al haig, chief of staff, called me. i can't remember exactly what he said. but he said we forgot one thing. what was that? we forgot the resignation letter. i said that's very interesting, al, i'd be interested in reading it. he said, you do not get it. you need to write it. don't you think the president ought to write his own resignation letter? they said, look, he is in no place to do it. we need you to write the resignation letter. i said, al, i do not know what to say. first of all, to whom does the president resign? >> how long was the letter? >> it is very short. they did not spend much time writing it. there is only one copy of that letter. it was sent to henry kissinger, secretary of state. there are many, many, many xeroxes of this letter. richard nixon would later sign them. you will see on ebay lots of copies of the letter for sale. there is only one. it is in washington -- not at the nixon library. we borrowed it. >> after all, 149 interviews -- a total of what? >> 300 hours. 350 hours. it is all public domain. >> why aren't you writing a book ab

foreign policy if indeed haig will go to his top man in the defense the difference between hale and his predecessors is this hagel has been there done that ok hagel served in war he was an infantry noncommissioned officer wounded twice to two purple hearts he knows what war is like that means a difference and when haig will says he would be very very careful about employing our forces in fool's errands such as afghanistan god help us iran somalia game and the rest of it he's going to be a worthy stand up against people like brennan who don't know the half of it and who never served our country's armed forces what about his attitude towards israel he's been accused of speaking out against the influence of the israeli lobby there in the us is that something that will be a stumbling block for his nomination higgle famously said one time i'm not the senator from israel i'm the senator from america. now. doesn't that make good sense on the face of it would somebody be open to criticism for that kind of the you know it shows it shows how delicate this question is in our country that he can't

. >> chuck haig settle not a responsible option. >> he has people going against him. >> john brennan direct of the central intelligence agency. >> while i consider myself neither a republican or democrat democrat. >> brennan has a little bit of baggage to become c.i.a. >> i think the president likes the idea of an antagonistic nomination. >> he chose petraeus because he resigned in the wake of the sex scandal into well, as you saw chuck hagel former republican senator from nebraska, nominated to be secretary of defense today by the president himself. let's watch. >> obama: chuck hagel is the leader that our troops deserve. he is an an american patriot. he volunteered for the army and vietnam. he represents the bipartisanship that we need more of in washington. for his independence and commitment to consensus he has earned the respect of national security and military leaders republicans and democrats including me. in the senate i came to admire his courage and judgment, his willingness to speak his mind even if it wasn't popular. >> cenk: get a load of that. he is a republican, but t

haig seems to be asleep or unconscious.hite period and with eyes still closed sergeant haig as you see here reached his hand out to shake with the president. very dramatic. >> controversial new movie open today's about the hunt for osama bin laden. senate intelligence committee wants answers about the making of zero dark 30 and protestors in the bay area are worried that the film sends the wrong message. more now from 7 news reporter mark matthews. movie zero cashing 30 business the hunt for osama bin laden. it is obviously based on true story. narrative strongly suggests that cia water boarding of prisoners is what led to the killing of bin lade laden. outside the amc 16 emeryville members of the world can't wait amnesty international staged a protest. trying to dissuade move aev ie goers from seeing the film. they are worried it will approve of torture. >> have we lost our morale compass. that's how i feel in when i hear this kind of stuff and gloor ification of torture. >>reporter: people come out of the movie had the sa

maybe they made a deeper calculation they want want to have haig in israel because he was a touch pointve doubts about that. let's just say that were true. it doesn't matter in the end. if you are -- this is a political game. if the point is, if you didn't want to the basically rile up folks one way or the other, chuck hagel is someone who is very clearly about not making false choices between one side of america's equation and the middle east and the other side. that means hugging israel closely but doesn't mean sticking other allies in the eye. >> you brought up what you think might be the root of what this disagreements is about which is his world view. >> right. >> what is america's role in the world. bob bood ward quoted hagel in a meeting that he had with president obama back in 2009 where bob woodward believes this is where president obama became intrigued by the idea of bringing hagel into his administration. apparently hagel said to him we are at a time where there is a new world order. we don't control it. you must question every assumption. any assumption ten years old is out

