Skip to main content

tv   CNN Special Report  CNN  November 27, 2019 8:00pm-9:00pm PST

8:00 pm
>> there can be no greater fall from no greater height. ♪ ♪ ♪ five men were nabbed in the democratic -- >> whitewater. >> whitewater. >> i have nothing to say about it. >> andrew johnson's impeachment was over housing. >> deserve to be men in the united states. >> one thing leads to another. >> a grave and profound crisis. ♪
8:01 pm
♪ >> you're in the office of the president of the united states. how can you talk about black mail and keeping witnesses silent. >> william jefferson clinton. >> i did not have sexual relations with that woman. >> the impeachment effort against him failed by a single vote in the senate. >> president nixon -- >> aye. >> 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
8:02 pm
president donald trump. we don't yet know how this will end but we do know it's history. it's the only guide who 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 tyranny of kings. their goal was to keep the president from becoming an elected monarch, untree strained 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 madison disagreed. what if a president, madison asked, were to cook up a scheme of speculation?
8:03 pm
in other words, what if the president were a crook? so george mason came up with a broader phrase, high crimes and misdemeanors, and that is article 2, section 4 of the american constitution. there was a moment in our history when it saved american democracy, but at other times it's been turned into a cheap political trick hurled 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 every day. sometimes every hour. >> i say impeachment. >> impeachment. >> impeach trump. impeach trump. >> whew. >> thousands are in the streets here this evening. >> but this was just one day
8:04 pm
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
8:05 pm
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 now calling for the impeachment of donald trump. i think it would be very unwise to pursue impeachment unless there were a high probability of removing him from office. as i read the circumstances, there wasn't. that was then. this is now. >> here you have the president of the united states abusing his power openly. >> he's talking about the 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 that president trump was not trying to gain personally by investigating joe biden. >> this constitutional scholar is worried about america's
8:06 pm
defining document. >> it's essential to the entire structure. if the president abuses his power, congress has to check his actions. it's the only branch with that authority. that's what the impeachment process is for, and the constitution will fail. >> in other words, for feldman, democracy may require impeaching the president. for others, it is congress that is over reaching. >> this is unamerican. >> vote to impeach. >> 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 the country came together. to richard nixon and the watergate party, it was a war. >> it was a war with a fifth column. i had a partisan senate
8:07 pm
committee staff, special prosecutor staff, media, partisan judiciary. fifth column. i 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 democrat's 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.
8:08 pm
♪ ♪ >> 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 to cripple the democrats. one of them was the watergate break in n. 1972 nixon won re-election by a historic landslide. >> i richard nixon do solemnly swear. >> but the watergate story was
8:09 pm
still growing. weeks after the election inside the oval office richard nixon declared war on the press. >> 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 coverup. 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 turned
8:10 pm
on his president. >> i began by telling the president that there was a dancer growing on the presidency. >> dean testified that the watergate burglars were black mailing white house aides. >> the white house was now being directly subject to black mail and i didn't know how to handle it. >> i told him i could only make an estimate that it might be as high as a million dollars or more. he told me that 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 public believes john dean or not. >> most republicans continued to stand by their president. >> raise your right hand. >> but then from a little known white house aid a dramatic twist. >> my name is alexander porter butterfield. >> butterfield, are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the oval
8:11 pm
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. >> had it not been for the tapes, i'm convinced nixon would finish the second term. >> instead he would spend his presidency trying to keep anyone from hearing them. >> he fought subpoena after subpoena. >> i have never heard such outrages, vicious reporting. >> even as he tried to convince the american people that watergate was a press creation. >> what is it about television coverage of you in these past weeks and months that has so aroused your anger? >> don't get the impression that you arouse my anger. one can only be angry with those he respects. >> mr. president -- >> mr. president -- >> finally a drastic step.
8:12 pm
>> nothing like this has ever happened before. >> their offices have been sealed by the fbi. >> a mass firing of the men pursuing the tapes. >> no one is allowed in. >> the saturday night massacre. >> the news caused a sensation in the white house press room 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 the department of justice. >> does it have to do with the resignation of the attorney general. >> well, 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. >> so many western union was swamped. most of them demanded impeaching mr. nixon. >> he was forced to appoint a
8:13 pm
new prosecutor and as the months went on, bit by bit, he was forced to turn over the tapes. they were as damning as he feared. john dean's testimony turned out to be entirely accurate. >> how much money? i would say these people are going to cost us a million dolla dollars. >> it was clear nixon's defenses were beginning to crumble. >> do you consider the crimes to be impeachable if they do apply to you? >> well, i've 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
8:14 pm
debate removing the president. >> make no mistake about it, this is a turning point whatever we decide. >> committee chairman peter rodino was a democratic machine liberal from 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 immovable. 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. and let's keep to those two words. you can't substitute 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
8:15 pm
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, was moved by the evidence. >> the thing that's so appalling to me is that 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 black mail, bribery, keeping witnesses silent? this is the presidency of the united states. >> one by one rock ripped conservatives who had revered the president put conscience over the party. >> i cannot condone what i heard, i cannot excuse it and i
8:16 pm
cannot and will not stand still for it. >> i wish the president could do something to absolve himself. >> perhaps the most conservative southerner was walter flowers of alabama. he had served as the segregationist campaign chairman. >> i wake up on nights, at least those nights i've been able to go to sleep lately, wondering if this cannot be some sort of 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 reached across the aisle to say thank you. >> i must admit that it has been very fair. >> this impeachment inquiry -- >> has been both historical and horrible. >> republicans understood that they were not going to carry their base if they voted for impeachment and some of them did it anyway.
