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Nov. 4, 2021 - Dennis Prager Show
08:13
Dennis Speaks with FOX News Host Brian Kilmeade
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The President and the Freedom Fighter, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and their battle to save America's soul.
I can't think of a more appropriate book for this time.
So I was thinking, Brian, I wonder how many people in your position, in an analogous position, that you have on Fox.
How many on CNN or MSNBC have written a book of history?
I don't know.
I mean, Scarborough, I guess, had a World War II book out.
I think he had one out.
But, I mean, the one thing is about this network, they love when you get depth into history, like stuff that makes...
It gives more depth to the news, because sadly, most of this stuff in history...
Dennis, thanks so much for having me on.
It's an honor.
Thank you.
And being on PragerU was thrilling.
I remember what you've done with that is unbelievable.
But what I find is that studying history, I always worry.
I'm on a news channel.
You know, the main thing is, you want to write a book that people know about.
I'm on this great channel, and if I'm able to tell people, if they don't want to bet it, they don't have to.
But I just need somewhere to tell people about it.
But I'm saying to myself, how am I going to get on the news and not ask for a favor from Hammer or Hannity to come on when I do a book?
But I go, you know what?
Even if I only sell five copies, I really want to see if I can do this.
And then I had no idea, and I lucked out to a degree, but sad that it is, that so much in history is in the news.
I mean, who thought that it would have to justify Lincoln on an elementary school?
Or that Frederick Douglass' statue would be taken out of Rochester, New York, because you don't like the state of race relations in America.
I could not believe they were dealing with Jefferson leaving City Hall in New York City.
I mean, maybe it would be Alexander Hamilton with a screw gun.
That I could understand.
They had a rivalry.
But for people to judge Jefferson in our times and not live up to de Blasio's higher success quotient is unbelievable to me.
So I do feel much less.
I feel like in writing history, I'm actually ingrained in the news.
Beautiful.
You know what?
You made me think of a new aphorism.
Those who vote for de Blasio will remove Jefferson.
Isn't that perfect?
You can't admire them both.
It's not possible.
Well, what about the...
Do you find it inexcusable that Joe Biden was on CNN, was asked about Jefferson being moved out of City Hall and had no answer?
I mean, if you're the President of the United States and you can't look up to Thomas Jefferson, you could like other people more or disagree.
He had slaves absolutely went on there with his generations.
I get it.
But to understand that we wouldn't be the country we are without him and not be able to say that.
And he's a lawyer.
You have to know the Constitution to know his contributions to the Declaration of Independence.
He basically is the author, along with a lot of contributors, and what he meant to the country.
I can't believe the President of the United States couldn't answer that question.
So it's scary because people think it's not politically advantageous to take the side of a founding father.
Mind-blowing.
I gotta get that.
Sean, would you please dig up that thing?
When was that?
It was on CNN? Yeah, in fact, if you find my Twitter feed, I put both up.
Okay, terrific.
Because we went back and found Biden in the 90s defending Jefferson.
Of course.
And now here we are two weeks ago not being able to come to his defense.
My view is that Biden did not have a view on Jefferson in the 90s and has no view today.
The man has one intent.
His own betterment.
There is nothing else to this man, in my opinion.
We don't have to get into Biden, but I just want you to know it doesn't shock me.
I don't think he believed what he said in the 90s.
I don't think he believed what he didn't say right now.
He stands for nothing except for, how can I gain more power and enrich my family?
You write this book on Lincoln and Douglas.
It is so necessary.
There are no more heroes, and these two are heroes.
Is that one of the reasons you wrote it?
A couple of things.
I can't, I mean, I'm looking at some of this great work by Lincoln.
They're literally, they mail stuff to you, Dennis, all the time, too.
But I get so many books on my desk about Lincoln, and each title's a little bit different, a little bit more intriguing, but I said I can't do it better.
And then when you see David Blight's book on Frederick Douglass, book of the year, I'm saying to myself, I'm so glad he's getting the publicity and the interest, but I can't do it better.
So I said, let me try to take their relationship.
Let me try to inspire people by showing what they came through to amount to anything in this world, let alone becoming the two most significant figures maybe in American history.
And in world history, I mean, I got pictures, people sending me pictures from Ireland of Frederick Douglass, statues in London and in Ireland.
And I understand they're in Germany.
That's what an impression this guy made, who escaped from slavery a second time in his teens, began to emerge seven years later, had a biography out of himself, when it was against the law to teach a slave to read and write.
So I wanted to inspire people on a big, on a grand level, so you can overcome obstacles.
AND YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO And Americans have in the past without a social safety net.
When Lincoln's mother dies, as tragic as it is, as nine, and his dad goes to get another wife and leaves him and his sister, there was no social safety net.
And there was no Social Security to tap into or a form to fill out.
In America, you were on your own.
I am not saying we shouldn't have any.
But just so you know, when determined to get an education to amount to something, we have a format here that enables it to happen.
The opportunity to succeed or fail should be coveted.
And if you read my hope, you say, this book looks quick.
I think I can get through this.
I'm like a Dennis Prager book, which is so much intellectually higher than I can write or read, which are fantastic.
But I picked them up with two hands.
And I go, wow, I don't know what it's like to be this type of deep thinker.
But I wanted to bring these two parallel lives, see how they coincided, and what they meant to America at the time.
And the backdrop is actually the Civil War, which is weird to say, but it was about what brought us through the Civil War.
I'm not going to recreate the battles.
But there is a special on November 7th on Fox News Channel at 10 o'clock, and we...
I think it does a real good job of telling the story, and that's one of the reasons why I wrote it.
They didn't hate.
Frederick Douglass doesn't hate his former slave master.
If he writes him in saying, I have no bitterness, I'm just wondering if you could help me with my birth date.
There's a few things about my youth I don't remember, and I'm writing about it.
If he could get over that, how dare we refuse to get over past sins of our first generation and second?
God, well said.
I love your passion.
Brian Kilmeade has written a beautiful book.
And by the way, I just want you to know, when you, with genuine humility, speak about, well, somebody wrote a great book on Lincoln, and I can't match that, or Frederick Douglass, or intellectual depth, etc.
You've done something that is at least as important as any of those histories.
You've written it so that everybody will read it.
I want you to know, I admit this, my favorite books of history have been written by journalists, not by historians.
Historians have this tendency to put every fact that they know of, you know, what the guy had for lunch.
I don't care what the guy had for lunch, you know, on April 3, 1863. We'll be back in a moment.
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