carl bernstein is one half of the woodward and bernstein team that broke the watergate scandal, so he knows a lot about political scandals. welcome to the program. >> i think we need to back up a bit and say right off the bat that this is not watergate or anything resembling watergate. watergate was a massive criminal conspiracy led by a. we're talking total apples and oranges here. . th that. >> when you see coverage of this especially programs on the right, on the fox channel, do you see it as a target for hillary clinton? >> this is about an idealogical scorched earth politics that prevails in washington on capitol hill and by the media that goes way beyond fox. it goes to the web, it goes to msnbc to some extent. it also goes to general coverage. examined in a fact-based way, lower the temperature. it's not about criminal presidencies or anything of the kind. it's about finding out what happened, and it's not difficult to do in a sane atmosphere. we don't have a sane atmosphere. >> by someone who helped write a book about hillary clinton, do you look at her and think it's probably

many have called this a policy of watergate, earlier i talked to carl bernstein to see if he agreed.created the benchmark for scandal. and of course ever thereafter, everybody wants to say this is another watergate. i want to ask you has there been another watergate since watergate? >> watergate was about a criminal president of the united states who presided over a criminal presidency for virtually the whole of his time. as the president of the united states. and was recognized as such particularly by his fellow republicans who led the efforts to have them removed from office when he finally left. barry goldwater, the great conservative senator from arizona marched down to the white house with a group of republican leaders finally and said mr. president, you must resign. this was about a criminal president, nothing we have seen since it is about a criminal president of the united states. >> how about benghazi? >> and benghazi is certainly not about a criminal president of the united states or anything of the kind. however, in terms of the immediate memo that is causing such noise in

he is on a par with bob woodward and carl bernstein. c-span: you've got a quote in the book that he said something to a woman by the name of leslie bennetts. who is she? >> guest: leslie bennetts had just been hired as a reporter for the new york times. she'd come in from the philadelphia bulletin after many years as a reporter in philadelphia. c-span: sy hersh wrote the my lai massacre story. >> guest: he won a pulitzer for it. not for the times. he was then working for an independent news service. c-span: but here you have -- you said, "'and then,' leslie recounted, 'he turned to me'" -- meaning sy hersh "said in the angriest tone of voice, 'you know perfectly well you never would have been hired if it hadn't been for the women's suit, don't you?'" >> guest: leslie bennetts was hired in 1978. it's amazing the number of talented women who were hired in 1978, which was the year that the lawsuit against the times for sex discrimination was settled in favor of the women who had brought the suit. there's a whole class of 1978, i found out.