8:17 pm
>> all those in favor signify by saying aye. all of those opposed, no. >> mr. done know hue? >> aye. >> mr. bruce? >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> the committee approved three articles of impeachment, on juks of justice, contempt of congress and abuse of power. >> no. no. >> no. >> aye. >> mr. rabino. >> aye. >> chairman 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 the night. a countdown towards the expected end of the nixon presidency. >> tonight at 9:00 eastern daylight time the president of
8:18 pm
the united states will address the nation. >> it was over. >> i have never been a quitter. to leave office before my term is over is against every inning stingt in my body. 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's the president waiving good-bye. >> the scandal itself triggered a loss of faith in government and in politicians. 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? >> this time it was a completely different story.
8:19 pm
over twenty-two hundred wishes granted. more than fifty seven thousand pets supported. over one hundred national parks protected. over two million meals provided. through the subaru share the love event, subaru will have proudly donated over one hundred seventy million dollars to national and hometown charities over twelve years. (shelter attendant) thank you. (grandfather) thank you. (senior) thank you. (make-a-wish child) thank you.
8:20 pm
plaque psoriasis uncoverth clearer skin that can last. in fact, tremfya® was proven superior to humira® in providing significantly clearer skin. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya®. uncover clearer skin that can last. janssen can help you explore cost support options.
8:21 pm
well you remember what happened last year. you can't bring a backup thanksgiving to my sister's house. it's not like we're going to walk in with it. we'll bring it in as we need it. ...phase it in. phase it in? yeah, phase it in. get the perfectly grilled flavors of an outdoor grill indoors, and because it's a ninja foodi, it can do even more, like transform into an air fryer. the ninja foodi grill, the grill that sears, sizzles, and air fry crisps. the magic moment... congress really democratized wall street... i wanted to have a firm that wanted to get everybody in.
8:22 pm
because people couldn't access wall street. we wanted to be agents of change. for the better. ♪ in all my life i've wanted to be involved with people. >> in 1978 bright eyed 32-year-old bill clinton was running for governor in arkansas. >> i've tried to bring out the best in people in politics. >> he and his wife hillary were also investing in some real estate. a nice little batch of land in the ozarks called whitewater. that blot of wand on the whitewater, a two bit land deal that lost money would change the course of history.
8:23 pm
>> are you a subject or a target? >> read you your rights? >> decades later -- >> the whitewater controversy. >> whitewater. >> political questions over whitewater. >> whitewater became a massive spiraling investigation. >> is there a deal? >> 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 here by deliver the articles of impeachment. >> -- explode into a constitutional showdown. >> it was a two bit land deal and this leads from one thing to another and we are on the house floor debating whether he should be removed from office. >> i did not have sexual relations with that woman, ms.
8:24 pm
lewinsky. >> when we think of the clinton presidency, we think of monica lewinsky. and we think of the mcdougalls. they had other financial ties as well, so when jim and susan landed in legal trouble for fraud -- >> if i'm found guilty i will slam it. >> 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 clinton's financial and personal involvement with mcdougall. >> in it nothing came of it in terms of the clintons themselves but it planted the seed for something bigger, something that would lead to the ultimate constitutional confrontation. >> there was a growing drum beat to investigate whitewater. >> we did nothing improper and i have nothing to say about it.
8:25 pm
>> 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 in 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 t. 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 it and counsel is appointed with no budget and no limits, the prosecutor 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
8:26 pm
beyond whitewater which is -- >> investigation kind of leads in all of these different directions. >> this is truly a wildly historic night. >> 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. >> they swept into congress in 1994. >> this is an earthquake. >> preaching a new gospel of orthodox -- >> it reshapes the republican party. our base wants this, we do it. we do not compromise with democrats. >> president clinton became the democrat republicans despised the most. he was morally corrupt they said. >> i experimented with marijuana a time or two and didn't inhale. >> i was bill clinton's lover for 12 years. >> and a woman niezer. >> these accusations are false.
