but james mccord, a former security officer from the cia and four cubans are captured. >> five peopleted and charged with breaking into the headquarters of the democratic national committee in the middle of the night. >> james mccord was the wiretapping expert on the team, and he insisted on taping the doors, and he was asked did you remember to remove all the tape and he said yes, and he hadn't. they left tape on the door, and the watergate security officer saw it. something else happened. the burglars had a lookout man across the street with a walkie-talkie because you want to know if somebody is entering the building while you're in the building, then you can warn the people in the building to get out, but mccord turned down the volume on the walkie-talkie so when the lookout man could see the d.c. police moving towards dnc headquarters, the burglars didn't get the alert. >> police arrested five men in the watergate with bugging equipment and copying cameras. >> when the watergate break-in took place, i was not paying attention to that because my primary election was on the 20th of

if we are going to talk about people who have not gotten recognized, i think james mccord -- we talk about frank willis not having gotten recognized, but frank mccord's letter to judge siricca on the eve of sentencing said you are right in all of your suspicions. suspicions, perjury occurred, he laid out the cover-up right before being sentenced, and that's what led to the appointment of the urban committee and the appointment of the special prosecutor. host: geoff shepard, i am sure you want to respond to some of that, but can you start with your emotions? >> nixon directed them to listen to the tapes on june 23, there might be some problem. fred was appalled, and decided she needed a witness when he decided to tell the people of san clemente the reaction to that tape. i was that witness. so i heard the half of the conversation where he was saying it was a pretty bad situation. i was the one who transcribed that tape and called it the smoking gun. i've got a two week head start on the nation. i know it is over. august 8, we demanded the tape be made public. it was made public august

and james mccord had been employed as a security consultant to the republican national committee. >> what was this? what was its purpose, and who sponsored it? >> five people have been arrested and charged with breaking into the headquarters of the democratic national committee in the middle of the night. >> the democratic national committee is located in the watergate office building. the burglars forced a stairwell door and then taped its latch open. the door was noticed by one of the guards employed by the watergate complex. the police found five men crouching behind some desks. >> the weekend the arrest at the watergate occurred, i had gone to the philippines to give a speech. it was for the bureau of narcotics and dangerous drugs in manila, but let me -- let me go back. the reason i wanted to become a lawyer is that i was very smitten with washington. as early as prep school, i started traveling to washington with my roommate. >> well, john was very good with people. he was a people person. i found him somewhat quiet, not overly rambunctious or expressive. he was an excellent st

if we are going to talk about people who have not gotten recognized, i think james mccord -- we talk about frank willis not having gotten recognized, but frank mccord's letter to judge siricca on the eve of sentencing said you are right in all of your suspicions. suspicions, perjury occurred, he laid out the cover-up right before being sentenced, and that's what led to the appointment of the urban committee and the appointment of the special prosecutor. host: geoff shepard, i am sure you want to respond to some of that, but can you start with your emotions? >> nixon directed them to listen to the tapes on june 23, there might be some problem. fred was appalled, and decided she needed a witness when he decided to tell the people of san clemente the reaction to that tape. i was that witness. so i heard the half of the conversation where he was saying it was a pretty bad situation. i was the one who transcribed that tape and called it the smoking gun. i've got a two week head start on the nation. i know it is over. august 8, we demanded the tape be made public. it was made public august

if we are going to talk about people who have not gotten recognized, i think james mccord -- we talk about frank willis not having gotten recognized, but frank mccord's letter to judge siricca on the eve of sentencing said you are right in all of your suspicions. suspicions, perjury occurred, he laid out the cover-up right before being sentenced, and that's what led to the appointment of the urban committee and the appointment of the special prosecutor. host: geoff shepard, i am sure you want to respond to some of that, but can you start with your emotions? >> nixon directed them to listen to the tapes on june 23, there might be some problem. fred was appalled, and decided she needed a witness when he decided to tell the people of san clemente the reaction to that tape. i was that witness. so i heard the half of the conversation where he was saying it was a pretty bad situation. i was the one who transcribed that tape and called it the smoking gun. i've got a two week head start on the nation. i know it is over. august 8, we demanded the tape be made public. it was made public august

the lead burglar who was james mccord was asked and the judge said, speak up mccord. he the said -- and he is an said, speak up. easy speak up and he finally said and he finally said cia cia. now, now those those are electric words. are electric words >> this is the article this is the argument for the next day and that appeared the next day in the washington post. washington post this was the lead on it. bob this was a light on what we woodward, one of the reporters on that story were never reporters on a story. five men, one of whom said he was five man that comes into a former employee of the different waves central intelligence agency were arrested at president 2:30 am 2:30 am yesterday. when yesterday when authorities described it as authorities described it an elaborate plot as alarm clock to to bob the officers bug the offices of of the democratic the democratic national committee. the national committee your article goes on to article goes on to say this was no immediate explanation as to why the determine how need especially five suspects were wi-fi suspect g