senator haig settle hagel is a leader of independent mind, he has a deep background in foreign policy and matters. he has two purple hearts. this was a gutsy nomination by the president to put him forward. this is where the policies align very well with the president and that's what the american people asked for in the election in november. >> john: how much of this criticism has to do with mr. hagel and how much is directed at president obama. >> right now there is a battle within the republican party for the direction of their foreign policy. there are realists and chuck hagel comes from that camp. and then there are the neo-conservatives, lindsey graham start from south carolina, bill kristol more of that camp. chuck hagel opposed the surge in iraq quite vocally in 2007 and for that he has been seen as a bit an outlier in foreign policy republican foreign policy circles. we're going to see this play out in the next several weeks. >> john: let's talk about the specific controversy. what is chuck hagel's specific record when it comes to israel. >> he has been a long and historyic sup

al haig called me and he said we forgot one thing, we forgot a resignation letter. >> i said i would be glad to read it. >> he said you don't get it. you need to write it. >> i thought the best way was not for me as an historian, was for the players, the key people from that era to tell the story themselves. i thought the best way to do this was to start a video oral history program that involve the the nixon players but also players and the watergate drama from the left and right and have them tell the story and use portions of that story in the museum to lead visitors understand the complexity of the constitutional drama about a former head of the nixon presidential library and museum details the library's oral history project tonight at 8:00 on >> this morning a roundtable discussion on the agenda for the new congress. then a look at the salaries of

chuck haig segel is a continuatn that.hen he had to, he stared down petraeus. [ overlapping speakers ] >> you guys have john boldin after saying this is clinton with somehow faking her concussion. >> i didn't say that. the president can have who he wants. i like chuck hagel. if he gets it, i'm fine with it. >> suppose your guy won the race the guy you thought would win. and he put boldin in, the strange mustache guy. would they have put him in there? >> i don't think romney would have put bolton in. >> let's talk about the fiscal cliff. that's behind us. that turkey's behind us. >> we got others. >> we have lived through bill clinton. whatever you say about bill clinton, he knew how to deal with these people saying shut down the government. go ahead. i'll have my pizza. you go ahead. >> he'll have other things. >> whatever else you say. what happened? newt looked like a fool. he looked like a fool. so can this president show that kind of guts? first you because you're for him. >> well, i think we're going to see the debt c

. >> chris: we will get to haig until a minute but afghanistan and the whole idea of light footprint. >> he believes in it. i did a whole book obama's wars on his afghan policy and president obama is the one who added 30,000 troops initially in 2009. a surge much bigger than george w. bush's surge in iraq. they looked at it and they think we can get out. remember it as new world now. we are kind of in a post -- the transition out of a post super power world. and obama and his team are trying to find a way to adapt to that and i think getting out of afghanistan makes sense. the question is you need some sort of insurance policy and that would be some sort of troops left behind, what that number is, is up in the air obviously. >> chris: as one of the founding members of neoconservative movement, bill, what do you make of all this? >> well, bob said, getting out of afghanistan. that s what president obama wants to do and i think it is deeply iris responsible but i think it will be very hard for the senate or the house to stop him from doing so and i don't think it will work to leave a co

. >> shortly after the speech, al haig, chief of staff called me, and he said, we are forgot one thing. he said we forgot a resignation letter. i said, that's very interesting. interesting reading. he said, you don't get it. you need to write it. >> i thought the best way was not for me as an historian -- i'm a trained historian, although i wasn't a nixon specialist. was for the players, key people living from that era, to tell the story themselves. so i thought the best way to do this was to start a video or history program that involved the nixon players in the watergate drama, from the left and right to have them tell the story, and then to use portions of the story in the museum to let visitors understand the complexity of this constitutional drama. >> the former head of the nixon presidential library and museum, details the library's oral history project sunday night at 8:00. >> next, nbc's andrea mitchell participates in a discussion on women in leadership positions. she and other panelists shared their experiences on various challenges in their career and the work place family b

