>> phasing certain removal, richard nixon is moments away from resigning as president. >> that's enough, okay? all secret service, is there any secret service in the room? out. >> there can be no greater fall from no greater height. ♪ five men were nabbed in the democratic national headquarters in washington. >> the whitewater controversy. >> i have nothing to say about it. >> you're thinking what am i going to do. >> it was over policy.

>> he did not deserve to be president of the united states. >> one thing leads to another. >> a grave and profound crisis. >> you're in then office of the president of the united states. how can you talk about blackmail and keeping witnesses silent. >> william jefferson clinton. >> i did not have sexual relations with that woman. >> the impeachment failed by a single vote in the senate. >> the ayes have it. >> impeached. >> for high crimes and misdemeanors. >> i have impeached myself.

>> impeachment is no longer just history. good evening. i'm fareed zakaria. it is happening now. the house is conducting an impeachment inquiry into president donald trump. we don't yet know how this will end but we do know we need history more than we ever have. it's the only guide to how and why and even if this president should be impeached. remember the founding fathers who wrote the impeachment clause had just fought a revolution to escape the tierney of kings. their goal was to keep the president from becoming an elected monarch, unrestrained in his exercise of power. together, they carefully weighed what the grounds for impeachment should be. they agreed on treason and bribery. also proposed was

maladministration. james objected. he disagreed. said it wasn't a remedy for a bad president. what if a president, madison asked, dreamed up a scheme of speculation. in other words, what if the president were a crook. so george mason came up with another phrase, "high crimes and misdemeanors," article ii section iv of the american constitution. there was a moment in our history it saved american democracy. but at other times it's been turned into a cheap political trick hurdle at opponents as a weapon. so which is it right now? >> the president deserves to be impeached. >> he's got to go. >> almost three years into the trump presidency, calls for his impeachment come everyday. sometimes every hour. >> i say impeach him.

>> impeach trump! >> thousands are in the streets out here this evening. >> but this was just one day after donald trump was elected president. from the first moment donald trump has been the most polarizing president in an already bitterly divided america. >> we will impeach him! we will impeach him, the people said, but he hasn't done anything wrong. oh, that doesn't matter, we will impeach the president. >> we have been through periods of polarization before. the difference now, i think, is that we don't have a common baseline of facts. we disagree on reality. >> that dangerous state of affairs, we disagree on the

facts, on reality itself, is reflected in how americans feel about impeachment. in a new cnn poll, exactly half of americans say they support the impeachment and removal of donald trump. but is the case strong enough? about a year ago, at the height of the mueller investigation, i put that question to one of the country's premiere constitutional scholars. >> i'm not calling for the impeachment of donald trump. i think it would be very unwise to pursue impeachment unless there was a high probability of removing the president from office. as i read the circumstances now there isn't a high probability of that. >> that was then. this is now. >> here, you have the president of the united states abusing his power openly. >> noah feldman is talking about trump's apparent quid pro quo to ukraine. investigate the bidens or we won't give you the aid money. >> it's extremely clear it is a quid pro quo.

it's laughable to think that the president was not trying to gain personally in investigating joe biden. >> this constitutional scholar is worried about the very survival of america's defining document. >> absolutely essential to the entire constitutional structure. if the president abuses his power, congress has to check the president's actions. it's the only branch with that responsibility and that's what it is for or the constitution will fail. >> in other words, for feldman, democracy may depend on impeaching the president. for others, it is congress that is overreaching. >> this is un-american. >> to understand today's crisis we need to go back to the last time america debated these issues. we now think of watergate as a time when america came together, forced a crooked president out of office.

but to richard nixon and the republican party, the watergate scandal was a partisan war. >> it was a front war with a fifth column. i had a partisan senate committee staff, special prosecutor staff, media. we had a partisan judiciary committee staff, and the gift column, gave them the sword and they stuck it in and they twisted it with relish. >> the real story of the war nixon describes is one that few americans know. it's a story of a small group of men who turned impeachment into an act of patriotism. it all begins on june 17th, 1972. >> five men were arrested early saturday while trying to install eavesdropping equipment at the democratic national committee. >> why was someone breaking into the democrats' campaign offices?

>> i again proudly accept that nomination for president of the united states. >> well, richard nixon won the presidency in 1968 by promising to get america out of vietnam. ♪ >> are you listening, nixon! >> but as the war dragged on, the anti-war movement exploded. as nixon campaigned for a second term, he feared vietnam might give his enemies the ammunition to defeat him. and so his men planned a series of dirty tricks. crippled the democrats. one of them was the watergate

break-in. in 1972, nixon won reelection by an historic landslide. >> i, richard nixon, do solemnly swear -- >> but the watergate story was still growing. so just weeks after the election, inside the oval office, richard nixon declared war on the press. >> the press is the enemy. the press is the enemy. the press is the enemy. >> nixon hated the press because it was digging into the very story he was desperate to hide, that the white house was deeply involved in the watergate cover-up. his campaign seemed to work. early in his second term, nixon's approval rating soared. but then came the first crack in the white house defense. in the summer of 1973, all of

america was riveted by the senate watergate hearings. >> what did the president know and when did he know it? >> as the country watched, white house counsel john dean turn on his president. >> i began by telling the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency. >> dean testified the watergate burglars were blackmailing white house aides. >> the white house was now directly subject to blackmail and i didn't know how to handle it. >> i told him i could only make an senate it might be as high as a million or more. he told me, that was no problem. >> it was john dean's word against the president of the united states. >> nothing less than richard nixon's presidency may ride on whether the world believes john dean or not. >> most republicans continued to stand by their president. but then, from a little known

white house aide, a dramatic twist. >> my name is alexander butterfield. >> mr. butterfield, are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the oval office of the president? >> i was aware of listening devices, yes, sir. >> it was a bombshell. >> the pressure is on the president to produce those tapes. >> if it had not been for the tapes, i believe richard nixon would have completed a second term. >> instead, richard nixon would spend the rest of his presidency trying to keep anyone from hearing them. he fought subpoena after subpoena. >> i have never heard or seen such outrageous vicious distorted reporting. >> even as he tried to convince the american people watergate was a press creation. >> what is it about the television coverage of you in these past weeks and month that has so aroused your anger?

>> don't get the impression you aroused my anger. one can only be angry with those he respects. >> mr. president. >> finally, a drastic step. >> nothing like this has ever happened before. >> the offices have been sealed by the fbi. >> a mass firing of the men pursuing the tape. a saturday night massacre. the news caused a sensation in the white house pressroom and sent reporters scrambling for their telephones. >> a grave and profound crisis in which the president has set himself against his own attorney general and department of justice. >> does it have to do with the resignation of the attorney general? >> it might. >> by the time it was over, the attorney general, deputy attorney general and special prosecutor were all out. >> bipartisan american outrage changes the politics of the situation for richard nixon.

