getting the weakest nominee and they did it. >> watch more from the two reporters who broke the watergate story online at the r span video library. >> you're watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span3. for more information follow us on twitter at c-span history. >> for the next two hours a series of panel skuxs about watergate and his legacy with many key players about white house officials and the reporters who first broke the story. we begin with former white house council john dean, fred thompson and former special prosecutor who discussed the investigation and cover up. this june 11th gathering hosted by "the washington post" post live took place at the watergate office building in washington, d.c. this portion is about 45

minutes. >> good evening, everyone and welcome. i'm mary jordan the editor of washington post live, which is a division of the newspaper cho organizes forums and debates. a very special thanks tonight to washington post chairman don graham and the publisher our hosts. a big thank you to the owner of this historic building that turned over the top floor to us tonight despite their renovations. this evening is a rare gathering of key players in the quarter great scandals. along those on stage, there's a lot of people in audience who loomed large in watergate. i see a couple of them there, alexander butterfield, the man who revealed that there was a

taping system in the oval office came all the way from california for tonight. [ applause ] and earl silver. former u.s. attorney for the district of columbia who prosecuted quite a few of the president's men. for the first time there's a discussion of watergate with those deeply involved in it in the watergate. it was on the sixth floor downstairs in this building that 40 years ago this week there was a botched break-in, burglars, working for president nixon who started it all and forever gave the suffix to every political scandal. those six floor offices are actually open tonight 40 years ago they housed the democratic national committee headquarters, but tonight artists lori munn has done portraits of many of the figures in watergate and i urge you to take a look at your

way out. tonight, we're going to keep the focus forward. how are watergate's lessons relevant today? it's worth remembering that while watergate was a low point for the presidency, it was a high point for congress. the average household in america watched 30 hours of watergate hearings. 30 hours. can you imagine in the age of twitter how that would work? actually, people are probably answering that question at #watergate. we're going to kick things off with a short video and then we're going to hear from a great news man. jim lair author and broadcaster. but right now, please watch this. >> at 10:15 there was a line of cabs and cars outside the paper

of people waiting to buy the first edition. people wanted to read it at that moment. "the post" was reporting information that nobody else was reporting. that was carl bernstein. >> usually when you have a great story it isn't exclusive very long because everybody else jumps on it, but with watergate, i thought if this is so great, where the hell is everybody else. >> there were all these lulls. the story would disappear. and nothing would happen and then woodward and bernstein would write a piece and it would flare up. >> no reporter from the washington post is ever to be in the white house. is that clear?

>> absolutely. yes, sir. >> never in the white house. no church service. nothing. >> what we did was a newspaper's defined job which is to keep the story alive when they were trying to hush it up. >> i had lunch with katherine graham and she asked when is the whole story going to come out? i said that carl and i felt because it was so con keeled it looked like never. i remember she in a very pained way said never? don't tell me never. to have the boss, the publisher understand what we're doing and not just backing it, but saying go all the way, do not give up on this story. don't tell me that. >> we really covered this like local reporters would. if you see the movie all the

president's men, you see the nonglamorous nature of this shoe leather endeavor. >> it was a tribute to the importance of careful reporting. when they started they had no idea. none where this story would lead. >> in the press room it was wall to wall reporters and camera crews. shortly after noon, word came that the president had asked for national television time tonight. >> the president of the united states will address the nation on radio and television from the oval office. >> i shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. >> it was the biggest story of our time and we git it right. >> ynk there's been an event in my life that has had an impact on journalism moreover what carl and bob did was begin to cover the white house as it like to describe it from the outside in, not from the inside out. that's the most important way of

covering not just the white house, but the institution of the presidency. >> watergate also posed questions about what the proper role of congressional investigation might be. >> if you're looking for the moment that people kind of stepped up and did their job in a nonpartisan way it was in february 1973 when the senate was presented with a resolution to set up the watergate committee. the vote was 77-0. >> i was one of the first republicans to split with the party. it was a moment in history in the lessons at that moment that they were going to say that no one person is above the law. no matter how powerful you are in this country you must be held accountable for your adherence. >> watergate led to the creation

of something called the independent prosecutor. a new form of power in washington in a sense a permanent investigation. >> we said, look, we are going to investigate and go to court and speak what we know to be the truth about the evidence. and not the president of the united states taped hms he would have remained in office. >> when richard nixon taped he assumed he would be the only one to listen to those tapes unless he decided to let somebody else listen to it. he owned them. he was the last president to have that assumption. presidential papers became public property as a result of watergate. and that i believe constituted a new check on presidential power. >> the fact that we came out of it whole and with a sense that

believers of government, the balance of power that's written into our constitution in brilliant and living document survived. >> as president richard nixon has drawn crowds to the ellipse south of the white house before, but those were triumphs this was not. >> it was very moving to me to see this extraordinarily powerful country with all the parts and the presidency at the very top of all of that that it is subject to the rules that apply to the most ordinary citizens. the rule of law does not stop at the white house door. watergate demonstrated that.