8:27 pm
>> 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 two years to no avail. his investigation was winding down. >> i'm not going to make 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 trip. >> if you get to orgasm, that's having sex. >> no, it's not. >> yes, it is. >> no, it's not. >> starr expanded his investigation even further to look into lewinsky. >> my 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?
8:28 pm
>> 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 have never had sexual relations with monica lewinsky. i've never had an affair with her. >> starr now had a case for perjury. >> there are now new allegations of infidelity and perjury against president clinton. >> over the next few months all hell broke lose. >> charges of sex, lies and audio tapes. >> clinton kept denying the affair. >> there is no improper relationship. the allegations i have read is not true. >> but starr was able to get monica lewinsky's dress with dna on it. >> indeed, i did have a
8:29 pm
relationship with ms. lewinsky that was not appropriate. it was wrong. >> this goes into considerable details. >> many viewers may find it offensive. >> starr released -- >> 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 republicans did with nixon in 1974 and said your time is 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
8:30 pm
them well. >> his behavior may have been reprehensible, his allies said, but he was hardly the threat to the public that impeachment was designed for. the american public agreed. the democrats scored a shocking upset in the mid-term elections gaining seats in the house. >> the lewinsky issue didn't carry any weight. >> i'd say republicans got stopped. >> newt gingrich who predicted a big republican victory. >> we have a chance to win some very startling victories in 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 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 did he lay delay is known as the hammer. >> he was hell bent on impeaching him anyway. >> article one is adopted.
8:31 pm
>> we have witnessed history. >> the house impeached bill clinton almost entirely along party lines. >> the president resigned that his legacy will forever be scarred today. >> on this article of impeachment -- >> in the senate he was easily convicted. >> in retrospect the 1988-'89 effort to impeach him was a political effort. >> 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 acknowledgment that things had gone too far. >> women may 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
8:32 pm
clinton. >> democrat kirsten gillibrand, who holds hillary clinton's old senate seat. >> women's voices matter. >> said in 2017 that bill clinton should resign. >> the kind of behavior that was tolerated long ago can't be tolerated today and we can't allow it to be tolerated today. f into a base you can empty once a month. and unlike standard robots that bounce around, it cleans row by row. if it's not a shark, it's just a robot. ♪ even though ♪ i find you so captivating ♪ and i'm done with hesitating let's see where this goes? save on a gift that says it all. ♪ jared
8:33 pm
make family-sized meals fast, and because it's a ninja foodi, it can do things no other oven can, like flip away.
8:34 pm
the ninja foodi air fry oven, the oven that crisps and flips away. tthe bad news? our so will this recital.day. new depend® fit-flex underwear offers your best comfort and protection guaranteed. because, perfect or not, life's better when you're in it. be there with depend®.
8:35 pm
wthat's why xfinity hasu made taking your internetself. and tv with you a breeze. really?
8:36 pm
yup. you can transfer your service online in about a minute. you can do that? yeah. and with two-hour service appointment windows, it's all on your schedule. awesome. so while moving may still come with its share of headaches... no kidding. we're doing all we can to make moving simple, easy, awesome. go to xfinity.com/moving to get started. president trump refusing to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry. >> they shuchbt be having public hearings. this is a hoax. >> donald trump is refusing to comply with the impeachment
8:37 pm
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. when the president says, no, i won't participate, the whole system is ham strung. the constitution doesn't tell you what should happen next. 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 that impeachment is likely and he wants to be able to run against a partisan
8:38 pm
impeachment in 2020. >> they know they can't win the 2020 election so they're pursuing the insane 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. >> impeach bush. >> impeach bush. >> impeachment went from being something you use only in moments of constitutional crisis -- >> impeach obama. >> to something you use for everyday partisan facts. 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. >> yeah! >> but there were none. and the occupation of iraq was a
8:39 pm
tragic mess. >> bush -- >> an anti-war movement grew quickly and 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 and the vice president. >> impeachment fever would only get worse under the next president. >> change has come to america.