. >> so tough sledding ahead for chuck haiged and tough sledding for jack lu if he is nominated to replace tim geithner. i want to get into the gun control. the results of the rasmussen poll, 51% of americans now support stricter gun laws. when asked would posting an armed guard in every school makes schools more safe, 48% said yes and 53% said they would feel safer with an armed guard at school versus no adults with guns. castigatederre was cassty for suggesting that. >> the american people are quite smart in that poll. wayne la pierre was saying armed guards instead of controls on guns. the american people are more supportive of gun control. you know, if you go back and you look at studies and you impact of gun control. there aren't a lot that show that it works in it terms of celling violence. there is one case where it did work and that is australia where are there was a mass shooting in the '90s. 35 tourists were killed and they put in an assault weapons ban that was much stricter than it was here and did a buyback program. politically i agree it would be tough sledding here but at le

where are you on chuck haig? >> where am i? i'm going to listen to his hearing.'m going to meet him next week and then i'll make a decision about how to vote. >> are you inclined in either direction, you know? you admitted where you're leaning on immigration and guns. are you leaning in either direction on chuck hagel? >> i'm inclined to listen to the hearing and then talk with chuck whom i know, and ask him some questions. then i'll make a decisioning. >> you don't sound like you're ready then. >> no, i can't say it any plainer than that. >> fair enough. senator lamar alexander, senior senator from tennessee. thank you, sir. >> thank you, chuck. >>> developing now, we just learned that massachusetts governor deval patrick will name his temporary place holder appointment at 11:00 a.m. today. remember how this massachusetts law works. they have to appoint somebody who cannot run for the position. that's what he's doing today. will it be vickie kennedy, barney frank, will it be somebody that washington doesn't know? but that duval does? coming up, the stock market

. >> as senator haig el also voted against sanctions on iran, a country dedicated to israel's extinctionstead he favored direct negotiations, viewpoints not at odds with but to the left of president obama. hagel also supported negotiations with hamas, a u.s.-designated terrorist group, and he said a lot of things criticized as insufficiently supportive of israel, a longtime and strong u.s. ally. in his 2008 book "the much too promised land," middle east analyst aaron david miller quoted hagel saying the jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here, but i'm a united states senator. i'm not an israeli senator. hagel supported the pentagon's old don't ask, don't tell policy governing gays in the military, and in 1998 said of president clinton's openly gay nominee to be ambassador of luxembourg, quote, i think it is an inhibiting factor to be gay -- openly air, gressively gay like mr. hormel -- to do an effective job. last month more than 14 years later hagel apologized for those comments. mr. hormel said he was skeptical. if mr. hagel is nominated set your tivo for the hearings. senator

>> i think chuck haig el comes with enormous strength for this position at this time. first of all, i mean the question is always raised, you know, is anybody able to run the defense department, he was a co-founder of the vanguard cellular system, ran as c.e.o. of uso worldwide. but nobody, leon panetta who has been a great secretary of defense or certainly an outstanding secretary of defense, had no similar background. but i think what chuck hagel brings to the administration in addition to his great credibility from his own military experience in combat, where he saved his brother's life and his brother saved him after he requested to go to vietnam, with orders he enlisted in the army, chuck hagel with orders to germany, instead insisted on going to vietnam. he said that there he vowed that he would make sure the united states did to the go into wars without thought, reflection and all the elements to it. and that has been the hallmark of his for own policy. it's always dangerous, judy, in this town to be right on matters in which the established authorities are wron

>> i think chuck haig el comes with enormous strength for this position at this time. first of all i mean the question is always raised you know is anybody able to run the defense department he was a co-founder of the vanguard cellular system ran as c.e.o. of uso worldwide. but nobody leon panetta who has been a great secretary of defense or certainly an outstanding secretary of defense, had no similar background. but i think what chuck hagel brings to the administration in addition to his great credibility from his own military experience in combat, where he saved his brother's life and his brother saved him after he requested to go to vietnam with orders he enlisted in the army chuck hagel with orders to germany instead insisted on going to vietnam. he said that there he vowed that he would make sure the united states did to the go into wars without thought reflection and all the elements to it. and that has been the hallmark of his for own policy. it's always dangerous judy in this town to be right on matters in which the established authorities are wrong. and if th