[ applause ] >> i am jim layer of the pbs newshour best known on this evening as the fellow co-anchor of the senate watergate hearings. first time my partner robert mcneil and i worked together. so here we are and the question is what was watergate? what is it now? what will it be tomorrow and all the tomorrows still to come. in the beginning as mary said and as you all know it was in fact just a piece of real estate. this particular building. unless somebody demolishes it, it doesn't like like it's going to happen anytime soon, it may always be the watergate as a building. but it was always a crime. a crime not of passion. a crime not of greed. but a crime of corruption.

political corruption of constitutions by individuals high and low who saw the need and/or the opportunity to violate laws and standards of personal conduct. their lives were changed forever by what they did. most paid an enormous price in a loss of liberty and a loss of reputation. some of them went on to various forms of public as well as private redemption. watergate the crime also spawned good deeds among people who required from then on a lifelong cloak of admiration and appreciation. they were people of the law and the judiciary of politics in government and of course of journalism. for whom watergate provided an opportunity to do the right thing. and they took that opportunity. many of those folks were also

changed forever by what happened in this building 40 years ago and the events that followed. more generally watergate of course has come to be so much more than a building, a washington crime wave and a series of stunning political events and personal experiences. its meanings now are so broad and so different that just seeing or hearing the word watergate triggers a variety of rorschach tests for us all. watergate, yes, that's when the system worked. a bad president and his fellow bad apples were exposed and banished along with the sins of evil and money driven politics. among many other things. no. no. no. watergate was when the system collapsed. saved only by a lone federal judge, two kid newspaper reporters with adult bosses, a

whistle blower, some white house tapes and a handful of honest united states senators. watergate, a stain, a cleansing, a proud moment, a terrible moment. something to remember with pain and shame or with pride and cheer. take your choice. which we will do now with some of those people who were there 40 years ago. the first three are john dean who was the white house council to president nixon. [ applause ] >> john. fred thompson the chief minority council to republicans on the senate watergate committee.

and the lead prosecutor in the watergate special prosecutor's office. the discussion among them will be moderated by timothy, a hoirveg, former director of the richard nixon presidential library and museum where he created a watergate exhibit. tim, you're on. >> thank you very much. first of all, i want to thank mary jordan and secondly i'm going to sit down. what we're going to do now is set up, set up the story a little bit for you so that those of you who are listening here or watching it on the web and are too young to have either experienced watergate because you were alive at the time or your high school history class didn't get past 1965, we're

going to set it up because we have a remarkable opportunity tonight to listen to people who were there and then we'll take some questions from the audience and pose basically a few of the issues that mr. lehrer posed. i asked john dean to start if you don't know what the crime was, you don't know why there was an investigation. john, will you tell us a little bit about the first week after june 17th, 197 2rk bungled break in here in this building? >> as you know, tim, i have trouble looking at that week from the time i lived it to the time i looked back on it. today i know an awful lot more about that week than i did at that time. i can't help but look at it from hindsight. the cover up really starts within moments of the white house learning about the fact

that five men have been arrested here in this building wearing business suits, rubber gloves, money stashed in their pocket and that they're from the re-election committee. the deputy trekker to have the re-election committee gets an update very quickly as to what's going on tells mcgruder that he's got to get back to washington immediately. does that. they put out a press release very quickly at the re-election committee that is a totally bogus account. one of the men arrested happened to be the head of security at the re-election committee. jim mccord. so it starts right at that moment and quickly unfolds that first week where it really casts the dye. i had to have been personally in manila giving a grigs speech. made my first mistake when i

came home. i did and went in the office on monday. i got a call from mcgruder amongst others. mcguder says you've got to talk to gordon liddy. he says why aren't you talking to him? he said i can't talk to him. i said what's wrong? he threatened to kill me. i met with liddy and cob r confesses that not only has he been involved in the watergate, but two of the men in the d.c. jail were involved in an earlier operation on behalf of the white house to break into daniel elseberg's psychiatric office. it's at that moment that i realized we've got really big problems and i don't have a clue what to do with them. my pred sesz so far who had been white house council, one of the things i said to him very early in the conversations after reporting what i knew, john, we probably need a criminal lawyer here. he dismissed that. i realize that if there was

anything that was essential at the white house it was that richard nixon have the most talented criminal lawyer that was available. that be didn't happen to be the case. we proceed from there trying to gather the information as to what's going on. the dye is cast that week. one of the more interesting bits that happened is nixon calls john mitchell when he gets back to washington from the residence. not a recorded call. the call was reported not on the eob phone, but the room phone. it's a fascinating conversation where mitchell is tole by the president that he thinks that the matter can be controlled and he comes up with a plan to have a cuban committee in miami raise money and protect and support these people who have been arrested.