>> tens of thousands of telegrams flooded washington. >> western union was swamped. most demanded impeaching mr. nixon. >> nixon was forced to appoint a new special prosecutor. as the month went on, bit by bit, he was forced to turn over the tapes. they were as damning as he had feared. white house counsel john dean's testimony turned out to be entirely accurate. >> how much money do you need? >> i would say these people are going to cost a million over the next two years. >> i would say -- you could get the million. >> it was clear nixon's defenses were beginning to crumble. >> would you say the crimes are impeachable if they apply to you? ? i also quit beating my wife.

>> the meeting will come to order. >> in july of 1974, in a packed hearing room, the house judiciary committee began to debate removing the president. >> make no mistake about it. this is a turning point, whatever we decide. >> committee chairman peter rodeno was a democratic machine liberal from newark, new jersey. he was new to the job. some doubted whether he could handle it. >> a highly partisan prosecution if ever there was one. >> many nixon loyalists were angry and still improvable. for republicans, impeaching their president was tantamount to political suicide, so they kept holding out for more evidence. >> the weight of evidence must be clear, it must be convincing. lets keep to those two words.

you can't substitute them for anything else. clear and convincing! but you cannot and you should not under any circumstance attempt to remove the highest office in the world for anything less than clear and convincing. >> but as emotions began to run high, the facts were calmly recited and documented, and something surprising happened. >> there's an obstruction of justice going on. someone's trying to buy the silence of a witness. >> nixon republican, larry hogan, the father of maryland's current governor, was moved by the evidence. >> the thing that's so appalling to me is the president, when this whole idea was suggested to him, didn't in righteous indignation rise up and say, get out of here, you're in the office of the president of the united states. how can you talk about blackmail and bribery and keeping

witnesses silent? this is the presidency of the united states. >> one by one, rock red conservatives who had revered the president won conscious over party. >> i cannot condone what i heard and cannot excuse it and cannot and will not stand for it. >> i wish the president could do something to absolve himself. >> perhaps the most sefbt southerner was walter flowers of alabama. he had served as the segregationist george wallace's campaign chairman. >> i wake up nights, at least on those nights i've been able to go to sleep lately, wondering if this could not be some sort of sordid dream, impeach the president of the united states? >> but he did vote to impeach even though walter flowers said, it gave him an ulcer. even the conservatives who stuck with the president reach aid cross the aisle to say thank you. >> i must admit in all candor it has been very fair.

>> this impeachment inquiry has been historical and honorable. >> republicans understood they were not going to carry their base if they voted for impeachment and some of them did it anyway. >> all those in favor, signify by saying ai, all those opposed, no. >> mr. donahue. >> aye. >> mr. brooks, aye. >> the committee approved three articles of impeachment, obstruction of justice, of congress, abuse of power. >> no, no. >> aye, aye. >> mr. rodeno. >> no. >> chairman peter rodeno left the room and cried. official impeachment would come later with a full house vote, but it never happened.

nixon's wall of republican defenders had crumbled. >> there's a countdown of sorts on tonight, a countdown towards the expected end of the nixon presidency. >> tonight at 9:00, eastern daylight time, the president of the united states will address the nation. >> it was over. >> i have never been a quitter. to leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. but as president, i must put the interests of america first, therefore, i shall resign the presidency, effective at noon tomorrow. >> the impeachment the framers had imagined, it worked. democracy worked. >> there is the president, waving good-bye. you can hear the applause. >> but the scandal itself triggered a loss of faith in government and politics.

it would be 25 years before impeachment would come up again. >> the testimony is subject to the penalty of perjury, do you understand that, sir? >> i do. >> it was a completely different story. ooks like emily cooking dinner for ten. ♪the beat goes on it looks like jonathan on a date with his wife. ♪la-di-la-di-di entresto is a heart failure medicine that helps your heart, so you can keep on doing what you love. entresto helped people stay alive and out of the hospital. heart failure can change the structure of your heart, so it may not work as well. entresto helps improve your heart's ability to pump blood to the body. don't take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure,

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all my life, i've wanted to be involved with people. >> in 1978, a bright eyed 32-year-old bill clinton was

running for governor of arkansas. >> i've tried to bring out the best in people through politics, and i've been happy doing it. >> he and his wife hillary were also investing in some real estate. a nice little patch of land in the ozarks called whitewater. that plot of land on the white river, a two-bit real estate deal that ended up losing money, would change the course of history. >> are you a subject or a target? >> did they read you your rights? >> decades later -- >> the whitewater controversy. >> whitewater. >> political turbulence over whitewater. >> whitewater became a massive, spiraling investigation. >> is there a deal, monica? >> that led prosecutors to a sex scandal. >> the ayes have it. >> there it is. >> william jefferson clinton is impeached. >> that became the second presidential impeachment in

american history. how on earth did that little corner of arkansas. >> i hereby deliver these articles of impeachment. >> -- explode into a constitutional showdown? >> it was a two-bit real estate deal, and yet somehow one thing leads to another, and we are on the house floor debating whether the president of the united states should be removed from office. >> i did not have sexual relations with that woman, miss lewinsky. >> when we think of the clinton impeachment, we think of a certain white house intern. but before there was monica, there were the mcdougals, jim and susan. clinton might never have been impeached if not for them. it was jim mcdougal who had convinced the clintons to invest in whitewater, and they had other financial ties as well. so when jim and susan landed in legal trouble for fraud -- >> if i'm found guilty, i'll go to the slammer. >> whitewater development is not going to go away. there are too many questions.

>> the clintons came under fire too. >> questions have been raised about the clintons' financial and personal involvement with mcdougal. >> in the end, nothing came of it in terms of the clintons themselves, but it planted a seed for something much bigger, something that would lead to this ultimate constitutional confrontation. >> there was a growing drumbeat for an independent counsel to investigate whitewater. >> we did nothing improper, and i have nothing to say about it. >> thank you. >> old story. >> clinton had a fateful choice to make -- block a special counsel and take a beating in the press. >> it appears to be a case of the president's past coming back to haunt him. >> or give him, leaving himself open to a potentially limitless investigation. the president gave in. >> i don't want to be distracted by this anymore. let them look into it. i just want to go back to work. >> years later, he would call that decision one of the biggest miscalculations of his presidency. >> once you have an independent counsel appointed with no budget

and no limits, the prosecutors will keep looking for the crime until they can find it. >> the first special prosecutor, robert fisk -- >> as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. >> -- vowed to wrap up his investigation quickly. but he was replaced, and his successor, ken starr, was far more aggressive. >> our job is to gather facts and to get at the truth. >> expanding the inquiry way beyond whitewater. >> which is -- >> how is this whitewater? >> the investigation kind of leads in all these different directions. >> this is truly a wildly historic night. i mean this is just -- >> no one could have been happier with starr's aggressive approach than newt gingrich and the republicans. >> there's been a sea change in american politics. >> we're winning, we're winning. >> they had swept into congress in 1994. >> this is an earthquake. >> preaching a new gospel of strict, orthodox conservatism.

