
So Teddy, Yeah it is.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
And Teddy Roosevelt was one of our most active presidents
in building up the US military, specifically the US Navy.
And this is where this book is focused is kind
of each one of these six biographies has been a
so to straw look through, looked through a straw at
a moment in history that maybe history overlooked or was undercovered.
(08:27):
For Wright, the Eisenhower it was the handover between Eisenhower
and Kennedy and the speech that it was military industrial complex.
But really it's had a lot more. And that was
a really interesting time. For Reagan, It's the Moscow summit
with Gorbachev and he delivers a speech to Moscow State
(08:47):
University students where he says communism is never going to work,
and he does it under a bust of Lenin.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
It was largely overlooked as he's at.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
That Summit FDR's summit with Churchill and Stalin and Tehran.
That summit is really not memorized in history or memorialized.
Grants the presidency and where he saves the country from
slipping into a second Civil war in eighteen seventy six,
overlooked the Constitutional Convention and the role of George Washington,
(09:17):
and if he's not there, we just don't get off
the starting line as a country. So each one of
these things is a sort of strong moment. This one
is Roosevelt's wish to have his legacy be that America
is a great world power at the turn of the century,
that America is respected on the world and maybe even
revered on the world. And how he does that is
(09:41):
he sees Russia and Japan fighting over territory and it's
devolving into possibly a world war. He reaches out to
the leaders of Russia and Japan telegrams and letters and says,
I want to host a peace negotiation in the US.
He gets the delegations to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he
does the shuttle diplomacy, going from delegation to delegation, he
(10:04):
does the logistics. After intense days of negotiation, they come
up with a peace treaty and the war stops, and
Roosevelt is the only president at that point to get
the Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
You know, let's stick with that for a second, rather
than my moving to the next thing. I was thinking
of asking you because I wanted to ask you, and
now I have multiple listener texts wanting me to ask
you about any kind of comparison or contrast you would
want to make between Teddy Roosevelt and Donald Trump. And
(10:39):
of course, when I read that in your book about
Teddy Roosevelt and the Japan Russia peace negotiation, to me,
I thought.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
The comparison with Trump and the.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Middle East stuff was pretty glaring in a good way
for Trump, I guess.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Oh yeah, listen.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
I wrote this book and started this book well before
the second Trump administration, and so I didn't know that
they were going to be focusing on global outreach and
solving the India Pakistan dispute and Congo, Rwanda and Armenia
and Azerbaijan, Israel Hamas, which obviously is bumpy right now,
(11:21):
and aspiring to do Russia Ukraine. I didn't know any
of that, and so this is something each one of
these books when it hits current time, seems to plug
in on a presidential level to that. That's a comparison
a similarity. Another one is what I talked about the
human cyclone aspects the NonStop energy, and there's that the
(11:47):
use of the press. Teddy Roosevelt used reporters embedded almost
all throughout his life as New York City Police commissioner.
As in the Spanish American War, he brings in the
York Times reporter with the rough riders, which is why
we know all the details about charging up San Juan Hill.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
But he also rips the press, calls.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Them muckrakers, and says they're not fair to them. That
sounds very familiar, and I think it's also a similarity
that you can't pin them down ideologically. Sometimes you don't
know where exactly they're going to come down. And for Roosevelt,
he was a conservative Republican. He definitely had a global vision,
(12:34):
but he was also a progressive who fought for the
little guy in labor. First president to get involved in
the labor dispute and the coal mining strike in nineteen
oh two, files forty anti trust lawsuits against big business.
Was not a big fan or Roosevelt was not a
fan of JP Morgan and vice versa, and so there
(12:56):
are idiosyncrasies that are interesting too as far as ideology.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
A couple of quick listener texts I want to share
with you Ross. I really respect and trust Brett Bear
Special Report is one of the best shows on cable.
I especially enjoy when Britt Hume comes on and they
start Britt Brett, Britt Brett.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
So that's yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
And then another listener says, I'm undergoing chemotherapy and I
love watching Brett's show every day, and I bought his
book to read.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
While I'm while I'm dealing with this. So there you go.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Well, best of luck, and we'll both for you as
you're going through that. I know that's not an easy time,
but I you know, listen to viewers have been really.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
A great outpouring of support for the book and for
the show. I took over from for Britt my mentor
and friend sixteen years ago January two thousand and nine,
So coming up on seventeen years, and it's hard to believe,
but you know, I've been at Fox for twenty seven years.
(14:07):
The Atlanta Bureau started in my apartment with a sax
machine and the cell phone.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
So I've been around the block there and they.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Really supported the news product and let me put horse
blenders on every day to focus on my show the
one hour, and I think, you know, I have a
great staff and we've been doing well.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Knock on wood, you got a few more minutes for me?
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yeah, sure, okay.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
And we're talking with Brett Baer about his book To
Rescue the American Spirit Teddy Roosevelt in the Birth of
a Superpower. So one of the things that occurred to
me as I was reading this, Brett, is that I
think most people think of Teddy Roosevelt as a relatively
modern guy, in part because of the progressivism that you describe.