i think a committee that had been made public was to publicize it and promote it for political reasons would have been an obstruction of justice. it would have been legitimate. we didn't do that. he starts turning to the white house to get help to raise the money and that will get us across the line to an obstruction of justice. >> one of the key things was to keep the number of indictments down, right? there are five people who were arrested in this building. >> that's correct. >> there are two more across the street. hunt and liddy. that appeared quickly that howard hunt his name was found in first a notebook but also in a remarkable document in the room of the burglars next door

at the hotel where hunt had written a check to a country club out in maryland for $6.36 for his out of state dues asking bernard barker to mail it from florida so he could remain in out of state status. a pretty sure clue there was some trouble. not only did the police and the fbi find this immediately, so did the media because the washington post had one of its better police reporters right there in the room i have now learned all these years later covering that particular activity. >> now this is serious business, but there's a little by that's keystone cops about it. they also had stacks of money didn't they? >> in their pocket. >> stacks of money which would later be important when you had to follow the must be. >> they didn't follow the bills, but they quickly tracked bernard barker's bank account and found he had very large transactions.

it's interesting historically we know that liddy could have cashed those checks at the rigs bank. instead he sends them to miami to barker to have it cashed and it immediately raises the antenna of the fbi that this might be the source of the money when they get sloan when earl brings him in. i'm glad earl is here tonight he was certainly instrumental in those early days of unraveling this. >> one last part before we move on to the senator. in september of 1972 you meet with president nixon and he's happy. why is he happy? >> he's happy because there's only seven people who have been arrested. they stop at hunt and liddy and the people who are actually in this building. how many get arrested in the end? >> i lost count. >> a lot. 30, 40. >> the cover up's working. senator, john was about 33 this

time. 34. >> when the break-in occurs? >> 33. >> you're 30 years old. you've been working on howard baker's come campaign in 1972. in february of '73 he calls you and what does he ask you to do? >> well, he asked me to consider becoming council on the watergate committee. told about the formation of the you are back committee. he was going to be the ranking member. and as the ranking republican he had to right to use council for the republicans. as a republican, it's wonderful to be back at another water watergate celebration. our boys left a mess, didn't didn't they? >> what was the state of play? when you're asked to be minority council and the white house thought you were quite young, 30. what's the state of play? is this some kind of -- >> how do you and the senator

view this? is this a real investigation? are you concerned it's an attempt to get the president? how partisan is it at that point? >> most of my concerns were practical ones. i had on the campaign trail with senator baker and was trying to get my law practice re-established. i had an assistant united states attorney there. and so i had not kept up with it at all. i remember something about a break-in and when i came up in february it was just the most rudement tri information i had. most of it from the washington post. i think most of us thought in typical campaign fashion that there were some young, inexperienced, overaggressive people who had done some things

that were stupid that didn't notice that some of the people who got caught weren't that young. but maybe pulling the strings behind the scene. and that certainly never occurred to me that the president of the united states, for example, or his key people would be involved in something so ridiculous from both from a moral standpoint and from a practical standpoint. as you remember it was a totally botched job from every way imaginable. they practically left a blueprint for the law enforcement authorities to follow the whole thing. these were supposed to be cia experienced people. so it was bizarre. and it was clearly important because it had to do with the congress of the united states and the president. >> how important was this man's testimony before your committee?

>> well, it was all important. it was -- it was the key testimony before the committee. and without his -- i've always thought about how -- how unique this situation was in that so many things came together to end the results that we did. you had to have a willing press that was aggressive and of course we certainly had that. you had to have a deep throat in this case. you had to have a -- a not necessarily -- you had in this case the white house council. john here who was testifying. who was willing to testify about conversations. the president gave him permission to do that. and then you had a taping system. i don't think without -- maybe

if you didn't have either of those four you would not have had the rul that you had. certainly that pertains to john's testimony. richard, how important was john dean's testimony? >> it was very, very important. but to fred's litany i would add two other things. you would have to have an opposing party controlling the senate. and you had to have a judge who was willing to follow the evidence and to be aggressive in not allowing his courtroom to be used to still further a cover up. so i watched john dean's

testimony before i was appointed to the special prosecutor's office. i saw this young man only four years older than i. i was an assistant u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york at the time. and i saw him drone on and on in that john dean monotone. for hours and hours and i listened to the content. i absolutely could not believe that richard nixon the arch strategist whether or not i had other opinions about him, i think that he would be the type of person to allow a young man, inexperienced as john dean was to have as much authority as john dean seemed to have according to his testimony. >> and certainly not to have richard nixon incriminate himself in the ways that john

dean had suggested in his testimony rather explicitly that he had involved himself in a criminal cover up. so it was not until much later after i was pointed after we did our information and most importantly after we were able to hear richard knicksson and his closest advisors on tape. >> let me finish that thought. >> that john dean testimony became solidified as unimpeachable. >> there were people in this audience who think of fred thompson as a dramatic performer in law and order. for historians, fred thompson's greatest role was when he asked a particular question to alexander butterfield. would you please set that up. that changes the whole investigation. maybe i'll say his life, i don't know.

but the whole investigation. senator, tell us about asking alexander butterfield the big question. >> well this was a monday, the friday afternoon before staff had come to us and said we've just been interviewing a guy by the name of alexander butterfield. we went to urban and baker. they decided we needed to immediately get in before the cameras.