believe mai me my wife and i have answered more questions than anybody in public life, and we'll probably have to continue to. and i regret it. i have a right to demand that the system is fair. if somebody is going to follow me around, they better follow me around and they better print all the facts. >> just to follow up on tom's question, if you feel you don't have to answer about adultery and whether or not the relationship was monogamous, why is it necessary to say whether or not you in fact had sexual relations with donna rice? >> a lot of difference between one person and her reputation than getting into the most intimate aspects of a long-term marriage. and i don't intend to stress my wife out. >> senator, can you please tell us -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> you are campaign this week --

you are cutting -- your aides say you wanted to spend more time together with your wife. is that a factor or what? >> that will be a result of. that obviously i wanted that. >> senator can you tell us specifically when in the course of this campaign you have seen donna rice? and tell us exactly when, and all the times. >> all very repetitious. i met miss rice at a party of 40 or 50 people or more and asked her, i think new year's day or the next day. i did not remember her name. subsequently, and not any time before, i went aboard the boat after a fund-raising event in miami with mr. broadhurst and mr. broadhurst alone. there was no -- there were no invitations for anyone to join us. there was no plan for anyone to join us. i was there for a day and a half or two to relax. about 11:30 that night, a group

of about a dozen or 15 people showed up at the boat. then having dinner the man who came on board the boat knew the owner and said i want to show my friends this boat can we come aboard. we said of course. the crew took them aboard. they circulated on the boat. we talked to a few of them, said hello, how are you. talked about miami or anything else. i don't know. miss rice came up, introduced herself, said we met -- you won't recall this but we met at mr. henley's party in aspen. you were with your wife, i was helping serve the meal. i generally remembered that. we talked 15 minutes. i talked 30 or 40 minutes to other people in that party, men and women. i went up above and down below. her conversation and mine took place in a space no bigger than

that and could not have been more than ten minutes. she said i've never been involved with a campaign, i'd like to, maybe i can help with entertainers, how do you do that. i said leave her name, i can tell you i did not remember her last name. she wrote down her name and address and number. and left it on the boat. then came the ibmany trip. then the only other time i saw her was this weekend in washington. that's it. >> did you ever have intimate relationships with donna rice while you were separated or not. >> no. >> senator, you are indicating that you made a mistake. has your -- apart from the allegations of sexual impropridy has your image suffered in another way in that you will be perceived as someone who attends don henley parties and goes on

vacations on expensive yachts. and is more of a jet-setter than you would like. >> i think i had on jeans at don henley's house, as others did. there were all kinds of people there. i have known people in the entertainment industry for many years. people in colorado knew that. some of those people campaigned for me in 1980. that's no secret. people know who i am. >> senator you indicated that you made a mistake in judgment in permitting these appearances of improprietiy. you have been in politics for a long time. you have run for president before. even accepting your version of events, some people in politics have suggested that this suggests sort of a recklessness on your part, flirting with danger, if you will. can you address that issue? >> i once said i love dang he. i don't love it that much. no. i just didn't use good judgment that's all. i used very poor judgment.

>> senator -- >> i shouldn't have done it. if i were up to anything that i shouldn't have been, i sure wouldn't have done it that way. >> senator -- can you senator just describe how you perceive your relationship with miss rice, what kind of a friendship or what -- >> friendship. she's intelligent. attractive, obviously. but we don't -- you don't form that kind of relationship that's being suggested here in that space of time. >> senator the washington times reported that a passenger on the plane that miss rice flew on had seen an inscription in a book that said something in lieu of flowers, until we meet, love gary. did you make that inscription. >> i don't think i made that inscription. i probably made one that i

shouldn't have. it didn't reflect on any intimacy. i suppose i sign or distribute dozens of one book or another that i've written over a period of time, and probably in the space of a week or two, maybe in the hundreds. i cannot -- i frankly will tell you cannot recall what i said in there. but i might have said something like that, but i couldn't verify. >> senator hart, how is your fund-raising going? will this affect it adversely. >> we obviously -- as i said, two tests we've had of that, one in new york last night, which is a difficult time to raise money in. i've been trying over the years. we exceeded both anticipation and the revenue we targeted. to my knowledge, there were -- no one dropped out of. that i think some of you may have been there, and i think you can verify the atmosphere in the room. i thought it was quite warm. i didn't run into anyone there

who said you have got serious problems on your hands or this is my last act ever support. in fact it was quite the opposite. the personal response that i got ahead of time was very, very positive. our -- in routine, obviously intensified over the last two or three days. our campaign has been in contact with our key financial supporters, and even they obviously -- well not obviously -- have been under siege from other candidates trying to pick me off. to my knowledge, and i don't want to be categorical here because i can't be, no one has acknowledged there interest in leaving. >> some people think your relationship and dealings with miss rice indicate a certain willingness to take risks considering the situation you were in. >> that's what we were talking about. >> others ask if you are willing to take these kinds of risks