and james mccord had been employed as a security consultant to the republican national committee. >> what was this? what was its purpose? and who sponsored it? >> five people have been arrested and charged with breaking into the headquarters of the democratic national committee in the middle of the night. >> the democratic national committee is located in the watergate office building. the burglars forced a stairwell door then taped its latch open. the door was noticed by one of the guards employed by the watergate complex. the police found five men crouching behind some desks. >> the weekend the arrests at the watergate occurred, i had gone to the philippines to give a speech. it was for the bureau of narcotics and dangerous drugs in manila. but let me -- let me go back. the reason i wanted to become a lawyer is that i was very smitten with washington. as early as prep school, i started traveling to washington with my roommate. >> john was very good with people, he was a people person. i found him somewhat quiet. not overly rambunctious or expressive. he was an excellent student, an

and the fifth was james mccord, a former fbi and cia agent recently employed as a security aide by theepublican national committee and the committee to re-elect the president, reportedly on the recommendation of a ranking secret service agent. democratic national chairman o'brien has been out of town since the break-in, but he had these comments from new orleans. >> distinguished mayors, associates, and john mitchell, wherever you may be bugging me this morning -- >> it was too good a moment for o'brien to pass up, so in went the needle. >> i trust, henry and john, that this hall has been swept for bugs before we arrived. >> mr. mitchell denies that he or his party had anything to do with it. >> i understand he has, but the record does not support his position. this -- i thought this administration was a law and order administration, and i've never seen such a crass violation of individual rights as we have seen in this instance. >> have you run security checks on your offices before this? >> i don't believe so. >> mr. mitchell claims that he has some security problems over in his camp

if we are going to talk about people who have not gotten recognized, i think james mccord -- we talk t frank willis not having gotten recognized, but frank mccord's letter to judge siricca on the eve of sentencing said you are right in all of your suspicions. suspicions, perjury occurred, he laid out the cover-up right before being sentenced, and that's what led to the appointment of the urban committee and the appointment of the special prosecutor. host: geoff shepard, i am sure you want to respond to some of that, but can you start with your emotions? >> nixon directed them to listen to the tapes on june 23, there might be some problem. fred was appalled, and decided she needed a witness when he decided to tell the people of san clemente the reaction to that tape. i was that witness. so i heard the half of the conversation where he was saying it was a pretty bad situation. i was the one who transcribed that tape and called it the smoking gun. i've got a two week head start on the nation. i know it is over. august 8, we demanded the tape be made public. it was made public august 5, a

and the trigger is those guy called james mccord who was one of the supervisors of the burglars. he had former fbi guys cia guy. and he'd been arrested because he had connections to the burglars that could be proven and he was sitting in the dc jail, which i describe in. my book is the most unpleasant place. you can imagine particularly back in the in the early 70s and he's sinking to himself. why am i going to he's an upstander you considers himself and i'm standing member of the community actually lived in not very far from here. he could have been one of your neighbors. he thinks to himself. why should i go to jail when this schmuck magruder? is getting off scott free and what's more the washington post is writing flattering profiles about him. he was running the inaugural festivities at that time. so magruder mccord is not willing to put up with us. so he writes to the judge judge sirika and says perjury was committed in this trial. in fact the orders for the break-in went much higher up. it wasn't just these burglars who decided of their own accord to break in. there were or

. >>> tonight on "the reidout" -- >> this is a police photograph of james, mccord. he is one of five persons surprised and arrested yesterday inside the headquarters of the democratic national committee in washington. mccord is a former cia employee. now he runs his own private security service. and guess what else he is? a consultant to president richard nixon's re-election campaign committee. >> nixon's watergate scandal began 50 years ago today. like trump, his presidency ended in crime and chaos, but there were major differences in the methods the two presidents used to cling to power. also tonight, the unholy alliance between ginni thomas and the people plotting to overturn the presidential election. a member of congress who is now calling for her husband, justice clarence thomas, to resign joins me. >>> we begin tonight with june 17, 1972, the day five bungling burglars broke not offices of the democratic national committee located in the watergate complex in washington, d.c. two years later president nixon resigned. the 50th anniversary of watergate comes as

gordon liddy, james mccord, judge john seem almost quaint 50 years later in comparison to what we'red looking at today. they broke in at night and we're seeing in broad daylight and have been seeinging in broad daylight now for years. we're seeing people like steve bannon, rudy giuliani, mark meadows, chief of staff to the president of the united states conspiring, really, to take down the constitution. does it strike you that there's a real difference 50 years ago that the operatives of the republican party tried to do what they're trying to do today? >> it's a really good question, and what's worse, nixon subverted the constitution and the law and ran this very covert effort to destroy the strongest candidate against him and the democratic party, senator musky so he got a weaker candidate. it's ugly, vicious, illegal, but you are right. there's something out in the open about this that what it is saying to people is you could be a target for your political views that you have that are supported by evidence. that's what's stunning about this and i was doing some reporting in the las

. >>> this is a police photograph of james w. mccord.f the democratic national committee in washington. mccord is a former cia employee, now runs his own privacy service. he is also a consultant to president nixon's re-election committee, hired to install its security. they brought electronic listening devices with them and removed two ceiling panels from the office of democratic chairman lawrence o'brien when they were caught. they're obviously trying to bug the democrat's office. today, former attorney general john mitchell, chairman of president nixon's re-election committee, denied any connection with the incident. he said mccord and the others were neither acting on behalf of the campaign committee, nor with its consent. mccord and accomplices have been charged with burglary and released on bail. i don't think that's the last we're going to hear of that story. >> nbc reporting the day after news that happened 50 years ago today. the arrest of five burglars inside the democratic national headquarters in washington's watergate complex