Experts in the News | Miller Center

Would Bill O’Reilly’s viewers follow him to Newsmax?

“Can he bring Newsmax TV to the next level?” asked Nicole Hemmer, a contributing opinion editor at U.S. News & World Report and author of “Messengers From the Right,” a book about conservative media. “Newsmax TV isn't particularly well known, and none of its shows has much cachet. Perhaps bringing on Fox's former star could change that.”

Nicole Hemmer

The Ivy League school that won't talk about its most famous graduate

The University of Pennsylvania had never produced a president, as its fellow Ivies had. Then Donald J. Trump, class of ’68, won the presidency. The university has never formally celebrated this accomplishment. On Monday, Penn’s administration convened upward of 20,000 undergraduate and graduate students for commencement, and did what it has been doing for most of the past three years: not talk about Donald Trump.

Barbara Perry and Ken Hughes

'Presidents do not get involved in enforcement actions'

Miller Center Senior Fellow Chris Lu speaks with MSNBC's Chris Hayes about why it's so unusual that President Trump pledged to help a Chinese telecom giant after China approved money for a Trump project.

Chris Lu

George H. W. Bush was ready to push presidential powers

Though he ended up seeking congressional approval for the Gulf War, Bush was unconvinced he needed it—saying he would have gone regardless of the vote. Miller Center scholar Russell Riley, head of the Presidential Oral History Program, agrees that “there is a very long history of military interventions abroad—everything from Barbary pirates to the desert helicopter mission to get hostages out of Iran—in which presidents have freely exercised their powers without any sort of authorization from Congress.”

Russell Riley

The big problem with comparing Nixon to Trump

Republican politicians “know that the Republican base is tuned in to conservative media and hearing these messages that the Mueller investigation is a sham, that this is a project of the ‘deep state’ to bring down the president,” says the Miller Center's Nicole Hemmer.

Nicole Hemmer

In the age of Trump, who are America's moral leaders?

"Society used to be more unified in the people they saw as moral leaders," said the Miller Center's Barbara Perry. "Look at the legend that grew up around (George) Washington: 'I cannot tell a lie.' And then carry that on to Abraham Lincoln: 'Honest Abe.'"

Barbara Perry