when you are the frn in a campaign for president what kind of risk taking would you be engaging in as president? >> as i said earlier, i think in response to mr. shogun's question or someone over here, we were talking about the issue of judgment and character. my position is -- and i feel very strongly about it, that character and judgment, among other quality of leadership, determination, will, commitment, and the rest, competent tent are tested over time and are tested in a variety of ways. i would submitted -- and i think a fair assessment of my character and judgment and leadership ability would have to include my entire public life, and indeed as it has my entire personal life before that public life. and i'm perfectly willing to submit that entire life to scrutiny. other people in public life have made mistakes. some of them have been a lot worse than mine. some of them have gone on to

become presidents, some of them have become very good presidents. some of them hundreds of years after they have been brilliant presidents are still scrutinized in their personal lives. i've learned a lot in the last few days. i've already suggested that the major lesson is even innocently, you can't do something that's going to give anybody the impression of something that's not innocent. but i also learned that there is a terrible terrible price to pay for being in public life these days. >> we have time for two more questions. two more questions. go, kevin. >> people in the american public looking at your relationship with this woman, knowing that you had thrown down gauntlet as it were to the press corps saying follow me, that was a risk. would you say it was risky what you did? >> i didn't think so, of it at the time in terms of as i say, going to din e inviting these people into my house to see it and me going out that afternoon

having worked all morning on the speech that i gave yesterday. any of those individual actions is risky. looking back on it now, if someone had said ahead of time, if you did this, if you did this, if you did this, and if you did this, could that be interpreted this way? obviously. but i was tired. i didn't think about it that way. i was not calculating anything. i just did what seemed to come naturally because it was innocent. >> senator, when we had the conversation on the plane where you said follow me, i have two questions. one, there was a young woman on the plane who is described as a friend of mr. broadhurst. was that donna rice. >> what plane were we on? >> the plane from austin to denver. >> no. there was not donna rice. >> where do you rank adultery on the list of acts by which you judge a politician or a

president. ? >> i'd like to follow up on julia's question, how are you to persuade us or anyone who has looked at this story given that you did sign a book with this woman, did you go on a cruise with her, you spent relaxed casual time with her in washington -- how can you convince us or anyone that your story is true? what can you tell us. >> i can tell you the facts and leave it up to you and the public to believe them. if you don't believe me, there is nothing i can do. i have told you the facts, mr. broadhurst told you the facts, ms. rice has told you the facts. that's the best we can do. next on road to the white house rewind, democratic candidate gary hart withdraws from the 1988 presidential race less than a month after his campaign began. the former colorado senator facedle gagss of a extramarital affair with a miami woman named donna rice. in this ten minute event in denver, the former colorado senator continued to deny the

affair saying he was quitting the race to spare his family and friends from quote further rumors and gossip. michael dukakis won the 1988 democratic nomination but lost to george h.w. bush in the general election. >> thank you very much. [ applause ] apologize fore being late. there was a little traffic coming down bear creek canyon this morning. i intended, quite frankly, to come down here this morning and read a short carefully worded political statement saying that i was withdrawing from the race, and then quietly disappear from the stage. and then after frankly tossing and turning all night, as i have for the last three or four nights, i woke up about 4:00 or 5:00 this morning with a start. and i said to myself, hell no!

[ cheers and applause ] and i'm not going to do that -- i'm not going to do that because it's not my style, and because i'm a proud man and i'm proud of what i've accomplished. [ applause ] let's hold down the applause. thank you. i appreciate it, but let's get through this. now, clearly, leigm and i have never had a tougher week, but i'm not a beaten man. i'm an angry and defiant man. i have said that i bend, but i don't broke. and believe me, i'm not broken. so instead of -- instead of getting this over fast, i'm going to just kind of talk a while about this week and the

times that we're in. frankly, the hardest part about making this decision has been my children. they are both more angry and confused than i've ever seen them in their lives. and very frankly, they are angry at me, their father. they don't want me to get out of this race. and you know, i believe that there are also a lot of angry and confused voters out around this country. what i have to say here is both for my children and for those voters. since getting into politics a long time ago, there are at least two things i haven't been very good at, talking about myself, and playing the political game. but i've never felt the voters really cared about either one of those things, frankly. they are smart enough to know who you are without you telling them. you look them in the eye and you talk to them and they decide whether you are telling the truth or not. so i haven't spent a lot of time

