to me that john dean couldn't make a report, i assigned it to john urlicman. now what was the status of john at that point? john had already been implicated in the watergate coverup himself by john dean on the morning of march 21st. john ur lickman denied he had made any investigation a the that point. then we have john dean blow iin the whistle by going to the the u.s. attorneys on june 8th followed by mcgruder on june 13th. then finally said, he said on june 14th the jig is up. the u.s. attorney called henry peterson, the head of the criminal division, and he said a, henry, we have broken the watergate case. henry peterson contacted, finally this began the mid-april meetings with henry peterson. what happened at this mid-april meetings with henry peterson? on april 16th, from 1:39 to 3:25, the president met with henry peterson. the president promised to treat confidential any -- the president emphasized that it peterson, you're talking only to me and there's not going to be anybody else on the white house staff. in other words, i'm acting counsel. the presid

to me that john dean couldn't make a report, i assigned it to john urlicman. now what was the status of john at that point? john had already been implicated in the watergate coverup himself by john dean on the morning of march 21st. john ur lickman denied he had made any investigation a the that point. then we have john dean blow iin the whistle by going to the the u.s. attorneys on june 8th followed by mcgruder on june 13th. then finally said, he said on june 14th the jig is up. the u.s. attorney called henry peterson, the head of the criminal division, and he said a, henry, we have broken the watergate case. henry peterson contacted, finally this began the mid-april meetings with henry peterson. what happened at this mid-april meetings with henry peterson? on april 16th, from 1:39 to 3:25, the president met with henry peterson. the president promised to treat confidential any -- the president emphasized that it peterson, you're talking only to me and there's not going to be anybody else on the white house staff. in other words, i'm acting counsel. the presid

bob word, john dean together talking about john dean's new book the nixon defense. that is one hour of on woodward and john dean sitting down together. if you go to booktv. or you can see that schedule there. after it airs, you can see it online at booktv.org at your leisure. c-span3, american history tv every weekend, 48 hours of american history on c-span three, there is going to be a live call-in. this will be with john farrell, he has a new book coming up coming up richard nixon, an american tragedy. weekend american history tv ran the 1974 late july house judiciary committee hearings with the articles of impeachment, the discussion among the members of congress, and some familiar faces pop up in those hearings. charlie wrangle, a member of the committee at that time. we get goodast this week and they're going to do a cbs special report. on august 8,ed 1974. and in the farewell address to the nation and the farewell to the white house will air, and then there will be a call-in. live call-in on american history tv with john farrell all tomorrow on the different c

john dean put forth. and certainly if the president of the united states had put forth that request, i would think that would be an impeachable request. the question is did he or did he not authorize john dean to do this? it had already been pointed out when he went to mr. walters, he specifically stated he was not there at the president's request. i think it's important to note when this whole matter was submitted to a joint committee on taxation here in the congress which is controlled by the opposition part y, that they mae this report. the staff's investigation paid particular attention to the cases of those individuals mentioned in the press as victims of politically motivated audits. the joint committee staff has difficulty in discussing these cases specifically because of the problems this would present in violating the individual's rights of confidentiality. this is the place i want to emphasize. however, in none of these cases has the staff found any evidence that the taxpayer was unfairly treate

joining me now is a man who knew john dean very well. please welcome john dean. much for joining us, good to have you here! (applause) you are the author of a book called the nixon defense what he knew and when he knew it. was watergate that big of a deal? (laughter) pat believes the tapes had been destroyed. you're on the tapes. >> i am. >> stephen: do you believe they should have been destroyed? >> i don't think so. it clearly would have been an obstruction of justice to destroy the tapes. when the tapes were refield by alex pet butterfield, it was on friday 13th, white house learns it over the weekend. nixon is in the hospital with pneumonia. he's told the options, one is destroyed, the other is keep them. he has one lawyer arguing obstruction of justice if you destroy them, the other says, well, they haven't subpoenaed yet, you might get away with destroying them. >> stephen: you actually served four months in prison, and what was the charge? >> i pleaded to obstruction of -- conspiracy to obstruct justice. >> stephen: in return for pleading your guilt, you t