>> newt gingrich reshapes the republican party. our base wants this, we do this. we do not compromise with democrats. >> president clinton became the democrat the republicans despised the most. he was morally corrupt, they said. >> i experimented with marijuana a time or two and didn't inhale. >> creative with the truth. >> i was bill clinton's lover for 12 years. >> and a womanizer. >> these tabloid accusations were false. >> they viewed him as almost an imposter as president. >> the law is the law. the law is sacred. >> meanwhile, ken starr had been digging into the clintons for more than two years to no avail. >> are you going to be working for congress or the courts or the public? >> his investigation was winding down. >> i'm not going to be making any statements. >> then out of the blue, some explosive tape recordings came his way. >> i never expected to feel this way about him. >> conversations with monica lewinsky. >> we fooled around.

>> that were secretly recorded by her co-worker, linda tripp. >> if you get to orgasm, that's having sex. >> no, it's not. >> yes, it is. >> no, it's not. >> starr expands his investigation even further to look into lewinsky. >> my initial reaction is that's nuts. i couldn't believe that starr was going down this road. >> do you understand, sir, that your answers to my questions today are testimony that is being given under oath? >> yes. >> starr learned that the president was testifying about lewinsky in another matter. >> it's just humiliating what he did to me. >> a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by paula jones. >> your testimony is subject to the penalty of perjury. do you understand that, sir? >> i do. >> in his testimony, clinton was not truthful about lewinsky. >> i never had sexual relations with monica lewinsky. i've never had an affair with her. >> starr now had a case for perjury. >> there are new allegations of infidelity and perjury this morning against president clinton.

>> over the next few months, all hell broke loose. >> charges of sex, lies, and audiotapes. >> clinton kept denying the affair. >> there is no improper relationship. the allegations i have read are not true. >> but starr was able to get monica lewinsky's dress that had clinton's dna on it. the president was forced to tell the truth. >> indeed i did have a relationship with miss lewinsky that was not appropriate. in fact, it was wrong. >> this goes into considerable detail. >> there was, in fact, semen on that dress. >> many viewers may find it somewhat offensive. >> starr released a detailed, x-rated account of the scandal. >> bringing her to orgasm on two occasions. >> listing 11 possible grounds for impeachment, including lying under oath and obstruction of justice. it's easy to forget in hindsight, but bill clinton was in real danger of being pushed out of office. many of his fellow democrats were furious with him.

>> let justice be done though the heavens fall. >> if they came to the white house like the republicans did with nixon in 1974 and said your time's up, that would have been it. >> but clinton, the ultimate comeback kid -- >> i never should have misled the country. >> -- was able to rally the party and the country back to his side. >> i will continue to do all i can to reclaim the trust of the american people and to serve them well. >> his behavior may have been reprehensible, his allies said, but he was hardly the threat to the republic that impeachment was designed for. the american public agreed. the democrats scored a shocking upset in the midterm elections, gaining seats in the house. >> the lewinsky issue didn't carry any weight. >> i'd say republicans got stumped. >> newt gingrich, who had predicted a big republican victory -- >> we have a chance to win some very startling victories all over the country. >> -- lost his job as speaker. >> shouldering the blame for a disappointing election.

>> impeachment is a two-edged sword. you may intend to use it against your executive enemy, but it could very well hurt you even more politically. >> president clinton was thrilled, thinking he was in the clear. >> on capitol hill, tom delay is known as the hammer. >> but hard core conservatives led by house majority whip tom delay were hellbent on impeaching him anyway. >> article 1 is adopted. >> we have witnesses history. >> the house impeached bill clinton almost entirely along party lines. >> the president resigned that his legacy will be forever scarred today. >> on this article of impeachment -- >> in the senate, he was easily acquitted. >> william jefferson clinton is not guilty. >> in retrospect, the 1998-99 effort to impeach and remove clinton is viewed as a partisan endeavor because the american people spoke in the midterms in 1998 and said, we don't really want to impeach this president. >> after the senate trial, congress took the law that

created ken starr's job and let it die. >> no, i'm not going to comment. >> a bipartisan acknowledgement that things had gone too far. >> women will be silent no more. >> but today in the "me too" era, clinton's impeachment is being seriously reconsidered. his affair with a young intern seen by many as an abuse of power. >> my greatest mentor, hillary clinton. >> democrat kirsten gillibrand, who holds hillary clinton's old senate seat -- >> women's voices matter. >> -- said in 2017 that bill clinton should have resigned. >> the kind of behavior that was tolerated a long time ago would never be tolerated today, and we can't allow it to be tolerated today. ♪

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president trump refusing to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry. >> they shouldn't be having inquiries, this is a hoax. >> donald trump is refusing to comply with the impeachment inquiry in the house of representatives. >> nancy pelosi, she hands out subpoenas like they're cookies. you want a subpoena? here you go, take them like they're cookies. >> the president is obstructing congress from getting the facts that we need. >> how do you impeach somebody that's doing a great job? >> harvard law professor noah feldman says the president's defiance has plunged this country into a constitutional crisis. >> when congress is trying to investigate, it must have cooperation from the other branches of government. we're in a genuine crisis.

>> despite white house orders not to testify, a string of current and former high-level officials have come forward, some with damning evidence against donald trump. >> he knows impeachment is likely and he wants to be able to run against a partisan impeachment in 2020. >> they know they can't win the election so they're pursuing impeachment witch hunt. >> trump likes to paint impeachment as a partisan war, and the strategy is working in some quarters. that's because in the last few decades, impeachment has often been used as a political weapon. >> impeachment went from being something you use only in moments of constitutional crisis

to something you use for everyday partisan battles. that is a horrible development for the american people. >> the country supported president bush as he took the united states into battle to destroy saddam hussein's weapons of mass destruction. but there were none, and the occupation of iraq was a tragic mess. >> bush can't have my son! >> an anti-war movement grew quickly, and it used impeachment as a weapon. >> bring down these war criminals like bush. he needs to be impeached. >> but the leader of the democrats, nancy pelosi, wanted none of it. >> impeachment is off the table. >> disagreements over policy were not intended by the founders to be the bases for a serious attempt at impeachment.

>> it's not a crime or a misdemeanor under the constitution to make a mistake. >> after bush's mistake, the country was totally polarized in its view of the president, and the partisan gap was the widest ever recorded. >> the president of the united states. >> impeachment fever would only get worse under the next president. >> change has come to america. >> in 2008, barack obama was elected on a promise to help heal the country's extreme partisan divide. >> yes, we can. yes, we can. >> but the candidate who had campaigned on "yes, we can" ran into a wall of republican opposition. >> hell no, you can't! >> the tea party formed around an almost fanatical opposition to barack obama. in 2010, it propelled a wave of republicans to congress. >> what does it feel like?