and effort trying to create an image. i am who i am, take it or leave it. [ applause ] and frankly -- and frankly, i'm pretty happy with who i am. and evidently, some voters have been also. i haven't based my campaigns on the support of politicians even though some of them are my very best friends. with all due respect, most politicians, with the exception of a few with great courage wait to see how political events are breaking before risking their political capital. and i understand that. but what this means together with the rest of it is that i guess i've become some kind of a bear bird, some extraordinary creature that has to be dissected by those who analyze politics to find out what makes them tick. well, i resist that. and so then i become cool and aloof or elusive or enigmatic or whatnot and then the more people

want to talk about me, the more i resist it, and so on. so it gets to be like the cat chasing its tail. now, a number of friends of mine around the country will tell you that in the weeks leading up to this race i gave serious thought to not running for president. in many ways, i didn't want to. it's because i had a to do a number of these profiles and i could see what was happening. i was going to be the issue. now, i don't want to be the issue. and i cannot be the issue. because that breaks the link between me and the voters. and that's what i tried to explain to my children. if someone is able to throw up a smoke screen and keep it up there long enough, you can't get your message across. you can't raise the money to finance a campaign. there is too much static, and you can't communicate. in the final analysis, the american people decide what qualities are important to govern this country in the national interests. and they haven't been heard from yet.

the last public event we did was the night before last in littleton, new hampshire. there were maybe 100, 150 people there, the height of this circus. and not one question about me. people there wanted to know about everything from south africa to aids, to yirld, to day care, to job training, to central america, and the list went on. i doubt any of that got on the evening news. and that's the point. in public life, some things may be interesting, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are important. whether i changed my name or still owe campaign debts may be interesting at least for a while. but for most people in this country that's not what concerns them. for the farmers in amarillo, the oil field workers in louisiana, the steelworkers in pennsylvania, i can tell you because i've listened to them, they want jobs. their kids want a chance to get an education. and like all of the rest of us

they don't want to be killed by some nuclear weapon. but if you are going of to to spend all your time talking about yourself and you are not particularly good about that anyway, then you cannot maintain that link with the voters that lets you listen to their concerns and offer your ideas and proposals. and that's about where we are today. now, clearly, under present circumstances, this campaign cannot go on. i refuse to submit my family and my friends and innocent people and myself to further rumors and gossip. it's simply an intolerable situation. i believe i would have been a successful candidate, and i know i could have been a very good president, particularly for these times. but apparently now we'll never know. i've had the support of some of the most talented people in this country, particularly young people and i want to say to all of them today, march on. there's a lot of work to do. we're all going to have to seriously question the system for selecting our national leaders that reduces the press

of this nation to hunters and presidential candidates to being hunted, that has reporters in bushes, false and inaccurate stories printed. photographers peeking in our windows, swarms of helicoptering hovering over our roof and my very strong wife close to tears because she can't even get in her own house at night without being harass. and then after all that ponder outside pundits wonder why some of the best minds this this country choose not to run for high office. i want those talented people who supported me to insist that this system be changed. too much of it is just a mockery. and if it continues to destroy people's integrity and honor, then that system will eventually destroy itself. politics in this country, take it from me, is on the verge of becoming another form of athletic competition or sporting match. we all better do something to make this system work or we're

all going to be soon rephrasing jefferson to say, i tremble for my country when i think we may in fact get the kind of leaders we deserchlt i say to my children and other frustrated and angry young people, i'm angry, too. i've made some mistakes. i said so. i said i would because i'm human. and i did, maybe big mistakes, but not bad mistakes. but i'm an idealist, and i love this country deeply, and i want to serve this country. events of this week should not deter any of you who are idealistic young people from moving on and moving up. i would say to the young people of this country the torch of idealism burns bright in your hearts. it should lead you into public service and national service. it should lead service. it should lead you to want to make this country better. and whoever you are and whatever you do in that cause, at least in spirit, i will be with you. thank you very much.

[ applause ] tonight you've been watching some of our american history tv programming in primetime. you'll find us here every weekend on c-span 3. we'll take you live to conferences, symposiums and historical sites, on american artifacts go behind the scenes with us to museums and archives. and travel with us to the nation's classrooms, where you'll hear from college and university professors on lectures in history. as the 2016 campaign continues watch past white house campaigns on road to the white house rewind. and journey with us on real america, which showcases documentaries and other archival films. over the next few weeks watch for our airings of portions from the 1975 church committee hearings, investigating the intelligence activities of the cia, fbi, irs, and nsa.

look for all of our programming every weekend on c-span 3. >> every week leading up to the 2016 elections "road to the white house rewind" brings you archival coverage of presidential races. next, a u.s. information agency film on the 1968 campaign. titled "a private decision," it chronicles the race from the first primaries in new hampshire to the surprise withdrawal of president lyndon johnson from the race. through robert kennedy's assassination and the national political conventions to richard nixon's victory over hubert humphrey in the general election. during the cold war the u.s. films made films for international audiences and by law they couldn't be shown in the u.s. until 12 years after they were produced. this half hour film is courtesy of the national archives.