that is the conversation between the president and john dean on march 17, 1973. let us read that. "dean, the other potential problem is ehrlichman." and the president, said in connection with -- the president inquires, "they worked for him?" dean, "these fellas have to be idiots and we have learned after the fact they went out and went into dr. ellsberg's dr.'s office and they were geared up with all of this cia equipment, cameras, and the like. and return to the stuff back in to the cia at some point in time unless -- [indiscernible] the cia has not put this together and they do not know what it all means right now." the president says, "what in the world, what was ehrlichman" and this is unintelligible. this is months after. dean says, "they were trying to add this was a part of an operation in connection with the pentagon papers." they wanted to get ellsberg's psychiatric records for some reason. i do not know. the president, this is the first i have ever heard of this. i -- unintelligible and maybe expletives, "care about ellsberg was not our problem." dean said, "this is right

john dean, what he knew and when he knew it. our social media producer, hermela aregawi, what's trending online. >> night before a funeral service happened, was cancelled they found he was gay. clips from the show and for information on upcoming episodes, we're on twitter @ajconsiderthis and on facebook @ajconsiderthis. >> turning now to the crisis in eastern ukraine where fierce fighting killed at least 15 on friday. in kyiv the secretary-general of nato ordered president putin to pull back under the pretext of a humanitarian mission. >> i call on russia to step back from the brink. step back from the border. do not use peace keeping as an excuse for war making. >> meanwhile the russian government continue continued to retaliate against western sacks by scrapping most food imports from the west. it also raised the possibility of banning flights from the eu to from flying over yaition on n their way. the sixth anniversary of the russian georgian war, it is only inevitable when russia invades. >> might become a moment when they a

john dean has analyzed and tribes hundreds of those tapes. shedding more light to what earned the presidency. john dean while still working in the white house he helped the justice department build the case against president. his new research into the nixon taiption has tapes has resulted in a new book. you've written two other books,. >> i have. >> this is what convinced you that nixon didn't know about the watergate before it happened. and despite the title of the book this is not a defense of nixon which you see was in on the deal from the beginning. >> it is in his defense. every time he offers an answer which is fal ais fallacious, it gets him into more trouble. what did he know and how did he know it, asked of me by howard baker, i do start with the first tape, after he learned about the break-in, right through until he ordered to pull the plug on the system. >> to find some dirt on larry o'brien the head of the dnc which led them to concoct the plan? >> what's interesting i tried not to draw a lot of conclusions. rather to take these r

it's john dean. john says, how was your trip to ireland? i said fine. keep in mind, i didn't call anybody. he's tracking me. he knew exactly when the car delivered me to the white house. he said, can i come by and see you in the morning? i said, yes. so he came by the next morning and he said, have you given any thought to what you're going to do next? and i said, john, what in the world are you trying to tell me? he said, i think you need to figure out what you're going to do next. i said, does bob know this? and he said, bob asked me to talk to you. i could not believe it. i went over to richard moore's office. unbeknownst to me until the haldeman diaries came out, moore knew all this, but he acted like he didn't. so i go to this older mentor richard moore and said, what is going on here? he says, i don't know. i went back to my office and called haldeman. he was at camp david. i said bob, do you want to talk to me? he says, i think we need to talk. he says, can you come up tomorrow? now, i have to wait until the next day. i mean, this is -- i'm shook

it's john dean. john says, how was your trip to ireland? i said fine. keep in mind, i didn't call anybody. he's tracking me. he knew exactly when the car delivered me to the white house. he said, can i come by and see you in the morning? i said, yes. so he came by the next morning and he said, have you given any thought to what you're going to do next? and i said, john, what in the world are you trying to tell me? he said, i think you need to figure out what you're going to do next. i said, does bob know this? and he said, bob asked me to talk to you. i could not believe it. i went over to richard moore's office. unbeknownst to me until the haldeman diaries came out, moore knew all this, but he acted like he didn't. so i go to this older mentor richard moore and said, what is going on here? he says, i don't know. i went back to my office and called haldeman. he was at camp david. i said bob, do you want to talk to me? he says, i think we need to talk. he says, can you come up tomorrow? now, i have to wait until the next day. i mean, this is -- i'm shook

it's john dean. john says, how was your trip to ireland? i said fine. keep in mind, i didn't call anybody. he's tracking me. he knew exactly when the car delivered me to the white house. he said, can i come by and see you in the morning? i said, yes. so he came by the next morning and he said, have you given any thought to what you're going to do next? and i said, john, what in the world are you trying to tell me? he said, i think you need to figure out what you're going to do next. i said, does bob know this? and he said, bob asked me to talk to you. i could not believe it. i went over to richard moore's office. unbeknownst to me until the haldeman diaries came out, moore knew all this, but he acted like he didn't. so i go to this older mentor richard moore and said, what is going on here? he says, i don't know. i went back to my office and called haldeman. he was at camp david. i said bob, do you want to talk to me? he says, i think we need to talk. he says, can you come up tomorrow? now, i have to wait until the next day. i mean, this is -- i'm shook

