All the Way

He's gone.

Lyndon.

Lyndon.

Wake up, honey.

We're about to land in Washington.

Okay.

Did you hear from Bobby?

He'll be waiting on the tarmac.

There will be reporters there, too.

You'll be expected to make a statement, something short.

- Thank you. - I wanna reach out to the leadership

as soon as we hit the ground.

I wanna talk to each and every one of them.

You call Rose Kennedy?

I did.

My Lord, what that woman has been through.

Your lipstick.

- What? - Fix your lipstick.

Oh.

How did John Connally's surgery go?

Doctors are optimistic.

Ah.

Thank God for that.

Jackie?

She won't change her clothes.

Says she wants them to see what they have done to Jack.

You see the way she stared at me before I took the oath?

- She's upset, honey. - We're all upset, Bird!

We're all upset.

Walter, a televised address to both houses of Congress

as soon as it seems decent.

Where were you just now, Mr. President?

Accidental President.

That's what they'll say.

Well,

we'll have to change that next November.

I keep having this dream.

I'm back in the Hill Country in the old days,

hiding down in the root cellar

while a Comanche war party searches through the house just over my head,

hunting for me.

It's so dark down there, like a grave.

The President of the United States!

For this terrible moment,

I wonder if I'm dead already

or buried alive.

Mr. President.

I piss myself like an idiot child crouching in the dirt,

knowing it's only a matter of time now before they find the trapdoor,

discover me,

haul me, screaming, up into the light,

where their knives gleam.

All I have,

I would have given gladly not to be standing here today.

The greatest leader of our time has been struck down

by the foulest deed of our time.

John F. Kennedy told his countrymen

that our national work would not be finished in the life of this administration,

nor even perhaps in our own lifetime.

"But," he said,

"let us begin."

Today, I'd say to all my fellow Americans,

let us continue.

We have talked long enough in this country about civil rights.

We have talked for 100 years or more.

It is time now to write the next chapter in the books of law.

I urge you to enact President Kennedy's civil rights bill into law,

so that we can eliminate from this nation

every trace of discrimination that is based upon race or color.

That's right!

You hear what that Negro comedian Dick Gregory said about me?

"When Lyndon Johnson finished his speech, 20 million Negroes unpacked."

That was a fine speech, Mr. President.

Dear to my heart, but I know some people are wondering, "Did he really mean it?"

Well, you could tell that liberal crowd of yours that I'm gonna out-Lincoln Lincoln.

But you need to get behind me

because you know Dick Russell and the Dixiecrats

are gonna fight me tooth and nail on this civil rights stuff.

Now, not too tight in the bunghole, Manny.

And give me some extra room in my pockets there

for my stuff, my keys and my knife,

and leave me some slack for my nut sack.

Walter!

Walter, you let me know the minute Dick Russell gets here

and get me Katharine Graham from the Post, will you?

But timing is critical here, Hubert, you understand me?

With the election only 11 months away...

If the Republicans are foolish enough to nominate Barry Goldwater,

you'll beat him with both hands tied behind your back.

Well, Goldwater is tougher than you think.

But first, I gotta win the Democratic nomination.

Holy crap. What happened here?

You tell Lady Bird about this, and she'll starve me for a month.

- Senator Russell. - Oh. Yep, yep.

Give me one minute.

George Wallace is a nobody.

Well, it wasn't Wallace I'm thinking of.

You don't have to worry about Bobby.

Bobby Kennedy would just soon cut my throat as smile at me.

You know how strongly I feel about this civil rights bill.

If there's anything I can do...

Yeah, yeah, I'll keep that in mind, Hubert.

Mr. President.

Senator Russell.

Ah. Uncle Dick.

Well, well, well.

- Mr. President. - Ah. Lyndon, Lyndon, please.

No, sir. No, not anymore.

Wouldn't be respectful.

Well, in public, then, but nothing else changes between us.

Now, hell, I owe everything I have to your good wisdom and generosity,

and don't you think for a second I'll ever forget it.

Well, you did throw me for a bit of a loop last night.

A civil rights bill with your election coming up?

For 100 years, the Democratic Party's had a lock on the South.

It'd be a foolish thing to throw that away.

Oh, hell, Dick, you know I got to throw Humphrey

and the rest of those liberals a little bit of red meat now and again.

- Yes, but... - Sir, Dr. Martin Luther King is on three.

Well, he can wait.

So last night was just election-year politics or not?

Absolutely.

But I need you to hold the South for me, Uncle Dick.

Party unity, it is gonna be critical.

Well, we can talk more about it

when Lady Bird and I have you over for dinner on Thursday, as usual.

Oh. There's no need for that now.

Oh. Our Thursday dinners are sacred.

- Well... - Hey, why don't you bring your swimsuit

and you could paddle your milk-white ass around the White House pool before dinner?

Congratulations, Mr. President.

Thank you, Senator.

What the hell was she thinking?

Won't happen again, sir.

J. Edgar Hoover on four.

I mean no disrespect, but take down that stuff over there.

- Edgar. - Mr. President.

The FBI is here to assist in any way we can.

Oh, hell, Edgar, you're more than the head of the Bureau.

You're my brother.

Now, if the Bureau needs anything from me, you just let me know.

Well, in light of your announcement last night,

I think we should have a discussion regarding Dr. King.

I recently acquired certain information which is deeply troubling.

Uh... Edgar, Edgar, I hate to interrupt,

- but they're pulling me six ways from Sunday. - Mr. President!

I'm interested in this, and we'll talk soon, I promise.

If I could just...

Did King screw his sister or something?

That man's obsessed.

All right, Manny, let's just get this over with.

What?

What is it?

Katharine Graham of The Washington Post is on two.

- What? - And Dr. King is still on three.

Look, I don't need to be reminded of what I already know.

God damn it, you know, you're fired.

Go on, get the hell out of here.

Walter, get me another secretary who knows what she's doing.

And one with a little meat on her bones, for Christ's sake.

Not another one of these scrawny, old Washington biddies.

Oh, God damn it, Manny.

Don't you have anything that doesn't make me look like a dago undertaker?

I wanna thank you, Dr. King, for your public expression of support.

Well, we were all very heartened by your speech last night, Mr. President.

Well, it ain't gonna be easy.

- It's a difficult time. - Yes, it is.

But, as you suggested,

the greatest tribute we can pay to President Kennedy

is to enact his civil rights bill, especially voting rights.

Yeah, well, you're preaching to the choir there, Reverend.

Voting rights is the meat of the coconut,

and we're gonna pass that bill, as is, without changing a word.

But, boy, I'm gonna have to have your help.

Well, you know you have it, sir.

Well, thank you, Martin. Thank you.

And listen, why don't you call next time you're up here

and any suggestions you have,

- bring them in. - Well, actually...

Just blowing smoke up my ass.

He called for a civil rights bill in front of Congress, Martin.

Kennedy made promises, too, Stanley.

- He just never delivered. - He's no George Wallace.

You sure? So deep in Russell's back pocket, you'd think he was humping him.

He passed the '57 Civil Rights Act.

After he gutted it first.

That bill was like soup

made from the bones of an emaciated chicken.

Martin, listen, he's a Southern politician.

He's spent his entire life trying to be president.

But he's there now.

For the first time, he can do whatever he wants.

That's the question, isn't it?

What does Lyndon Johnson really want?

Well, whatever it is, 11 months from now, he has to run for reelection.

Like Kennedy, he damn sure is gonna need the Negro vote to win.

Amen.

LBJ wants our support.

Okay.

But this president is gonna have to deliver a real civil rights bill.