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CBS News
19 hours ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Book excerpt: "Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America"
Random House We may receive an affiliate commission from anything you buy from this article. William F. Buckley (1925-2008), founder of the National Review and host of the TV debate show "Firing Line," was a leading political commentator who catalyzed America's conservative movement with his support of such figures as Joseph McCarthy, Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. In his new biography, "Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America" (published by Random House), historian Sam Tanenhaus (author of books on Whittaker Chambers and Louis Armstrong) writes about the life and influence of Buckley, whose drive to push America to the right would alter the Republican Party and lead to the rise of Donald Trump. Read an excerpt below, and don't miss Roert Costa's interview with Sam Tanenhaus on "CBS Sunday Morning" June 29! "Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America" Prefer to listen? Audible has a 30-day free trial available right now. Connecticut Yanquis William F. Buckley, Jr., the intellectual leader of the modern conservative movement, rightly saw himself less as founder than heir. Everything he learned, and all he became, began at home. It started with his father, William F. Buckley, Sr., a lawyer, real estate investor, and oil speculator who grew up in the brush country, the scrubland frontier, of Duval County in South Texas. He was thirty-five and had made his first fortune when, on a visit to New Orleans, he met twenty-two-year-old Aloise Steiner, the eldest of three sisters of Swiss and German background—"the very essence of old New Orleans charm," said one of the many men smitten by her. She had a year or two of college, played Mozart on the piano, and told captivating if not always quite credible stories—for instance, of the fourteen marriage proposals she claimed to have turned down before W.F. Buckley began courting her in the spring of 1917. The physical attraction was immediate, almost electric. Many years later the couple's children remembered the "frisson" that connected their parents. The couple also shared a deep and abiding Catholic faith. After the wedding ceremony at the Steiner family's parish church, Mater Dolorosa on South Carrollton Avenue, on December 29, 1917, the Buckleys began their married life in Mexico. W.F. Buckley had been living there since 1908. He had apartments and law offices in Mexico City as well as in Tampico—the oil boomtown on the Gulf where, after building a prosperous law practice writing oil leases, he had gone into real estate and then into oil, borrowing substantial sums to sink five wells on the banks of the Panuco River. Oil speculation was always a high-risk venture, but especially in Mexico. It was in the throes of the twentieth century's first great revolution, its ten-year-long "bloody fiesta," which ended in 1920 with the rout of the right-wing faction Buckley had supported and the election of a new president he despised. It was a stinging defeat, and he would never get over it. Yet he also could say, and often did—to his children most emphatically—that although he had lost, he had done so on his terms, without giving an inch to the opposition. Other oilmen, including some far wealthier and more powerful than he, had submitted to the new order and made lucrative deals with each fresh regime. W.F. Buckley refused to do it. He left Mexico—in fact was expelled by order of its government—with debts totaling one million dollars. In later years he showed his children a treasured souvenir from those times, an architect's sketch of the grand palacio, with private chapel, which W.F. Buckley had planned to build on substantial property he had purchased in Coyoacan. Bankrupt at age forty, Buckley would have to start all over. He had a family to support, his wife and three small children, now living with his mother and two sisters in Austin, Texas. But there was a new opportunity. In fact, having to put Mexico behind him might be for the best. The oil fields in its Golden Lane were nearly tapped out. The great new oil patch was in Venezuela. Once again there were large profits to be made but also many hazards—in this case "hostile Indian tribes," as well as malaria and fatal "liver and intestinal disorders." Visitors were advised to stay no longer than a few weeks. For W.F. Buckley admonitions were a goad. He went to Venezuela, stayed a full six months, and came back in 1924 with leasing rights to three million acres surrounding Lake Maracaibo, spreading east and west, a complexly organized checker-board whose squares "in practically every instance adjoin properties that are being actively developed by major American oil companies," it was reported at the time. The concession was "rated among the most valuable in Venezuela." Buckley, now based in New York, formed a new company, Pantepec (named for a river in Mexico), and with the sponsorship of the Wall Street broker Edward A. Pierce floated stock shares and secured investments from two California majors: Union Oil and California Petroleum. Matching wits against some of the finest legal minds in the United States, W.F. Buckley worked out the terms for an innovative "farm-out." In return for gaining temporary control of a third of the holdings, the two behemoths would cover the costs of exploration and drilling and reap most of