there was -- john dean testified about an enemy's list. there was no question there some kind of list because john dean was able to provide detailed evidence and then a member of the treasury department was able to supply a list. the question was there to what extent did richard nixon create this list, authorize the listing of names for audits by the irs, to what extent this was designed to go after his political opponents. then there was also the question of the audit of larry o'brien who was the head of the democratic national committee. what did the president know about that? now the committee had some of the tapes. some of the tapes had been given to the committee by then. the committee released a few of the tapes following saturday night massacre of october 1973. one of those tapes from september of 1972 did show the president participating in a conversation about misusing the irs. what some who wanted to protect the president were arguing was, hey, that's just one instance. you know, in the heat of politics, people make mistakes. can

important figures in shedding light on nixon's role in the cover up was then white house counsel john deanstifying in front of the senate committee dean implicated nixon and white house officials including himself in the watergate case and spent four months in prison for his role. and john dean is with us today to talk about his new book, "the nixon defense: what he knew and when he knew it." john, great to have you here. >> thank you. what is new in this new book? because you did transcribe thousands of new recordings? >> i did. every page has something that i did not know. but the big things are. i'm surprised how passive he is in the beginning and getting his information from few sources haldeman and a little frommer lick man and from the "washington post". he approves every move in the cover up is approved by nixon and he gets increasingly involved and then totally obsessed with it and consuming all of this time. >> was there one specific thing that you learned that how did i miss this? >> i did not know that he had been engaged in subject ordering jeb's perjury. he was the deputy dire

only remember for the way he left town. >> reporter: four decades ago it was white house counsel john dean fired by richard nixon fearing he was being set up to take the fall for watergate who instead took his story to investigators and ultimately helped to topple a president, but while dean may have told the fbi most everything he knew, he now says back then he didn't know everything. so after researching hours of white house tapes some never heard before dean is once again answering the classic watergate questions, this time from susan page of usa today. >> reporter: now with the benefit of these new tapes and 40 years of study when did the president know about the watergate break-in? did he know about it before it happened? >> no. i don't think he had any advance knowledge there was going to be a break-in. it's clear to me that he's worried whether he indeed order the watergate break-in because he's ordered other break-ins. on three occasions they break in the brookings institute. turns out he did not order it and there's no links, but he creates an atmosphere obviously in which people

john dean joins us tonight with that. >>> finally lit me finish tonight with look at john kennedy and a pioneering documentary. what a movie that's going to be. this is "hardball," the place for politics. we never thought we'd be farming wind out here. it's not just building jobs here, it's helping our community. siemens location here has just received a major order of wind turbines. it puts a huge smile on my face. cause i'm like, 'this is what we do.' the fact that iowa is leading the way in wind energy, i'm so proud, like, it's just amazing. [ male announcer ] that's why there's ocuvite to help replenish key eye nutrients. ocuvite has a unique formula not found in your multivitamin to help protect your eye health. ocuvite. help protect your eye health. >>> new polling on the presidential race in the key state of ohio. it may come as a surprise. according to the quinnipiac scoreboard hillary clinton leads rand paul by four points. close. 46% for clinton, 42% for paul. e toenld you to keep an eye on paul. clinton by 9, 49, christie, 37%. we'll be right back. two espressos. make one a

two attorney generals were found guilty, the white house chief of staff, the white house counsel, john dean and john ehrlichman all spent time in jail. the director of the cia found guilty, the director of the fbi caught destroying evidence and resigned, and the list goes on. guest: and a special prosecutor fired and another one taking over and an attorney general resigning over the firing. so that was the famous saturday 19th massacre in 1973. it's going to be based on this wealth of information that's come out since steven ambrose did some work in the 1990s. the final white house tape only came out last august. nixon's testimony before the grand jury came out the year before that. so there's lots of new stuff to factor into the story of richard nixon. but it's a biography. it's about a man. very little attention i think is portrayed to the story of this extraordinary man. host: it will focus on his early years as well. as we look at richard nixon 40 years after he stepped down from the presidency. caller: i was ten years old when i watched president nixon resign, but i'm wondering, mr. fa