8:40 pm
>> 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 fanatic call opposition to barack obama. in 2010 it propelled a wave of new republicans to congress. >> what does it feel like? >> feels bad. >> this new hyper partisan 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
8:41 pm
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
8:42 pm
president who succeeded lincoln. johnson was a southern democrat whom lincoln had picked to create a national unity ticket. there are few things people agree on but this is one. andrew johnson was one of america's worst presidents. >> he was essentially an incredibly racist neoconfederate who was dead set against congress's program to set this out. >> republicans 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
8:43 pm
members. >> when president johnson fired his secretary of war, edwin stanton, the house approved 11 articles of impeachment against him, one of which accused him of bringing congress to ridicule and grace. >> it 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 office essentially because congress did not like him or his policies. >> johnson basically agreed to cease all of the work. >> destroyers regard the impeachment trap as unconstituti unconstitutional. >> it fell into disrepute. >> it would serve as a warning about a partisan impeachment in a sharply divided country. >> it raises blood pressures and
8:44 pm
in some perverse ways it makes it harder to use when you might really need it. robinhood believes now is the time to do money. without the commission fees. so, you can start investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood. janie, come here. check this out. let me see. she looks... kind of like me. yeah. that's because it's your grandma when she was your age.
8:45 pm
oh wow. that's...that's amazing. oh and she was on the debate team. yeah, that's probably why you're the debate queen. - mmhmm. - i'll take that. look at that smile. i have the same dimples as her. yeah. the same placements and everything. unbelievable. get the perfectly grilled flavors of an outdoor grill indoors, and because it's a ninja foodi, it can do even more, like transform into an air fryer. the ninja foodi grill, the grill that sears, sizzles, and air fry crisps.
8:46 pm
8:47 pm
dana-farber cancer institute discovered the pd-l1 pathway. pd-l1. they changed how the world fights cancer. blocking the pd-l1 protein, lets the immune system attack, attack, attack cancer. pd-l1 transformed, revolutionized, immunotherapy. pd-l1 saved my life. saved my life. saved my life. what we do here at dana-faber, changes lives everywhere. everywhere. everywhere. everywhere. everywhere.
8:48 pm
on this crucial issue, i know that many people have quickly taken up firm and unalterable positions. i have not. i think 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 --
8:49 pm
>> what are you doing? are you looking for a fight? >> -- 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 last 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. nk >> but trump's efforts to pressure the ukrainian government is different. >> it's a country with tremendous potential. >> it appears that acting as president, using the power and machinery of the united states he threatened to withhold taxpayer funds for his personal
8:50 pm
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, invalid, and unconstitutional bull [ bleep ] impeachment. >> 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
8:51 pm
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.
8:52 pm
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. impeachment is a political process, which means public support is vital. >> you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony you shall give today -- >> the inquiry should be
8:53 pm
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 irreversib irreversibly. germany's weimar republics with a well functioning liberal democracy, and within a few short years using legal processes, it become a totalitarian declaration tatership. 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
8:54 pm
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 you get a whole thanksgiving? well you remember what happened last year. you can't bring a backup thanksgiving to my sister's house. it's not like we're going to walk in with it. we'll bring it in as we need it. ...phase it in. phase it in? yeah, phase it in. phase it in? i am totally blind. and non-24 can make me show up too early... or too late. or make me feel like i'm not really "there." talk to your doctor, and call 844-234-2424.
8:55 pm
i'm finding it hard to stay on a faster laptop could help. plus, tech support to stay worry free. worry free...boom boom! get free next business day shipping or ...1 hour in-store pick up shopping season solved at office depot officemax or officedepot.com.
8:56 pm
at schwab, we believe ainvestors come first. we work hard to make you happy. with the right combination of people and technology, so you can work with us the way you want. now with zero commissions on online stock, etf and options trades. part of our mission to make investing more accessible for all. and we're the only firm with a satisfaction guarantee. which is why our zero is better. schwab. a modern approach to wealth management. ♪
8:57 pm
♪ applebee's new sizzlin' entrées. now starting at $9.99. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. here, it all starts withello! hi!... how can i help? a data plan for everyone. everyone? everyone. let's send to everyone! wifi up there? uhh. sure, why not? how'd he get out?! a camera might figure it out. that was easy! glad i could help. at xfinity, we're here to make life simple. easy. awesome. so come ask, shop, discover at your local xfinity store today.
8:58 pm
8:59 pm
television on! >> hbo did a lot of its best work when it was bending a genre. take something that's familiar and give it some chili pepper. >> advertising is based on one thing, happiness. >> is there any taboo that you wouldn't break? >> not if there was a funny idea. >> what is wrong with you? >> there's so much different storytelling and so many different stories being told about so many different people. >> i don't think dramatic series television has ever been stronger. >> there's no longer this theory of what popular entertainment must be. >> incoming! >> who are the heroes? the people who watch this show. ♪
9:00 pm
♪ ♪ this is the week when the major broadcast networks unveil their fall lineup of shows. and every executive in hollywood knows how well "the sopranos" is doing on cable, which is a network problem. >> i think hbo altered everything for this reason alone, is there were no commercials. >> we are dependent on sponsors. there's so much we can do in terms of language, in terms of violence, in terms of sex. >> to a large degree, a lot of executives were just sanding off

91 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on