the profits once oil was struck. W.F. Buckley would be allotted a tiny fraction of those profits, and he now had funds to send teams of engineers and geologists to explore the remaining two million acres. Remade as a Wall Street speculator, W.F. Buckley bought a suite of offices on lower Park Avenue and furnished them sumptuously, the better to impress investors. He also bought an apartment building nearby where he stayed alone during the week. Jazz Age Manhattan, with its speakeasies and fleshpots and lurking criminal element, was no place for his wife and growing family. They lived on his third shrewd purchase, a large estate in the rural northwest corner of Connecticut. On Fridays, the work week finished, W.F. Buckley walked a few blocks uptown from his office to Grand Central and rode the train home to his family, three full hours through exurban New York—Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties—all the way to Amenia, where a Buick sat idling with the Black "houseboy," James Cole of New Orleans, behind the wheel in a chauffeur's cap. Together they drove three miles along a country road and, if daylight remained, enjoyed the vista—the wooded Litchfield Hills and the dipping valley, the bright quilt of dairy farms—and then crossed the Connecticut state line at Sharon, a picturesque village of fifteen hundred, incorporated in 1739 and named for the fertile Biblical plain. A favorite weekend and summer getaway for wealthy New Yorkers, Sharon was famous for its narrow elongated green, originally grazing land, which gracefully stretched for more than a mile from its north end—with storefronts and wooden walkways where in summer elms arched overhead, the branches on either side touching to form a canopy—to South Main Street. There, near the town hall and the Hotchkiss Library, stood what is still today Sharon's chief landmark: a granite-and-brownstone clock tower, forty feet high with a pyramid roof, built in the 1880s by the same firm that designed Theodore Roosevelt's Sagamore Hill estate on Oyster Bay, Long Island. On either side of South Main, set back from the street, were large and imposing manor houses. The Buckleys lived in one of them, Number 32, called the Ansel Sterling House after its first owner, a lawyer and judge twice elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1820s. Sterling had purchased the property in 1808 and then torn down the original brick, replacing it with a Georgian frame structure. Over time the ten-acre property had tripled to thirty acres, beautiful and lush, with thick stands of oaks and sugar maples, outbuildings including barn, stables, and icehouse, and horse trails that wound through the rolling pastures and up into the gentle hills beyond. Today Ansel Sterling's house still stands, though much enlarged by W.F. Buckley. Its handsome entrance with pediment and pillars stares across Main Street at Sharon's two historic churches: little Christ Church Episcopal, with its witch-hat spire, and the Congregational church, the town's oldest. In 1923, when W.F. Buckley first toured the property and rented it for the summer, its most striking feature was the elm that towered up from its front lawn. It had been planted in colonial times by Sharon's most illustrious forefather, the Congregational minister Reverend Cotton Mather Smith, a descendant of Cotton Mather. It was now the largest elm in the entire state, its immense trunk measuring eighteen feet around. In 1924, the same year Main Street was paved for motor traffic, Buckley bought the estate outright and renamed it Great Elm. This was the new life Buckley had conjured in a few short years, seemingly pulled out of thinnest air, for his wife and growing family. So promising did the future look that when a sixth child was born on November 24, 1925, husband and wife agreed that this son, their third, should be his father's namesake: William F. Buckley, Jr. It was always an event when "Father" came home. The children who were not away at school or upstairs in the nursery crowded in front of the house to greet him. "We'd wait there for his car to come," one of his six daughters remembered, "and make bets on which car would be Father's." He was delighted to see them, but even happier to see his wife. "He'd kiss us all and he'd say, 'Where's your mother?' Mother would come and say, 'Darling,' and the two of them would walk out together." No one felt these currents more keenly than Billy Buckley, who had the middle child's fear of being overlooked, lost in the crowd. And the Buckley siblings really were a crowd: ten in all, many of them very close in age, five born ahead of Billy and four after. With servants added, as well as tutors, workmen, groomsmen for the horses, and later a riding instructor and his family, the household numbered more than twenty and was alive with pranks, schemes, hilarity, and strife. Excerpted from "Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America" by Sam Tanenhaus. Copyright © 2025 by Sam Tanenhaus. Excerpted by permission of Random House. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Get the book here: "Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America" Buy locally from For more info:
Fox News
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Dem lawmaker sparks social media firestorm with 'cringe' anti-Trump guitar performance: 'Talk about tone-deaf'
Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Georgia, garnered some backlash from conservatives on social for a rendition of "Hey Joe," which was made popular by Jimi Hendrix and other artists in the '60s, which he retooled as a criticism of President Donald Trump. "I hate to hurt your ears and everything, but I'm just learning to play guitar," he said in a video posted to X on Wednesday, adding that he was inspired by Black Music Month to provide political commentary through song. He noted that he was "just learning to play guitar," then proceeded to sing an anti-Trump parody of the famous song. "Hey Trump, where you goin' with that gun in your hand?" Johnson sang. "I'm goin' down the street to shoot democracy. You know I wanna be a king someday." As of Friday afternoon, the video had received over 800 comments on the platform, most of which were criticisms from conservatives. "Talk about Tone-Deaf messaging!" Media Research Center posted on X. "Democrat Rep. Hank Johnson releases hilariously bad anti-Trump song, and you just have to hear this." "This would make Jimi Hendrix advocate for a ground war with Iran," Josh Holmes, co-host of the Ruthless Podcast, posted on X. "Democrat Rep. Hank Johnson sings an Anti-Trump song on his guitar about Trump shooting down Democracy with a gun to be a king," conservative influencer account LibsofTikTok posted on X. "Yes, this is real…." Another user simply quipped, "I love the internet." "Heyyy Hank, Please tune that dang guitar if you can," another one wrote, directly pulling from the lyrics of the song. Hendrix most notably played "Hey Joe" at the notorious Woodstock Festival in 1969. "Democrats are doing another one of their cringe sing-a-longs," Ben Petersen, National War Room Director of the National Republican Congressional Committee, posted on X. "This horribly sounding performance is yet another waste of our tax dollars and proof of the uselessness of the Democrat Party," conservative influencer Paul A. Szypula posted on X. "Ok. A few things. If you're going to do a song like this, it's best to tune your guitar beforehand," Jeff Charles, news editor at Townhall, posted on X. "Also, covering Jimi Hendrix when you don't know how to tune a guitar is cringe AF. The lyrics are something I could have come up with when I was five years old. I'm almost embarassed for him." "Hank Johnson - Thinks Guam can capsize… Also Hank Johnson - Thinks he can play guitar," comedian Tim Young posted on X. "He's dumber than AOC. Fox News Digital reached out to Johnson's office for comment. The video comes as Democrats continue to experiment with different social media strategies during Trump's second term and have consistently faced criticism from conservatives for doing so, including earlier this year when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other House Democrats were lambasted online over "choose your fighter" TikTok video.
CTV News
13-05-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
Progressive influencer tells of detention at U.S. airport
Travellers check their phone as they wait on an airport train to the international terminal at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago on March 21, 2025. (Nam Y. Huh / AP Photo) A high-profile left-wing influencer and political commentator said Monday he was detained for hours by U.S. border officials and interrogated about his political views. U.S. citizen Hasan Piker -- who has millions of followers on YouTube, Twitch and X, and been outspoken in his criticism of Israel -- says he was held at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport for over two hours on Sunday. He spoke out as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is facing growing criticism over claims of punitive action taken by federal agents against U.S. citizens and legal residents for merely voicing progressive opinions. Pike said his exchanges with officials were largely cordial but an officer asked his views on Trump and whether he has been in contact with militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah. 'He's like, 'Do you talk about Trump?' And that was the first time where I was like, 'What is this question?'' Piker said on a video posted to his YouTube account. 'I literally straight up told him. I was like, 'Why are you asking me this... what does this have to do with anything?'' Piker says he told the official: 'I don't like Trump. Like, what are you going to do? It's protected by the First Amendment.' The Turkish-American 33-year-old was born in New Jersey, and has hosted U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on his platform in the past. Department of Homeland Security official Tricia McLaughlin responded Monday denying that Piker's political beliefs triggered the secondary screening, according to media reports. 'Upon entering the country, this individual was referred for further inspection -- a routine, lawful process that occurs daily, and can apply for any traveller. Once his inspection was complete, he was promptly released,' McLaughlin told US media. Piker maintains that his online content has never broken the law and only engaged in speech protected by the U.S. Constitution. 'The reason for why they're doing that is, I think, to try to create an environment of fear, to try to get people like myself -- or at least like others that would be in my shoes that don't have that same level of security -- to shut... up,' he added. Advocacy group Defending Rights & Dissent said it was 'deeply disturbed' by the notion of border officials stopping political commentators to interrogate them about constitutionally protected speech. 'Such an abuse of power is an affront to press freedom,' it said.