i didn't know what he did, except he reported to john dean and john erlichman. i called him, and he said, i want to meet you in the men's room. he said, tell me what it is. i heard from haldeman -- erlichman's office that you had a message from the president. i said, he wants to get these documents back, i told him. he looked at me, and i said, you can probably, the best thing to do is call mel leery. and he said, oh, no, he said, we won't get them that way. when i was with the new york police, we would create a fire to create a diversion and then go in and get papers out of anybody's office. i don't know how you do your business, but all i can tell you is the president wants his papers back. that's the last i heard of it until watergate. nothing did happen, as a matter of fact. but much was made out of that. to one of the explosive allegations in watergate, like proposing the bombing of the brookings institution. i was interviewed for that, and i told them it was wrong, i said it was the "washington post" i wanted to blow up, not the brookings institution. i ma

it's great to be here with john dean. i was recalling coming in here today at the studios which are on capitol hill. it was 39 summers ago when you it held the country and the world mesmerized with four days of sworn testimony before the senate watergate committee and there has really been no news story like that sense. one of the things that happened when the secret taping system was disclosed in the nixon offices and phones which you didn't know about,. >> guest: suspected. >> host: you suspected that you didn't know and in those tapes came out and they vindicated almost 100% exactly what you said. there was an anchor i ran into, one of the tv anchors who reminded me he was six years old when he testified. it's so unique for those who work around. the first thing i would ask is what was watergate? >> guest: well i suspect that this table is probably more collective knowledge between you and die on that subject than any table that ever besets to address the matter. you and i know that subject well. you know it from your

. >> doug brinkley mentioned john dean in his new book, the nixon defense.john dean this weekend on book tv sits down with the washington post bob woodward. they spent an hour discussing the nixon defense and an hour discussing water gate. you can see that on book tv on cspan 2 this weekend. dan, bridgewater new jersey, republican line. you're on with doug brinkley. >> caller:. hi, i definitely will buy this book. i will read it carefully as i do all of his books. i am really afraid of where if you have a hole in your retina. your brain fills it in with what it thinks should be there. i'm afraid that the tapes are of such superficial readings in a history is now painting a picture of nixon devoid of that. having dealt with him and having known him, i think it's a big mistake so they that haldeman was his friend. the fact is that he had ideas and policies an he trusted no one within and/or outside of this camp. he may have been skizoid and there may have been a lot of things wrong with him. he did have a mult itide itude ideas that i would say went to the bet

this wasn't just done to, you, john dean, and hasteds. it was done to all the foreign leaders, done to anyone who went into the oval office, and he just was coin of saying -- kind of saying the confidence that people should expect when they come see the president, we're not going to care about that. it is in my interest to do this taping. then when it was disclosed, the idea that no one is ever going to get the tapes. >> guest: what is interesting he is troubled by that very fact himself, he tells haldeman, i don't feel comfortable doing this. so he knows it's wrong. but he doesn't pull the plug. >> host: and what is amazing about this book, in a sense, it kind of seals the conclusion about nixon, and what you have done is you brought the microscope as close to this presidency as anyone could, and for that it's a public service. at the same time it is a really long book, and all of the detail and all of the -- for somebody who wants to relive and relive in technicolor and for many, many hours, this will tell the story, and -- >> guest: i

this wasn't just done to you, john dean and his aides. done to all the foreign leaders. done to anyone who went into the oval office, and he just was kind of saying the confidence that people should expect when they come see the president, we're not going to care about that. it is in my interests to do this taping, and when it was disclosed, the idea that no one will ever get the tapes. >> guest: what is interesting, he is troubled by that fact himself in a couple conversations. he tells haldeman, i don't feel comfortable doing this. so he knows it's wrong. but he doesn't pull the plug. >> host: and what is amazing about this book in a sense, it kind of seals the conclusion about nixon. and what you have done is you have brought the microscope as close to this presidency as anyone could, and for that it's a public service, at the same time it is a really long book, and all of the detail and all of the -- for somebody who wants to relive and relive in technicolor and for many, many hours, this will tell the story. >> guest: i found the review interesting, the presidential