>> it feels bad. >> this new hyperpartisan congress presided over a growing impeachment movement. >> when you promise that you're out to impeach the president, you can make a name for yourself. you can raise money. you can rally the base. >> impeach him. really? >> impeachment is not supposed to be used as a rallying cry to get people to vote for you. both sides played around with it. >> impeachment campaigns against presidents bush and obama never gained legitimacy or real legislative support, so one could argue who cares. it's only talk. >> if you play around with impeachment that way, over time the american people are going to misunderstand its constitutional power and its necessity. >> when barack obama left office, he was more popular than george bush. but the gap between the people

who loved him and who hated him was even larger than it had been with president bush. the deep polarization of the last few years is the worst in american history with one exception -- the period around the civil war. on april 15th, 1865, president abraham lincoln was assassinated. the country was still deeply divided over the civil war. enter andrew johnson, the vice president who succeeded lincoln. johnson was a southern democrat whom lincoln had picked to create a national unity ticket. there are few things historians agree upon, but this is one. andrew johnson was one of america's worst presidents. >> he was essentially an incredibly racist, neo-confederate who was dead set against congress' program of reconstructing the south. >> republicans in congress despised andrew johnson. >> he stood for the repression of african-americans whom a war had just been fought to

liberate. >> president johnson vetoed almost all the measures to give civil liberties and representation to blacks. the republican-controlled congress decided to wage a political war. >> it set an impeachment trap for him. >> that trap was called the tenure of office act. >> congress passed a law over johnson's veto that said he could not fire his own cabinet members. >> when president johnson fired his secretary of war, edwin stanton, the house approved 11 articles of impeachment against him, one of which accused the president of bringing congress into ridicule and disgrace. >> their entire approach to impeachment was partisan and ideological. however bad a president andrew johnson was, there were no grounds to remove him. >> the country was one vote away from removing president andrew johnson from office essentially because congress did not like him or his policies.

>> johnson basically agreed to cease all of the behavior that had been so problematic, to go along with the congressional reconstruction program. >> historians today regard the impeachment trap as unconstitutional. >> impeachment fell into disrepute. >> johnson's impeachment would serve as a warning about the consequences of a partisan impeachment in a sharply divided country. >> it raises blood pressures, and in some perverse ways, it actually makes impeachment harder to use when you might really need it. introducing the center of me collection. because every your love keeps me centered begins with kay. we're oscar mayer deli fresh your very first sandwich,m... your mammoth masterpiece. and...whatever this was. because we make our meat with the good of the deli and no artificial preservatives. make every sandwich count with oscar mayer deli fresh.

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on this crucial issue, i know that many people have quickly taken up firm and unalterable positions. i have not. i think that impeachment is a nuclear option to be undertaken in the most extreme circumstances. the best mechanism to remove bad leaders in a democracy is through elections. >> impeach donald trump! >> and in today's already deeply polarized climate -- >> why are you doing this? >> -- an impeachment will only make the wounds worse and the healing more difficult. but as i have written in "the washington post," the events of the past few months have led me to support an impeachment inquiry. let me explain why now and not before. >> russia, if you're listening -- >> i believe that donald trump's campaign did some shady things in dealing with the russians, and he seemed too eager to cover it up and fire people who were investigating it.

but i thought that robert mueller was right to paint a somewhat ambiguous picture, and that wasn't enough for me to call for impeachment. >> integrity and accountability. >> but trump's efforts to pressure the ukrainian government are different. >> it's a country, i think, with tremendous potential. >> it appears that acting as the president, using the power and machinery of the united states, he threatened to withhold taxpayer funds for his personal political gain. that is the definition of abuse of power. even many of trump's defenders argue that what he did was undoubtedly bad but claimed that it does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense. what has been far more troubling is trump's refusal to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry. >> they're pursuing an illegal, >> other presidents have contested a specific subpoena or

request for documents. donald trump is effectively rejecting congress' ability to hold him accountable at all. the rule of law has been built over centuries in the western world, but it remains fragile because it's based on a bluff. the bluff is that at the highest level, everyone will respect the rules even though it might not always be possible to enforce compliance. the rule at the heart of the u.s. system is the separation of powers. the founders' greatest fear was that too much power in the hands of government would mean the end of liberty. so they ensured that power was shared and that each branch would act as a check on the other. the crucial feature for james madison, the chief architect of the constitution, was giving to

those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others. as he explained in federalist 51, ambition must be made to counteract ambition. but the system only works if all sides respect it. congress doesn't have an army or police force at its disposal, nor does the supreme court. these branches rely on the president to accept their authority and enforce their laws and rulings. when the supreme court held unanimously that richard m. nixon could not use executive privilege to withhold the watergate tapes, president nixon immediately agreed to comply even though he knew it would

mean the end of his presidency. >> there is the president waving good-bye, and you hear the applause. >> all modern u.s. presidents, both republican and democratic, have expanded their powers, and that expansion has been excessive in the past few decades. but donald trump is on a different planet. >> i alone can fix it. >> he has refused to comply with wholly constitutional legislative requests for documents, information, and testimony. were his position to prevail, the u.s. president would become an elected dictator. democrats meanwhile are on firm constitutional ground but are being politically unwise. they should ensure that this impeachment inquiry looks and is fair. >> in this committee, the staff was nonpartisan, and i must give credit where credit is due for a fair presentation. >> they should follow the precedents laid down during the last two such investigations. >> the ayes are 228. the nays are 206. article i is adopted. >> impeachment is a political process, which means public support is vital. >> do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you will give today shall be the truth --

>> the inquiry should be undertaken as a great act of public education about the specifics of this case but also about the american system of checks and balances. a democracy can turn into a tyranny not all at once with a bang, but over time. officials, even elected, even popular, can simply weaken and then dispense with constitutional constraints or legislative checks. liberty is eroded slowly but irreversible. germany's weimar republic was a well functioning liberal democracy, and within a few short years, using mostly legal processes, it became a totalitarian dictatorship. in the long history of the world, liberal democracy has been a brief, fragile experiment. if we look away now as it is being undermined, unwilling to deal with the discomfort or disruption, we might all live to regret it. those are my thoughts, but you should make up your own mind about this issue, which really is central to america's democracy and its future. i'm fareed zakaria. thanks for watching.

did someone put up a lot of money to have the democratic headquarters infiltrated and, if so, who and why? >> justice will be pursued no matter who's involved. >> do you have information implicating president nixon? >> i have no comment. >> the president of the united states demanded the attorney general fire the special prosecutor. >> that is the definition of

tyranny. people have got to know whether or not their president's a crook. well, i'm not a crook. >> i don't think there was ever any discussion that there wouldn't be a cover-up. >> congress must move ahead with impeachment proceedings. >> there can be no whitewash at the white house. ♪ ♪

