today, bob bauer published this at lawfare in which he argues something that made lawyers and politiciansrs stand up on end all over washington. bob bauer in a new piece just published says, you know, when the justice department determined in watergate that a sitting president, ie richard nixon, could not be criminally indicted, could not be criminally charged holding the office of president, they came to that conclusion because they reasoned it would be too disruptive to the presidency if a president faced criminal charges. well, bob bauer argues today that by the end of watergate even though nixon wasn't ever criminally charged and he couldn't be criminally charged while he was in office, by the end of the watergate investigation, president nixon was so politically disabled by the investigation into watergate that the idea that an investigation itself wouldn't be disabling to a president but an indictment would be, that was just proven false by the way we lived through that scandal as a nation. and you follow that logic to its conclusion and you get to the part that freaked people out t

>> >> my conduit to the president whom i was first introduced to has been bob bauer former white house counsel who has been barack obama's personal attorney since the beginning of the presidential campaign back in 2007 coming forward. so, mr. bauer is someone with whom i interacted very regularly starting in the summer of 2013. >> his wife is anita dunn? >> exactly. and that's exactly how this came to pass, because anita dunn was one of the two primary figures running the 2004 senate campaign of one of barack's democratic opponents in illinois, blair hull. and i had gone to see ms. dunn to talk with her about the hull campaign not really appreciating that her husband was one of the people closest to president obama. >> have you talked to either bob bauer or anita dunn about this book since it's come out? >> no. i received my first copy of the book on a saturday and we had arranged for two copies to be delivered to bob bauer, i believe on that following tuesday, so that he could pass those two finished books along to president obama and president obama's press shop. again, that was just

joining me now senator elizabeth holtzman and bob bauer. , in my experience, people that served as white house tend to be executive power maximalists. i wonder if you think it's fine for someone who serves in an administration to sort of proactively not answer on the off chance that privilege might be invoked over those conversations? >> i don't think it was inadvertent. i think this was a quite deliberate strategy to not have the president invoke executive privilege, which would have been highly controversial, but in effect have attorney general sessions come to the same place. he didn't alert the committee that this was an issue. he came prepared to argue this vague confidentiality concern that was linked to executive privilege but not at all clear. i think it got him out of the immediate problem of having the president stand on the privilege, which would have been of course major news and very controversial. >> did you ever send someone out or have consultations when you were in the white house in which you outlined a similar approach for

received my first copy of the book on a saturday and we had arranged for two copies to be delivered to bob bauerthat following tuesday so that he could ask those two finished books to president obama and president obama's press shop. that was my sense of what good manners are. even when you still have remaining disagreements. brian: i'm going to make an attempt and hold it up so the camera can see how big this book is. i don't think in the 28 years this program has been on the air, that we have come close to a book this size. why did you want a 1500-page book, or why would a publisher want a 1500-page book selling for $45 retail? david: my purpose for this book was to produce a book of record that folk will still be using and relying upon 25, 35 years from now. i began reading about barack in early 2008 when he won the iowa caucuses and burst onto the political scene as a serious presidential contender. all throughout 2008, i was disappointed by the quality and depth of journalism about his earlier life. i thought that the mainstream media was simply doing -- being insufficiently curious about h

. >> bob bauer, former white house counsel to president barack obama. you very much for your time. hope you come back and talk to ah gain soon. >>> i have more questions on this topic. particularly tonight on the senate investigation side of this which seems to be heating up very fast. we have a member of the senate judiciary committee on this show tonight. that's ahead. plus, lots more. stay with us. hey katy, i'm going to go ahead and invade your personal space to run some things by you. it's going to look like i'm listening but i'm actually just paying attention to nugget. cool. i'll pretend you're answering the questions i have. i'll scroll through my feed and avoid making eye contact. i'm just going to keep hovering. wouldn't it be great if everyone said what they meant? hovering away. boo boo boo [making noise at nugget] the citi® double cash card does. only citi lets you earn 1% cash back when you buy, and 1% as you pay. the citi® double cash card. double means double. you know new pantene.r tangles the minute you wash it? the first shampoo with