. >> shortly after the farewell e, and, al haig called mea he said, we have about one thing. we forgot a resignation letter. i said, that is very interesting. it will be interesting reading. he said, you do not get it, you need to write it. >> dressed in a was for the players, key people living from that era to tell the story themselves. i thought the best way to do this was to start a video oral history program that involves the nixon players, but also players in the watergate drama on the left and right, to have them tell the story, and then to use portions of that story in the museum to let visitors understand the complexity of this constitutional drama. >> the former head of the nixon presidential library details the brary's oral history project. sunday night. >> i like to watch c-span because i can get the news about the contrast, also the debates and the election and news coverage. i like c-span programming because it is clear, direct, and it is not to seem to be colored by points of view. i want to get a good, clean, filtered -- unfiltered information about the war, i

haig. >> this is, again, the washington you view of things. chuck hagel is a tremendous patriot and statesman, served incredibly in vietnam, sevenned this country as a united states senator. he hasn't had a chance to speak for himself. why all the prejudging i don't snow. >> fox sources say so far the president has not officially offered the job to hagel. >> a leading member of syria's opposition says bashar al-asaad's peace offering is missing something, his resignation. in his first public appearance in months he gave a speech to the nation outlining a settlement of the country's civil war. intelligence officials say at least nine taliban fighters dead after a suspected u.s. drone strike in pakistan's northern tribal areas. intelligence sources say they don't know the identities of the dead militants for sure but it is believed that two major taliban commanders may be among those killed. it makes that the third suspected u.s. drone strike in five days. >>> just a few days ago, general john allen proposed three scenarios for the withdrawal of

on the hagel topic says haig the voted against the iraq war. enough said. >> bill: he did not.ted for the iraq war. >> later opposed it. >> and while we're on a theme here of your sore throat, don says -- no booze in this one. >> bill: promises, promises. no booze in this. a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon. a teaspoon of natural honey and mix it into hot green tea. i would suggest maybe add a little whiskey to that. >> i would too. >> but that's from don on twitter. we're tweeting at bpshow as well. >> bill: we should mention john brennan. >> yes. >> bill: i walked out of the white house yesterday. walked into benjamin, our friend, one of the leaders of code pink, leading a protest in front of the white house yesterday against john brennan. she saw me and she leaped right away. bill, were you in there? i said yeah. she said did you ask any questions? they didn't take any. she thinks brennan would be a disaster. i've always been impressed with john brennan. he's the architect of our -- they accuse him of being pro torture which i think is wrong. he's come out and said he was agains

. >> shortly after the farewell speech, al haig, the chief of staff, called me. he said we forgotten resignation letter. i would be glad to read it. >he said, it no, you need to write it. >> for the players at, the key people from that era held a story themselves. so i thought the best way to do this was to start the video oral history program that involved the knicks' players but also players in the water great drama on the left and right to have them tell the story and then use portions of that story in the newseum to let visitors understand the complexity of the constitutional drama. >> the former head of the nixon presidential library, tonight at 8:00 on "q&a" on c-span. >> they put us in a field. someone took a shot and i went down. i think there were something like 96 tanks. each one would fire into the group. they came around. anyone who was moaning, they shot. >> to put it simply, near this town in belgium, 150 were made captive. 84 then were then shot down by ss forces that captured them. the survivors, including ted, played dead in the field after they

while he's kept quiet on hagel's nomination he told senators it would be difficult for him to support haiginghe does not believe he will be a strong enough supporter of israel. other democrats will likely follow suit meaning an opposition from schumer could cost hagel his candidacy. in the meantime, hagel is dealing with public opinion over his stance on iran. critics say hagel's been too friendly to the country over the years. now his new role is to convince tehran there's no backing out of the corner and no chance they can threaten israel or saudi arabia. more bill, next. we have a big big hour and the iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. who is this? that's pete. my... [ dennis' voice ]

. >> chuck haig's leadership of our military would be historic. person of enlisted rank to serve as secretary of defense. one of the few cans who have been wounded in war and the first vietnam veteran to lead the department. >> so heather, if he's qualified for the job and we all acknowledge he made the remark that he made two decades ago and he has since apologized and has evolved i guess you could say in his thinking about gay people. what's wrong with him being the secretary of defense now? >> well, martin, that's a great question. and actually, what i've done and what a lot of folks across the country have done is to look back at chuck hagel's voting record in the senate. you know, we can talk a lot about whether he's evolved and what his heart says and whether he knows gay people and that's all well and good, but i'm actually more interested in when he had the opportunity to take a public vote, how did he vote? and when i looked at those scorecards, not only looking at lgbt issues for lesbian gay, transexual and transgender americans but a wh