♪ i think what we have to do is feel it out. we're going to have to find out what the mood is. >> in 1972, richard nixon is very much at the top of his game and is in a position to achieve his goal of being the greatest president in american history. >> the comments before about mao and joe. >> he had desegregated all the southern schools, he had ended the draft, he had ended the epa, the cancer institute, and he had the greatest arms control agreement in american history. not a bad record, and the american people thought so. >> air force one has just landed at peking international airport. it is an historic moment, the official beginning of his visit

to china. >> china was considered almost a different planet. and the idea that any american president would go to china was considered a fantasy probably at best. in terms of foreign policy, it was sort of a moon landing. >> i think one of the results of our trip, we hope, may be the walls that are erected, whether they are physical walls like this or whether they are other walls of ideology or philosophy, will not divide peoples of the world. >> in richard nixon's own mind, this was a script. it was designed to result in an overwhelming election victory in the november election. >> who do you think you'll vote for for president this year? >> nixon. >> richard nixon. >> nixon. >> yeah, nixon. >> nixon. >> is anybody else running but nixon? >> the president was a political animal.

the president was phenomenally skilled. he was able to handle virtually anything. >> five men wearing white gloves and carrying cameras were caught early today in the headquarters of the democratic national committee in washington. they were caught by a night watchman, and they did not resist arrest when the police came. they were apparently unarmed, and no one knows yet why they were there. the film in the camera hadn't been exposed. in any case, they're being held. >> the democratic national committee is housed in the fashionable watergate complex. the break-in prepared well in advance. files were ransacked and papers removed. also in this area, ceiling tiles had been removed for the suspected planting of bugging devices. >> it was saturday morning, june 17th. the phone rang, it was about 6:30. a colleague of mine, chuck work,

was on the phone. he said, hello, it's chuck. we have a hot one. we have a burglary at the democratic national committee headquarters. and most unusual of all, the burglars, five of them, are wearing suits. >> the arraignment of the five middle-aged men was slowed down by the fact that each had several aliases. four said they were from miami, the fifth said he lived in the metropolitan washington area. three were originally from cuba. the facts presented so far raise a number of intriguing questions, such as did someone put up a lot of money to have the democratic headquarters infiltrated and, if so, who and why? >> the president's press secretary said of this incident, i'm not going to comment from the white house from a third rate burglary attempt. obviously, he said, we don't condone that kind of second rate activity. >> when the first reports came about the burglary at the watergate, i didn't think much of it. but more and more facts begin to come out. >> this is a police photograph of james w. mccord. mccord is a former cia employee.

now he runs his own private security service. and guess what else he is. a consultant to president richard nixon's reelection campaign committee. mccord and his accomplices meanwhile have been charged with second-degree burglary and have been released on bail, but i don't think that's the last we're going to hear on this story. >> it's one of the most shocking actions i think that's happened in this country in a long time. but i must say that it's the legacy of years of wiretapping and snooping and violation of privacy in which the government itself has been too deeply involved. >> both democrats and republicans played with pranks and tricks all the time. the difference in watergate was that these people were foolish and they got caught. >> no one in the white house staff, no one in this administration, was involved in this very bizarre incident. >> nixon said, this is being

investigated by the congress, by the fbi, but even more importantly, i've had my own white house counsel john dean conduct an investigation, and he's reported to me that nobody presently employed in this administration had anything to do with this. well, this is the first i heard of my investigation, and my reaction is, wow. ( ♪ )

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g. gordon liddy and e. howard hunt. >> i had never met liddy nor had i met howard hunt. i didn't know who they were when i was in the white house. but when the break-in occurred, i said, oh, no, because i knew at once instinctively it was our guys. >> g. gordon liddy, ex-fbi, ex-treasury, ex-justice, ex-white house consultant, and e. howard hunt jr., ex-cia, ex-bay of pigs planner, ex-white house consultant. >> we didn't think they measured up. it was closer to the typical gang that couldn't shoot straight. >> earl silva read the names of 60 government witnesses. the list included only one low ranking white house lawyer and several former employees of the committee to re-elect the president. >> if you don't know richard nixon's psychology, you don't know his background, you could never understand why the white

house reacted to watergate the way it does. >> from day one, there was a great sense that we were under siege. and we were not deceiving ourselves that the press did not like us. both houses of congress did not like nixon. i mean, that is the truth. and the question is how you deal with it. >> he tries to build a little like mafiosa group out of the oval office, guys that will take the bullet for you. pure loyalty. they fell under his spell. >> president nixon created a what you'd have to call a paranoid atmosphere in the white house. that you're supposed to get your enemies. they took it literally, that if the president said, you've got to go get your enemies, well, we've got to go get our enemies. >> nixon, he did not know they were doing the break-in, but once it happened, he was convinced they had to engage in a cover-up. >> by august 29th, nixon is deeply involved, to my surprise, in all the key elements of the cover-up.

>> who do you think gave the orders to bug the watergate? >> well, the persons who the grand jury indicted in washington, d.c., last week gave the orders to do it. >> you don't think they were following orders then? >> no. i do not. there's been no evidence presented by anybody who did that. i think the opposition is disappointed that after a thorough intensive investigation that seven persons were indicted. >> at the time, most of the press was satisfied that the nixon white house had nothing to do with this watergate break-in. >> i have full confidence in the integrity of president nixon and in his determination and ability to resolve the watergate matter to the full satisfaction of the american people. >> now, this is when "the washington post" really distinguished itself from the rest of the press pack. >> october of '72, the headline said that dirty tricks operation had been run out of the white house. >> it's a pretty good story. >> they don't really crack the case. what the "post" does very effectively was they kept the story alive when nobody else was

paying any attention to it. >> using innuendo, third person hearsay, anonymous sources and huge scare headlines, the "post" has maliciously sought to give the appearance of a direct connection between the white house and the watergate, a charge which the "post" knows and half a dozen investigations have found to be false. thank you very much. >> fairly early on, we were running into wall of silence or we were been stonewalled. that became clear, none of the seven would talk to us. the white house was paying hush money to keep the watergate burglars silent. hunt is asking for money. and if the money isn't

forthcoming, these people aren't going to stay silent. haldeman and yours truly, we're obstructing justice. but nobody was thinking about the criminal law. we were thinking more about the politics of it all. >> all of the burglars stay quiet. nobody else is indicted, which is exactly what the white house's strategy was. >> the strategy was containment. if it doesn't get widespread coverage in the country as a whole, then we'll be able to handle this. >> this is about the government. this is about credibility. this is about bugging. this is about deception. this is about the white house. and this is how you stop it. with your vote. >> while senator mcgovern is out campaigning tirelessly, trying to get his message across to the people, president nixon is sitting in the white house and carrying out his presidential duties and leaving the hard campaigning to vice president

agnew. >> people want to trust the king. people don't want to believe this about their president. >> pennsylvania decisively important state for the democrats drawn tonight to the republicans. kansas, connecticut, texas, michigan, delaware, arkansas and north dakota, those are the states that we show for president nixon. >> that was one of the greatest victories any president has ever had, carrying every state except massachusetts and the district of columbia. >> i think that the shadow on his victory is the watergate affair, and i believe a great many people very close to the president would like to have a move on that as one of the high priorities of his new administration. >> either have these people exonerated or get them out and persuade the country that the taint is gone if there is a real taint there. family event.