>> the political situation here in new hampshire. the rest of the country is still watching. >> once every four years when the united states turns its attention to choosing a leader, a small snowy state in the northeastern corner of the country becomes the political center of the nation. >> new hampshire clearly wants richard nixon to be the next president of the united states. >> the final campaigning is under way in the new hampshire presidential primary. on the republican side richard nixon is urging new hampshire republicans to give him a big send-off in his quest for the gop presidential nomination. >> new hampshire signals the start of the national presidential campaign by holding the first primary election of the year. so the men who then wanted to be president, richard nixon, michigan's governor george romney, and senator eugene mccarthy from minnesota, drew national attention to new hampshire as they started the campaign with road treks through the snow, hoping these visits

would bring them victory in this first voter test, where one man from each political party would win the state's support at the political conventions in the summer. laconia is a small town in new hampshire. the most popular pastime in winter is dog sled racing. the problems that concern other parts of the country may seem far away, but behind its placid landscape and its comfortable homes laconia's people were aware of the challenges their country faced in this election year. and many became actively involved in the primary campaign. kim wilson lives in laconia. like many of his neighbors he is a member of the republican party. this year he is chairman of the laconia chamber of commerce. and he owns the town's camera store.

>> if you're familiar with super 8 cameras, ed, this is the one that loads with the drop-in cartridge. >> he cares deeply about the future of his country and he's concerned about the way the government spends money, including his tax money. he thinks the republican administration can do a better job. and jim thinks there is one man who can do it best. jim is a nixon man. >> there's absolutely no advantage for nixon to come and debate because as long as nixon stays in the background, says nothing, romney just digs a deeper hole and buries himself. >> with romney right now is -- >> but his wife, ann, is still considering other candidates. >> i think he's middle of the road. >> that's beside the point. >> there were others in laconia

who did not show ann's pessimistic appraisal of senator mccarthy. one is ronald callahan. like jim ron is a businessman. he runs a family-owned electronics firm. he is a member of the democratic party. in 1964 ron had voted for president johnson. but this year deeply disturbed by the war in vietnam he had decided to work for the election of senator eugene mccarthy. >> clearly, though -- >> mccarthy was opposed to the course of the war and had challenged the president for the democratic nomination. >> but the war has taken so much money out of the economy. the war on poverty. what johnson called the great society. so much punch has been taken out of what he tried to do because of the war that it's become a marker. >> put somebody else in if you think he's wrong.

>> we'll do that. >> the laconia chamber of commerce sponsored a series of breakfasts for all the candidates and ron and jim and their wives ann and dotty attended them all. and ron got his first close look at the man he wanted to see win. [ applause ] >> as i see the campaign in '68 the issue of vietnam itself is a vital one of course and you could pass a harsh judgment on that. or if it were isolated altogether from my domestic consequences or any other international consequences. but underneath all of this i think is a fundamental judgment that we're called upon to make as to what the real role of america is. to what direction do we want to give america? what influence do we want it to have on the rest of the world? and i say this is the

fundamental test we have to face up to in the electoral process of the year 1968. >> richard nixon came to town a few days later, and jim had a chance to meet and talk with the man who was his personal choice for the presidency. nixon had the most practical experience of all the candidates. as vice president in the eis eisenhower administration he had been actively involved in running the country for eight years. nixon was a man that republicans had always been able to count on. he attended thousands of dinners and rallies to help the republican cause. the people he helped remembered and appreciated his work. and it was this personal contact with thousands of ordinary americans that was to become the backbone of the nixon campaign. >> it was my pleasure to have

mr. nixon here as speaker when i came into office this past year. >> i know he mentioned being here. >> you know, we have to really promote sled dogging in all our winter events over here. >> jim was pleased to have nixon as his guest at the world championship dog sled races. >> doing about an hour and 10 minutes. >> i've seen it in alaska and i've seen it in laconia. it's a pleasure to have you here again. >> good to see you. >> you have my vote. i want you to know that -- >> he promised nixon his vote and he went to work to fulfill that promise by working for the nixon campaign in laconia.

>> don't we have any other choice, jim? >> well, there are quite a few choices. are you a true johnson democrat? >> all the way. i think that he's handling things as well as they can be handled. >> 74, 67. >> the democrats who were supporting the president had organized an intensive write-in campaign, urging voters tone doris the administration by writing president johnson's name on the democratic ballot. in effect asking him to run again. >> i'd say some more work has to be done on election day to better this. >> be sure to write in the name of president johnson. >> senator mccarthy was a newcomer to presidential politics. and since many democrats were supporting the