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. >> shortly after the farewell speech, al haig, chief of staff called me.re what he said that he said he forgot what came. the site? he said would provide a resignation letter. i said that's interesting. he said he don't get it, you need to write it. >> best it is not for me as an historian. i'm a trained historian. before the players, key people living from that area to tell the story themselves. so i got the best way to do this to start a video oral history program that involves a mix of players, but also the watergate trauma from the left and right to have them tell the story and then to use portions of the story than ecm to let visitors understand the complexity of the constitutional drama. >> lilly ledbetter was in the sex discrimination case against her employer of 19 years, goodyear tires. her 10 year battle ended in a five to four supreme court won her. and she does not come the first president obama signed up as the lilly ledbetter fair pay act. this ledbetter read about her case in "grace and grit" and talked about it at an appearance in gadsden,

not going to be able to pass any kind of a bill for cap-and-trade but we're going to go to copien haige and tell them -- copenhagen and tell them we'll do it through regulation. now to have -- to do it through regulation instead of legislation, kind of in the weeds but you have to have an endangerment finding. that's what the law says. so lisa jackson was before our committee and i asked her the question, i said madam administrator, tomorrow i'm going to leave for copenhagen to be the one-man truth squad because everyone has been lying to these countries saying we're going to pass something over here. i have a feeling once i leave town you're going to have an endangerment finding and do it through regulation. i could see her smiling. when you do that, the regulation that you have is going to have to be based on science. that's what the law says. what science are you going to use? and her answer was, well, we'll use mostly the united nations ipcc. lot of the people don't realize that this thing was -- i wrote a whole book about this, that this all started way back 12 years ago and it wa

al haig, schaefer of staff, called me and it was to the effect david we forgot one thing. i said what is that. he said we forgot a resignation letter. i said i would be interested to read it. he said you don't get it. you need to write it. >> i thought the best way was not for me as a hitstorian, for the players, key people living from that era, to tell the story themselves. so i thought the best way to do this was to start a video oral history program that involved the nixon players and also players in the watergate drama on the left and right to have them tell the story and then to use portions of that story in the museum to let visitors understand the complexity of this constitutional drama. >> the former head of the nixon presidential library and museum details the library's oral history project tonight at 8:00 on "q&a." >> "washington journal" continues. host: in our sunday roundtable two veterans of capitol. longtime republican strategist and staffer to dennis hastert and one who worked for senators kennedy and reed. let's begin with the words of bob woodward it avoi

. >> it was after the farewell speech by al haig and he said, we forgot one thing. he said we forgot a resignation letter. i said, that is interesting. it will be interesting reading. he said, you do not get it. you need to write it. >> i am a trained historian. i am not a nixon specialists. it was interesting to have the people living through that time to start the all history that involved the nixon players in the watergate drama from the left and the right, to have them tell the story and to use portions of the story in the museum to let visitors understand the complexity of this constitutional drama. >> the former head of the nixon presidential library and museum oralls the library's history project sunday night on c-span's "q & a." >> someone took a shot. i went down. i think it was 96 tanks that passed. each one would fire into the group. they came around anyone who was moaning and they shot him. >> to put it simply, near this town, 150 were made captive. 84 of them were shot down by ss forces who captain them. the survivors play dead in a field after they wer

. >> it was shortly after the farewell speech, al haig, chief of staff called me.i can never exactly what he said, in effect, we forgot one thing. i said, what's that? he said, we forgot a resignation letter. i said that's interesting. i will be interested in reading it. he said no, you don't get it. you need to write it spent i thought the best way was not for me as a story. i'm a trained historian, but for the players to keep people living from that era to tell the story themselves. so i thought the best way to do this was to start a video oral history program that involved the nixon players, and the watergate drama. on the left and the right, to have them tell the story, and then to use portions of the story in the museum to let visitors understand the complexity of the constitutional problem. >> the former head of the nixon presidential library and museum details the library's oral history project sunday night at eight on c-span's q&a. >> last november, david axelrod sat down for a conversation with students about his life and career in journalism and politics.