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the jury in the watergate case reached a quick verdict late today. nixon campaign counsel gordon liddy and campaign security chief james mccord guilty on all counts of the break-in and bugging of the democratic national headquarters. >> liddy faces a possible 35 years in prison. mccord a possible 45 years.

>> they're all found guilty, all of the seven men who were originally indicted. but one of them starts to crack. >> is your client going to spill the beans on the watergate affair to the judge? >> i have advised mr. mccord to be guided solely by his own conscience and conviction. he'll do just that. >> mccord isn't so willing to go to prison and not speak up. he feels higher ups shouldn't get off scot-free. >> mccord wrote the judge a letter. in it he says, other people not yet named were involved in the break-in at democratic national headquarters. >> mccord says there are efforts being made to keep us quiet, and there are people responsible who are much higher up than us. and you're being denied that information. >> i think what bothers us as republicans is that there is

apparently so much more to be revealed. and every day, every week, when something else happens, it's one further dagger in the heart. >> by and large, it was a national consensus, listen, the president is saying one thing, the prosecutors are saying another thing. there are a lot of very serious accusations in the air. let's get to the bottom of it. >> senator sam irvin of north carolina was chosen today by the democrats in the senate to conduct a full investigation of the watergate case. >> once that senate committee convenes in february of '73, it's the first time that people were going to have to testify under oath. this was not good for the president. >> i go in on march 21st to see nixon, and i lay out the mess we're in. telling him i thought there was a cancer on his presidency. and my hope is, by laying it out

as brutally as i can, that he'll bring his fist down on the table and he'll say, this is unacceptable. we have to end this. to my surprise, i am unable to convince him. >> dean had been caught up in this and had done things that really involved him and the obstruction of justice, and i think they had decided he was going to be the sacrificial lamb. >> john dean was in way over his head. and then when he realized this ship is going down, he jumped. >> this morning, without the president's approval, dean issued a statement in which, among other things, he declared some may hope or think i will become a scapegoat in the watergate case. anyone who believes this, dean added, does not know me, know the true facts, nor understand our system of justice. >> do you have information implicating president nixon in a cover-up? >> i have no comment this morning.

i'm sorry. >> we started having secret conversations with john dean. he was disclosing this sprawling conspiracy, to put it mildly. >> when i broke rank and started dealing with the prosecutors in early april, i had the naive belief that by breaking rank, they would do likewise. >> john dean kept upping the ante. i want immunity. okay, i'll tell you this. as we were leaving, i just remember this. he said, john has something to tell you. and dean told us that this same group had broken into the office of ellsberg's psychiatrist. he says, oh, your jaw just dropped beneath the floor. >> in 1971 daniel ellsberg had been a defense consultant, decided that the war was wrong and so he took this vast volume of secret papers and he leaked it to the "new york times." >> i felt, as an american citizen, i could no longer cooperate in concealing this information from the american people. >> names on paper never mentioned the name richard nixon, but its leak drove richard nixon nuts. >> i think it is time in this country to quit making national heroes out of those who steal secrets and publish them in the

newspapers. >> this is a product of the president's paranoia about his ability to control his own government. >> they actually broke into the psychiatrist's office of ellsberg. now, come on! somebody's psychiatrist's office files are raided by people who are commissioned by the white house? >> it's one thing to disclose breaking into the offices of the democratic national committee. it's another to have broken into the offices of a person's psychiatrist. and the public would really have an adverse reaction to that, much more so than the democratic national committee headquarters. >> i hope that whatever comes out they get it over with, they find out what it is, and it

teaches us some kind of lesson because this country is coming on to its 200th anniversary, and i want to be proud of it when it does. and i'm not too proud of it right now. >> that's when i went to nixon and i said, get up and clear from this thing. whoever's going to have to go ought to go now. >> good evening. the biggest white house scandal in a century, the watergate scandal, broke wide open today. the two closest men to the president, h.r. haldeman his chief of staff and john ehrlichman, his chief domestic adviser, have resigned. the president's white house legal counsel john dean has been fired. reportedly, dean is implicated in efforts to cover up the watergate scandal, and he may implicate ehrlichman and haldeman. >> good evening. i want to talk to you tonight from my heart on a subject of deep concern to every american. today, in one of the most difficult decisions of my presidency, i accepted the resignations of two of my closest associates in the white

house, bob haldeman, john ehrlichman. >> he thought, by throwing out his inner circle, he would be left alone. he was throwing these people under the bus so the bus wouldn't hit him. >> justice will be pursued fairly, fully, and impartially no matter who's involved. >> richard nixon wants to control everything. but he's extraordinarily delusional. i mean, he really doesn't seem to understand that he's digging himself deeper and deeper into the crime when he's trying to dig himself out. >> we must maintain the integrity of the white house, and that integrity must be real, not transparent. there can be no whitewash at the white house. >> in may of 1973, earl silbert is preparing to hand the case over to archibald cox.

and he says there are 39 principals involved in this case. and he said, number 39, richard m. nixon, president of the united states. >> what if this trail leads into the oval office at the white house? >> well, as i replied then, the trail should be followed wherever it leads. now only six hundred dollars. every best gift ever begins with kay ♪ peroni italia. i've always loved and i'm still going for my best, even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin, i'll go for that. eliquis.

