Firing Line with Margaret Hoover

Historian Jon Meacham likens divisions in America today to the strife seen in the 1920s.

"I think that demographic change, technological change, global anxieties, the fear of Bolshevism...I think that's where we are."

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"I don't think we should look back on the past condescendingly and cancel people we don't like, and all that," says historian Jon Meacham.

"That's not honest and intellectually coherent. Nor should we look up at it adoringly."

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"I don't think in the last 10 years the American experiment has covered itself in glory."

Historian Jon Meacham discusses the impetus for his new book, "American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union."

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Jon Meacham explains why he sees character as the most important quality in a president.

"What I want to know about someone who wants to be president is how have they responded to adversity in their own lives?...Because the presidency is nothing but a running personal crisis."

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"I think we're our own best example," says Jon Meacham, pointing to the progress of the 1960s and 70s as inspiration for citizens today.

"What we did in that moment was we lived into what we said we always wanted to be."

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"There's a difference between patriotism and nationalism," says "American Struggle" author Jon Meacham.

"I believe that we have always been stronger when we've erred on the side of generosity as opposed to nationalism."

TONIGHT 8:30 pm ET

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Jon Meacham argues the guardrails of democracy the founders established have held up better than they might have expected--although they are now being tested.

"I think the founders would've been surprised that it took 250 years for this kind of presidency to be in place."

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham says the founders arranged for elections to be state-run, not “nationalized,” as President Trump recently asserted.

“The key insight of the American founding is that most of what we would want to do as human beings is wrong. Most of it's selfish.”

"We've always been stronger the more we've lived into the Declaration of Independence, and when we've erred on the side of generosity as opposed to nationalism."

Jon Meacham discusses lessons of American history, threats to democracy, and his new book.

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YouTube host @adammockler.com tries to hold people accountable online by calling them out on social media.

Natalie Winters of Bannon’s War Room takes a different approach.

“You know how you hold people accountable? If they're lying, don't consume or share their stuff.”

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has died at 84.

"America has the potential to be the greatest country in the history of the world. The question is how soon will this country actualize her potential," Jackson told William F. Buckley Jr. in 1971.

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"I don't say I'm an unbiased person on the ground reporting the truth," says YouTube host @adammockler.com. "I generally say I am just out here to push my beliefs."

Natalie Winters acknowledges her biases too, but she insists Bannon's War Room is not "regime puppets for President Trump."

YouTube host @adammockler.com says the future of the Democratic Party can be both moderate and populist.

“I don't want to tax all billionaires out of existence. I'm not Bernie Sanders. But I want to reform the tax code…Maybe we tone down the loopholes.”

“[Republicans] view immigrants as net drains on the society, but that is not borne out," says YouTube host @adammockler.com.

“The American people have been abused by the legal immigration system,” argues Natalie Winters, co-host of Steve Bannon’s War Room. “It's too many people.”

Why are audiences drawn to new media outlets like Bannon's War Room and @meidastouch.com?

"We cover the issues that I think for so long, legacy media has just routinely ignored," says Natalie Winters.

@adammockler.com adds viewers want "authenticity."

How does Gen Z view media and politics?

Margaret Hoover talks to Natalie Winters and @adammockler.com about truth and accountability in the era of social media and America's immigration policy debate in a forum at @hofstrau.bsky.social.

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"I would hope that people understand that the men and women of the Minneapolis Police Department, though seriously understaffed and overstretched, have performed incredibly well," says Chief Brian O'Hara.

"They have worked to de-escalate incredibly tense situations."

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#PresidentTrump claimed crime is down in Minneapolis "because of us."

But Police Chief Brian O'Hara says the drop in violent crime is the product of years of building relationships with the community and other law enforcement agencies.

"It's not something that happened...a couple of weeks ago."

Minneapolis PD Chief Brian O'Hara has worried tensions between the public and federal officers could lead to "significant civil unrest" like the city saw in 2020.

"If we set off that cycle again now... it could potentially just be something we wouldn't be able to come back from."

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Minneapolis PD Chief Brian O'Hara says activists recording ICE have helped "shed light on what has actually been happening."

But he warns, "Just because people have a First Amendment right to observe and record police doesn't mean that you have a right to physically obstruct law enforcement."

The federal government's refusal to work with the state to investigate protester Alex Pretti's death is "really unfortunate," says Minneapolis PD Chief Brian O'Hara.

"So many people in the public have lost faith really in all of us, that what would happen would be accurate."

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Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara says the protesters in Minneapolis have been "overwhelmingly peaceful.”

“The overwhelming majority of people who have been exercising their First Amendment rights have been doing it lawfully and peacefully. And that's just the reality.”

"I'm hopeful that the community and the police department here can be stronger from having survived all of this pressure that we've been under."

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara assesses the impact of the federal immigration crackdown in his city.

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"I think he's been consistent and I think he believes in having professional law enforcement," says Minneapolis PD Chief Brian O'Hara of Tom Homan.

"Which is largely unlike a lot of the things that were happening here."

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#PresidentTrump has referred to protesters in Minneapolis as "insurrectionists," spurring fears that he might invoke the Insurrection Act to send in the military.

"There isn't an insurrection happening here," says Minneapolis PD Chief Brian O'Hara. "There isn't even civil unrest happening here."

Minneapolis PD Chief Brian O’Hara says there are two different standards of accountability for local police and ICE/CBP.

“Our officers do not wear masks…they wear their family name on their uniform. And our police cars are marked and they have numbers on them so that they're readily identifiable.”

"Policing in this country depends on the consent of the community," says Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara amid protests over the ICE surge in his city.

"We require the trust of the community in order to be effective."

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"I believe that October 7th took the Palestinian cause years backwards," says former Israeli antisemitism envoy @noatishby.bsky.social.

"Israelis are mortified by the...thought of the Palestinian state side-by-side with Israel because we saw what happens when we left Gaza and we got October 7th."

Anti-Zionism is inherently antisemitic, argues activist @noatishby.bsky.social, but that does not mean all complaints about Israel are antisemitic.

"Criticize the government of Israel all you like. But if you're denying Israel's right to exist, that's where it moved to the other side."

Former Israeli antisemitism envoy @noatishby.bsky.social says she is "very optimistic" about #PresidentTrump's peace plan in Gaza, but it ultimately requires cooperation from Hamas.

"I don't trust Hamas at all, not even a little bit."

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