it was his word against john dean's. the country was not ready to take this momentous historical active impeachment just on the word of one white house lawyer who obviously had a self-serving interest in saying it was my boss who told me to do this. >> let's go to mark from bridgewater, massachusetts. are you with us? go ahead. >> i am grateful for the coverage you have had all weekend. i want to make a comment to the author. with hisat i disagreed commentary on nixon's farewell address. i thought it was rather weak and the remarks were fairly reveals -- verbose. what i wanted to say is that when president kennedy was asked 1960, he election of nixon came into the election with no class. i would like to get your comments on that. >> thank you, mark. >> what was the first question? >> his remarks on august 9. >> what i loved about the farewell to the staff was it shows nixon finally reaching a point of self-awareness when he , we are in the arena but don't hate because if you hate, you destroy yourself. that tells me he g

former counsel to president nixon john dean discusses watergate with bob woodward on "after words," and our prime time programming continues with adele levine who recalls her time as a physical therapist at walter reed army medical center. that all happens tonight on c-span2's booktv. >> booktv asked, what are you reading this summer? >> i try to keep a lot of different things going, and some of the books i'm reading is "lincoln's boys," the secretaries' impact on the administration. reading "founding of brothers" about how they actually did some things that are off the normal record, so that was really interesting to me. one that is sort of interesting in the latter context is a week called "roosevelt's secret war," and it's about the starting of our international espionage and how he started that in a real hodgepodge kind of way. so that's made an interesting read especially in light of all the things going on currently with the nsa and cia and the things that we have, pertinent perspective. another one i'm reading is "obama's enforcer," probably my most political book of the scherr,

i didn't know what he did, except he reported to john dean and john erlichman. i called him, and he said, i want to meet you in the men's room. he said, tell me what it is. i heard from haldeman -- erlichman's office that you had a message from the president. i said, he wants to get these documents back, i told him. he looked at me, and i said, you can probably, the best thing to do is call mel leery. and he said, oh, no, he said, we won't get them that way. when i was with the new york police, we would create a fire to create a diversion and then go in and get papers out of anybody's office. i don't know how you do your business, but all i can tell you is the president wants his papers back. that's the last i heard of it until watergate. nothing did happen, as a matter of fact. but much was made out of that. to one of the explosive allegations in watergate, like proposing the bombing of the brookings institution. i was interviewed for that, and i told them it was wrong, i said it was the "washington post" i wanted to blow up, not the brookings institution. i ma

john dean testified about and in --se list -- in these enemies list. a member of the treasury department was able to supply a list. the question was did what extent do richard nixon authorized the listing of the names, to what extent was it designed to go after political opponents? then there was a question of the audit of larry o'brien, the head of the democratic national convention. what did the president know about that? the committee had some of the case. some of the tapes had been given to the committee. the president had released a few tapes following a saturday night massacre of 1973. one of the tapes from september of 1972 did show the president participating in a conversation about misusing the irs. what some who wanted to protect the president were arguing was that was one instance. in the heat of politics, people make mistakes. can you really say that one rant on one day constitutes a pattern of abuse of power? and were the framers wanted us -- wanting us to remove a president, which is a dramatic act in a democracy, on the basis of evidence

john dean was brought when the president of the united states was accused of a crime. very different situation. intimate adviser to the president when there is no accusation of any kind and yet you want to know what he is saying to the president of the united states. thank you for your time. .oming up next, richard gaines his group investigation into the events of 9/11. author sylvia morris is our guest on this week's q&a. >> she was so beautiful and so smart and so witty that she became -- she was always irresistible to men. even in old age. partyd cohen was at this and they sat together after dinner having coffee and she began to stroke his beard. said, i've never met an 80-year-old before that i wanted to leap into bed with. she had this campus, seductive quality. >> sylvia morris on the life and sunday night at 8:00 eastern and pacific on c-span's q&a. american artifacts on american history tv. this week and come our visit to the national security archives at george washington university reveals the classified documents about vietnam. they passed the resolution giv

tomorrow steve israel and john dean. ronan farrow daily is here next. >>> hey there, happy thursday. your business travel forecast. a nice one in new york and d.c., however some slowdowns expected in the boston area with thunderstorms in the forecast. chicago looking good. meanwhile some locally strong thunderstorms around kansas city could slow you down. any thunderstorm there could locally produce heavy downpours. typical summertime thunderstorms in florida. the summer of this. the summer that summers from here on will be compared to. where memories will be forged into the sand. and then hung on a wall for years to come. get out there, with over 50,000 hotels at $150 dollars or less. expedia. find yours. i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up