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watergate senate hearings. >> good morning. this is the senate caucus room in washington, d.c., and it's jammed this morning, jammed with spectators, newsmen, senators, and their aides. and the scene adds to the sense of drama as the senate opens what is likely to become the most serious investigation ever made. >> i was glued to the hearings like anyone else. i was watching my friends go up there and testify and trying to understand what happened. >> i think there was no question that the cover-up began that saturday when we realized there was a break-in. i don't think there was ever any discussion that there wouldn't be a cover-up. >> the president said there is no problem in raising a million dollars. we can do that. but it would be wrong. >> neither mr. haldeman nor i were criminally involved in this matter in any respect. >> people are seeing this underside of the white house, this kind of gothic reality that they never dreamed existed, men in trench coats showing up in

phone booths with bags of money. >> it comes from way up at the top. >> yes, sir. i believed that he was talking about the president. >> good morning. although this is not abc's scheduled day to provide live continuous coverage, we are going on now with the hearings because the witness will be john dean, the 34-year-old lawyer who one year ago was just another anonymous official in the white house but who today is a very well-known figure indeed. >> so help you god? >> i do so help me god. >> if people knew one thing about john dean, he was the guy who knew what was going on in watergate. so when it was announced he was going to testify, people really thought that this was the moment the thing was going to blow wide open. >> i told the president there was no money to pay these individuals to meet their demands. he asked me how much it would cost. i told him i could only make an estimate it might be as high as a million dollars or more. he told me that that was no problem. he also looked over at haldeman and repeated the same statement. >> this was the first time that a white house staffer had ever contradicted with criminal consequences, contradict, a

president on live television. >> there was also maintained what was called an enemies list, which is rather extensive and continually being updated. >> the idea that the white house draws up a list of enemies and is prepared to use the agencies of government, this is very, very serious, scary stuff. >> john dean talked about a list of enemies that was compiled at the white house. one, arnold picker described as a top must-be fundraiser. second, alexander -- >> once the enemies list was revealed, the cbs news correspondent is reading this, off and he reads his own name. >> 17th, daniel schorr. the note here is "a real media enemy." >> i remember thinking at the

time, what is going on? is this really believable? >> you're fully aware, mr. dean, of the gravity of the charges you have made under oath against the highest official of our land, the president of the united states? >> yes, i am. >> and being so aware, do you still stand on your statement? >> yes, i do. >> when i'm finishing my testimony for the senate, i read it and i said, you know, it's my word against haldeman, ehrlichson, mitchell, and the president. >> all of us watching this is surmising that there is another witness someplace in the building. >> a witness will be called, and as to who it will be we'll have to wait and see. >> are you aware of any installation of any listening devices in the oval office of the president? >> i was aware of listening devices, yes, sir. >> when he answered yes, everybody in america just froze. like uh-oh, tapes? what tapes? >> as far as you know, did mr. ehrlichman or mr. dean know about the presence of those

devices? >> that would be unlikely. my assumption is that they didn't know. >> the story of watergate takes on a whole different complexion. and the happiest man in the moment would be john dean. >> what is the best way to reconstruct those conversations mr. butterfield? >> well, in the obvious manner, mr. dash, to obtain the tape and play it. >> slowly, this smile comes over my face, and i said, get those tapes as fast as you can before they disappear. >> this afternoon i received from the white house a letter declining to furnish the eight requested tapes. careful study before requesting the tapes convinced me that any blanket claim of privilege to withhold this evidence from the grand jury is without legal foundation. >> nixon had a legitimate argument that congress shouldn't

be able to delve into the private discussions of the president in the white house. that's a legitimate constitutional argument. but to invoke executive privilege to cover up a third rate burglary was suspect. >> now watergate committee and special prosecutor archibald cox are taking the white house to court in an effort to gain access to those tapes. >> as the weeks have gone by, many have urged that in order to prove the truth of what i've said i should turn over to the special prosecutor and the senate committee recordings of conversation that i held in my office or on my telephone. however, a much more important principle is involved in this question than what the tapes might prove about watergate. >> he gathers his legal team and his advisers, and a number of them say, mr. president, if you destroy these tapes, it's an

admission of guilt and also, theoretically, it could be obstruction of justice. >> he felt it would suggest that he was implicated in watergate and he had something to hide if he refused to give them up and destroyed them. and that's probably true, but he still shouldn't have done it. >> the president gets contradictory advice and the moment passes. he doesn't destroy the tapes so he fights not to release the tapes. >> judge says the evidence is not yet conclusive as to why the president hasn't fully complied with subpoenas for those tapes and that there is a distinct possibility of unlawful conduct. >> what he is doing is kind of depersonalizing it all and saying, if i release these, it will do irreparable damage to the office of the presidency. >> well, for one thing, the president still has not said at any time, listen, john dean is lying, and i have the tapes to prove it. well, maybe there is more on those tapes than the president would have us believe. - [spokeswoman] meet the ninja foodi pressure cooker,

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>> there is evidence which shows that agnew was taking political kickbacks, not only while governor of maryland, but also while he was vice president. >> what is your reaction to the resignation of vice president agnew just announced? >> vice president who? i don't know too much about him, but nixon stinks. >> there were developments at the white house today that indicate that some kind of major decision is near on the constitutional issue of the white house tapes. >> special prosecutor archibald cox, he wanted the tapes. he wanted the tapes themselves. and there was an impasse. >> yesterday president nixon ordered cox to stop going to court to try to get access to the tapes. today, cox held a news conference and said that since the president was defying the court, he was going to defy the president. >> last night we were told the court order would not be obeyed, that the papers, memoranda, documents of that kind would not be provided at all.

>> archibald cox let the president have it, that this is obstruction of justice and that was the turning point. >> there was a limousine on the west side driveway of the white house this afternoon with the number 77. it turned out to be elliot richardson's limousine. and when the reporters spotted him leaving the white house, they new some sort of denouement was in progress. >> what is going on today? >> there will be an announcement out of the white house later. >> does it have to do with the resignation of the attorney general? >> it might. >> in breath taking succession tonight, the following historic events occurred. the president of the united states demanded the attorney general fire special prosecutor archibald cox. the attorney general refused and resigned. the president then ordered the assistant attorney general to fire the special prosecutor. ruckleshouse refused.

the president immediately fired ruckleshouse. solicitor general robert bork quickly was named acting attorney general. bork was ordered to fire special prosecutor cox. he did. >> it was unbelievable, literally unbelievable, except that it was real. you kept saying, that couldn't be. but it was. >> i can make no further comment now other than their offices have been sealed by the fbi. >> how could you possibly bring this man to justice if it was within his power to call the investigation to a close? >> please, everyone. >> basically, the president has seized full control of the special prosecutor's office and is in full position of potentially incriminating evidence that could lead to the conviction of his closest associates and to his conviction and that is the definition of tyranny. >> there could be no doubt this was a constitutional crisis. this was are a president trying

to stand above the law, and i remember thinking at the time the country is not going to stand for this. >> i think it's amazing that the country is not already fighting in the streets. he's divided the country that much. >> events of the past few days leave us little choice but to move ahead with preparation for impeachment proceedings. >> do you think the president should be impeached? >> yes, sir, i do. >> why? >> i can't trust him. >> at the time, the idea of impeaching the president was a pretty radical idea. it hadn't happened in over a century. >> impeachment does not mean removing the president from office. it does mean putting the president on trial in the senate to determine his fitness to continue in office. >> the whole country is going bananas on this. i went by a howard johnson today. you know what the flavor of the month is? >> no. >> impeachment. >> what is it about the television coverage of you that has so aroused your anger? >> one can only be angry with those he respects. >> he obviously was having some kind of mental breakdown. it became clear there was something very wrong with nixon.