They think of him as a twentieth century guy, twentieth
(14:55):
century president kind of guy. But actually, and as you
lay this out so clearly in the book, and it
sort of took a minute for me to process just
how relevant it was, he was actually not very distant
from the Civil War. I mean, right, So he was
much or at least somewhat closer to the Civil War
(15:17):
than to World War Two, just for example.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
And you talk a bit in the book about how that.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Was really a factor in his life, especially growing up
with a family that was part Northern and part Southern,
which I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Yeah, the mother's side of the family was the Southern part.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
And his father actually chose not to fight in the
Civil War. Donated large amounts of money to help families
that were split by soldiers that were going to war,
but he did not fight, and you know, he kind
of regretted it, felt ashamed by it. Teddy seems affected
by it, actually, and that's why he's so anxious to
(15:59):
get in the fight in the Spanish American War, recruiting
his group of rough riders from Dakota Territories and his
college Harvard, putting them together in this kind of Star
Wars bar of Army Army regimen to fight in Cuba.
But so, yeah, you're right, the disconnect. I mean, it's
close timing wise, the Civil War. It's his father and
(16:22):
it's only one generation, and you know, you think about
all of that time, and you know, the Grant book
falls in there and.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
The efforts for reconstruction and how.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
Really bumpy that ride was for the country. You know,
whenever somebody says to me, we have such a divided
country and we're so pulled apart, and social media is horrible.
I don't disagree about social media. You can look at
my x feed and see some dark things some days.
But I think, you know, we're not where we have
(16:56):
been as a country.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
We have been in very, very.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Dark places where we are almost slipping into a second
civil war, where we're just barely hanging on, where we
don't get off the starting line. And I think history
is a good perspective sometimes on that.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I agree, and I think I think too many people
talk about America as being in that kind of position
right now. And you know, I'm kind of ambivalent about Trump.
There's stuff he does that I like and stuff that
he does that I don't like, and I just try
to be honest.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
About it all.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
But I think that a lot of the folks who
are saying were you know, we're on the edge of
an American Civil war, part of me feels like they
want that, and it really, it really troubles me. I've
got about two minutes left or so, and a listener
sent in a text that I think represents what a
lot of people think about Teddy Roosevelt, but you actually
addressed it. In your book, and I learned something on
(17:47):
this as well. The listener text is Teddy Roosevelt murder
as many big, beautiful animals as you can just for sport.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
You actually address that in the book.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Yeah, he was actually a conservation and really cared about
the animals and tried to protect them. And you know,
he signs thirteen hundred executive orders, many of them and
by the way, just for a perspective, George Washington to McKinley,
the twenty fifth president collectively signed twelve hundred, the twenty
(18:18):
sixth president, Roosevelt signs thirteen hundred executive orders, and so
a lot of them have to do with protecting lands
for bison, for to make sure that these animals live. Yes,
he was a hunter, but he was also our biggest conservationist.
The whole story about the Teddy Bear comes from the
(18:39):
story where he's hunting in Mississippi in nineteen oh two
and they're not getting anything, and somebody, in an effort
to please the President, gets a cub.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
And they tie him to a.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Tree and say, look, here's a bear. Shoot him and
the cub is tied to the tree and he says,
I'm not doing that.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Let the cub go. Untie it.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
You can't do that as a hunter, and so they
let it go. The story gets out there and.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
A candy store.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Owner who was making stuffed animals, here's the story, and
makes Teddy's Bear wow and then asks Roosevelt to use
the name, and they start the Ideal Toy Company and
make Teddy.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Bear unbelievable, unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
And I'll also just note to this listener that Brett
talks in the book about a trip that Teddy Roosevelt
takes to Africa and they do shoot a bunch of
animals to come back to museums, and Roosevelt said about
that we could have killed lots, lots lots more animals
if we wanted to, but we didn't want to, which
I you know, that's just another thing I learned from
(19:49):
from your book, Brett.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
I like prime numbers.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
So I'm gonna give you the last seventeen seconds to
say anything you want.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Thanks a lot, I think.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Listen, this is a out a character that jumps off
the page. Who is a consequential president who really moved
the needle in our country. Obviously he's on Mount Rushmore,
but this looks at his wish for America to be
a global power. And I think it's of the six
(20:19):
one of the best, and it's probably you know, it's
like the.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Same format, very readable. You could read it on the
beach over a weekend. Ross. I don't know how long
it took you, but hopefully it was enjoyable.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Very very enjoyable.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I love reading history, but not all history is as
readable as yours. Is Brett Baher's new book, to Rescue
the American Spirit Teddy Roosevelt in the Birth of a Superpower.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
All right, man, I know you're super busy.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I really appreciate you making some time for me and
my listeners. And congratulations and good luck, not that you
really need it with this book.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Oh thanks Ross, next book, I'm coming out there.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah, that'll be great. We'll keep in touch. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Osseem Zia
The Ross Kaminsky Show News
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