The Guardian
12-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Leftwing pundit Hasan Piker says US border agents quizzed him on Trump and Gaza
Hasan Piker, a US-born progressive political commentator, said he was stopped by US Customs and Border Protection agents and questioned about his opinions of Donald Trump and Israeli war policy as he returned to the country on Sunday from France. Piker, recounting the incident on his Twitch livestream on Monday, said he was led to a private room at Chicago O'Hare airport and interviewed for nearly two hours about his political views. 'The goal here is to put fear into people's hearts, to have a chilling effect on speech that, like, the government is unafraid of intimidating you,' Piker said. 'Does this stop me from saying whatever the fuck I want to say? Of course not. Don't be ridiculous. But the reason why I wanted to talk about it was to give you more insight into what the government is doing, and to speak out against this sort of stuff.' The leftwing streamer has built a mass following on YouTube and Twitch around his blend of political, cultural and social commentary. Piker, born in New Jersey, was carrying a US passport when he re-entered the US on Sunday, after a trip to France with his family to celebrate Mother's Day. 'I think they did it because they know who the fuck I am, and they wanted to put the fear of god into me,' Piker said. 'This is nothing but lying for likes,' Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. 'Claims that his political beliefs triggered the inspection are baseless. Our officers are following the law, not agendas.' She added: 'Upon entering the country, this individual was referred for further inspection – a routine, lawful process that occurs daily, and can apply for any traveler. Once his inspection was complete, he was promptly released.' Piker repeatedly described the exchange as 'cordial' but said he was transparent with the officer interviewing him that he planned to speak out about his experience, which the streamer said felt anything but random and 'routine'. Assuming the officer was familiar with his online commentary, Piker said he was candid about his views, telling the agent he was 'not fond' of the US president. He said the officer was particularly focused on his criticism of Israel's prosecution of the Gaza war, asking him: 'Do you like Hamas? Like, do you support Hamas? Do you think Hamas is a resistance group?' In response, Piker said he told the officer that he was a 'pacifist' and wanted 'the endless bloodshed to end'. 'I just kept repeating that over and over again,' he said, describing the line of questioning as 'insane' and a violation of his first amendment rights. Piker said this was his first attempt to return to the US using the global entry program, which normally expedites travel. He was returning to the US to speak on Monday at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. Piker said neither his phone nor laptop were searched. He said the interview ended shortly after he asked whether he was being detained or if he was free to go. The officer told him he had not been detained, but Piker described it as a de facto detention'. Chip Gibbons, the policy director of Defending Rights & Dissent, said in a statement: 'We are deeply disturbed that CBP is stopping political commentators at the border to interrogate them about first Amendment-protected activities. Such an abuse of power is an affront to press freedom.' Alex Peter, an attorney and popular online creator who shares content about the American judicial system, wrote: 'DHS flagging and detaining one of the US's largest leftwing voices for their political opinions while the Trump admin suggests they might suspend habeas corpus does not portend well for the future.'
Bloomberg
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Political Pundit Hasan Piker Questioned by US Customs at Airport
Hasan Piker, an online political commentator, was stopped and questioned by US Customs and Border Protection agents after returning to the country from France, he said his Twitch livestream Monday. Piker, a vocal critic of Israel's Palestine policy, said he was taken to a private room at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Sunday and asked about his political views. Piker has millions of followers on YouTube, Twitch and X who listen to his wide-ranging commentary on American politics and social issues.