>> people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. well, i'm not a crook. >> a lot of people want the president to resign. they really don't want to put the country through an impeachment drama, so they want to create an atmosphere that essentially forces his hand. >> the white house committee named a new special prosecutor. >> whatever i conceive to be necessary in order to perform my function properly i'm going to ask for. and if it don't receive it, i'm going to proceed to undertake to get it. >> jaworski comes to washington, is presented with all the evidence. a couple days later, he goes to the white house and says, i think the president has to get a criminal lawyer. >> i think it's not excessive to say we've been put through too

much. either the congress or the president, by his own patriotic decision, should relieve the nation of a burden that's grown too heavy to carry any longer. >> the effect of this was a huge dip in public support for richard nixon. but the white house thought that it could solve the tapes problem by producing transcripts. >> the idea that he's going to release these transcripts, richard nixon thinks he's finally going to be able to cauterize the wound. >> i think there's no doubt about the seriousness of the problem we have. we have a cancer from within close to the presidency that is growing. >> the tapes show that the president is involved at the times that dean said he was. it shows that dean's memory is prodigious. >> dean. >> i would say these people are going to cost a million dollars over the next two years. >> the president. >> you could get a million dollars. you could get it in cash. i know where it could be gotten. >> now, when individuals read

the entire transcript, they may reach different interpretations. but i know what i meant, and i know also what i did. >> richard nixon's problem is they keep on subpoenaing more and more tapes. he says he's not going to give them up unless the supreme court demands him to. >> the supreme court today heard arguments in the historic case of the united states of america versus richard nixon, president of the united states. >> the television cameras saw the two main players in this classic confrontation arrive. first james st. claire, president nixon's attorney, then leon jaworski, special watergate prosecutor to argue his case against the president's refusal to surrender 64 tapes and documents. >> it is a strange notion that the president of the united states is the defendant and the government of the united states is the prosecutor. >> jaworski was even cheered by some in of the crowd as he entered the supreme court building. much as a roman gladiator

entering the arena to do battle. >> it was a product of this peculiar moment when the u.s. government had to test the constitution to find out what limits there were on presidential power. >> if it came down to the supreme court of the united states making a decision against the president, would he obey or would he put himself in a confrontation with the supreme court? >> i don't know of anyone here or at the white house or anywhere else who knows the answer to that. [airport pa]"all flights have been delayed." t-mobile makes the holidays easier... ...like this. because right now when you buy one of the latest samsung phones you get one free. on that. so you can post this... ...score this... ...be there like this... ...and share all of this... ...with that. so do this, on that, with us. now, buy a samsung galaxy s10 or note 10 and get one free.

son, i need to tell you something. what is it, dad? if you ever have any questions, you call 1-877-522-5001. dad, i've, i've always wanted to hear you say that. i wish my dad would have said that to me. make father son time truly special with dos equis. keep it interesante.

it would be hard to imagine a more memorable day in the history of constitutional law than this one. at 11:00 a.m., the supreme court tells the president he was wrong to withhold those tapes. at 7:00 p.m. the president announces he will of course obey. at 8:00 p.m. the house judiciary committee opens its doors to the national television audience for its final impeachment debate. >> the american people, the house of representatives and the constitution demand that we make up our mind. >> for all of those in favor, signify by saying aye, all those opposed no. >> mr. donahue. >> aye. >> mr. bruce. >> aye. >> it was a saturday night and sort of near sundown when they voted the first article of impeachment and the room was

quiet. mr. rodino. >> aye. >> peter went in the back and cried. we took it very seriously. >> with that vote, mr. nixon became the first president in more than a century and only the second in all of our history to confront removal from office through the only means provided in the constitution, impeachment. >> i stood by nixon and felt he should remain in office, but then we discovered the tape of june 23rd. this was fatal. >> good evening. president nixon stunned the country today by admitting he held back evidence from the house judiciary committee, keeping it a secret from his lawyers and not disclosing it in public statements. mr. nixon issued transcripts of three recorded conversations he had with h.r. halderman on june 23rd, 1972, six days after the burglars were caught in the

watergate. >> you open that scab and there's a hell of a lot of things that we just feel that this would be detrimental to have this thing go any further. >> the facts came out. yes, the president himself, not only was he involved in this but he directed this criminal operation. >> they should call the fbi and n. and say that we wish for -- don't go further into the case, period! >> the problem with that tape was not that it implicated nixon so much in the watergate thing but it contradicted what he said. he had not told the country the truth. >> the news caused a storm in washington and some of mr. nixon's most loyal supporters are calling for his resignation. >> i'm aware of the intense interest of the american people concerning developments today and over the last few days. tonight at 9:00, eastern daylight time, the president of the united states will address the nation on radio and television from his oval office. >> as you probably can see

behind us, we have a large number of people who have been standing by to watch the various television networks. most here out of curiosity and concern. >> only the cbs crew now is in this room during this. only the crew. no, there will be no pictures. >> just a few moments. we have 40 seconds to go now. the president has taken his place at the table in the white house where he is going to speak. >> good evening. this is the 37th time i have spoken to you from this office. where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of this nation. throughout the long and difficult period of watergate, i have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you

elected me. but as president, i must put the interest of america first. therefore, i shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. vice president ford will be sworn in as president at that hour in this office. >> when you weigh what happened against the potential of president nixon, this is almost the dictionary definition of tragedy. >> by taking this action, i hope that i will have hastened the start of that process of healing, which is so desperately needed in america. >> good morning. this is today in washington. friday, august 9th. the nation awaits the swearing in at noon eastern time of our 38th president, gerald ford, and the departure from political

life of richard m. nixon. he and his family are expected to leave by air to their home in california later this morning, and we expect to see their departure from the white house. >> in departing the presidency, richard nixon is leaving us with one notable legacy -- proof that the american system does work, that there is equal justice under the law and that public office must always be regarded as a public trust. ♪ >> i walked out to the helicopter where the old man gave the double v, putting the best face on the worst moment of his life. trying to show he was not broken.

and so i'm going in the helicopter and take off for the last time. it was over. >> we think that when we suffer a defeat that all has ended. not true. because only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain. so i say to you on this occasion, others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself

it's probably the most important cultural event in the history of america. and a whole new generation of freaks. >> what guys seem to get off on. they like these high-energy sort of events. >> sight and sound and soul are your pleasure, you can bet your bottom dollar we got them, baby. >> unless you've been living in a sealed cave, you probably noticed that america's latest craze is disco dancing. >> this is punk rock, and its purpose is to promote violence, sex and destruction in that order. >> rock and roll is pure stamina! ♪ ♪