Cranston brings Johnson to life with a bevy of Southern - twanged Big Statements (ex: «There's no
place for «nice» in a knife
fight») as his commander - in - chief berates his eventual VP Hubert Humphrey (Bradley Whitford), spars with beloved mentor - turned - Civil Rights opponent Senator Richard Russell, Jr. (Frank Langella), and works closely with advisor Walter Jenkins (Todd Weeks), the last of whom he loves «like a son» and yet abandons when the man's
homosexuality is exposed late in his reelection run.