doug brenk leave mentioned john dean and his new book, "the nixon defense." john dean this weekend on book tv sits down with "the washington post's" bob would say ward. they spent an hour discussing the nixon defense, an hour discussing watergate. you can see that on book tv on c-span2 this weekend. dan, bridgewater, new jersey, republican line. you're on with doug brinkley. caller: hi, i definitely would l buy this book, and i will read it carefully, as i did all of mr. brinkley's books. i'm really afraid of the phenomenon where, if if you have a hope, your brain fills it in with what it thinks should be there, and i'm afraid that the tapes, after such superficial readings, that history is now painting a picture of nixon that's dwoud of this. having dealt with him, having known him, i think it's a big mistake to say that haldeman was his friend. the fact is he had ideas in policies, and he trusted no one within or outside of his camp. there may have been a lot of things wrong with him, but he did have a multitude of policies and ideas that i would say really

i didn't know what he did, except he reported to john dean and john erlichman. i called him, and he said, i want to meet you in the men's room. he said, tell me what it is. i heard from haldeman -- erlichman's office that you had a message from the president. i said, he wants to get these documents back, i told him. he looked at me, and i said, you can probably, the best thing to do is call mel leery. and he said, oh, no, he said, we won't get them that way. when i was with the new york police, we would create a fire to create a diversion and then go in and get papers out of anybody's office. i don't know how you do your business, but all i can tell you is the president wants his papers back. that's the last i heard of it until watergate. nothing did happen, as a matter of fact. but much was made out of that. to one of the explosive allegations in watergate, like proposing the bombing of the brookings institution. i was interviewed for that, and i told them it was wrong, i said it was the "washington post" i wanted to blow up, not the brookings institution. i ma

would it be sufficient if the president were to direct or ask or inquire of john dean to obtain certain information would not the act itself or the attempt come in the direction to mr. dean? as a matter of law? >> the direction would be an attempt. >> it would not be necessary to have that particular direction completed in order to be a viels, would there? >> that's correct. >> thank you. i'd also like to correct some comments to statements made by the gentleman from california, because i found those statements also rather amazing. because on the one hand where the gentleman from california pointed out that henry peterson recommended matt burn at fbi director, in response to a question that i asked mr. peterson during our questioning of witnesses. i asked him whether or not he felt that the fbi, that matt burns should be contacted while he's sitting as a judge on the case of the ellisburg matter. to which he replied no. he indicated that matt burns should not be contacted during the course of that trial. and the answer is quite clear, so why not, and i asked him why not, and he said in

i'd like to welcome if i may john dean the ucsf law school who has concluded the career serving president obama and looking forward to having him in san francisco >> good evening and commissioner on behalf of ucsf law school i want to acknowledge this resolution we're putting together a team of facilitate in terms of the legal recommendations which is essential but all the children are waiting for their day in court and any beyond those will be resettled in san francisco we want to be able to support you the law school and the school of nursing and public health department we're helping to promote their successful resettlement in san francisco its our pledge to the resolution in the most and perhaps years ahead as the crisis continues. a number of us where in el safld in june and certainly the historic ties of the diversity and san francisco to el salvador i applaud our leadership in making this happen and we look forward to working with you in the days and years ahead thank you (clapping.) my name is ed representing supervisor campos office along with paul rodriguez i want to start off b

and john dean says, well, no, not exactly. that's not the way it was. and the president say, well that's the way it's going to have to be. is this an urging to conceal the truth or is it not? so the payment was made to hunt and it doesn't matter to me whether the president approved it before it was made. a conspirator is all we lawyers know can get in on a conspiracy at any point, even after the fact. so it's immaterial whether or not the point in time when he said okay, i approve it, you pay

in fact, in one of the tapes that is coming out in john dean's new book in 1973, nixon is talking to his new chief of staff al haig and he says on the tape, he said, i authorize the houston plan. it was to use any means available including illegal means. and then nixon with kind of a sense of, oh, my god, what did i get into, says, no president of the united states can admit that. and so watergate started much before watergate because it was a mind-set of doing anything to advance nixon's policies, his political stature and there was no barrier, including the law. >> the notion that the nixon white house, and you hear it on the tapes, and i use the term advisedly, was a criminal madhouse. and the more that we learned, the more it becomes apparent and it goes to nixon. it always goes to nixon. never on those tapes do we hear nixon say -- and bob calls it the dog that never barks. never do we hear nixon say, what would be right for the country, about almost anything? not just what's happening, but what is happening is a whole presidency in which the focus is retribution on enemies real