john dean, he repeated, do you know what john dean did to nixon? your reaction to just being mentioned in the book, apparently you are being on tv drove the president nuts. do you get the sense that the president understands the independent nature of the doj? >> well, one of the reasons i became a cnn contributor was i was hoping i could get through to him and he would understand the parallels between what he's doing and watergate. i don't think he gets it even at this date. as norm says, there are real competency questions here. he doesn't know history. he obviously knows selected figures from history. and i certainly know what i did to nixon. i told the truth about him. and that's not something that trump wants his aides talking about apparently. >> what did you think of the quote itself? the quote? >> i missed that, i'm sorry. >> what did you think of the quote itself, comey was a rat, and going onto john dean, john dean, do you know what john dean did to get rid of nixon? >> yeah, i thought it showed he had some glimmer of knowledge of waterga

john dean, john dean he repeated, do you know what john dean did to nixon? we have john dean, former nixon white house counsel with us tonight. john, do you know what john dean did to nixon? >> i do. >> what do you make of the president citing that? according to wolff. >> delighted he reacts that way. i think it's a badge of honor with this president. hit the top of nixon's enemies list. i think it's good that presidents are aware of watergate, consequences of watergate, and maybe he has some crude understanding of watergate. >> wolff also described president as quote john dean freak, would go quote bananas when you would go on tv comparing the russia investigation to watergate and talking about loyalty and what people would do for media attention. does this sound like properly functioning president of the united states? >> i've had problems with functioning of this president since the beginning. one of the reasons i was interested in being a cnn contributor when i accepted the post. i thought somebody needed to speak truth to this man and let him hear it, h

your name is john w. dean. >> i remember being struck by how methodical he presented the pat earn of deception. >> when the president called me and we had a discussion i told him at the conclusion of the conversation i wanted to talk with him as soon as possible about the watergate matter because i didn't think he fully realized the facts for the people at the white house as well as himself. >> you had the president's counsel, people forget, he was the president's lawyer, you -- you can't -- you can't have anything worse happen to you than your own lawyer turning against you. >> i began by telling the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency. and if the cancer was not removed the president himself would be killed by it. i also told him that it was important that this cancer removed immediately because it was growing more deadly every day. >> john dean's testimony was on for four days. it was mesmerizing. people were missing arms. people standing around furniture stores that sold tv sets watc

carl bernstein, john dean and richard. we venista. >>> new reporting on steve bannon's reaction and wolff's defense of his own reporting. that and more when we continue. ...you could learn you're from ireland... ...donegal, ireland... ...and your ancestor was a fisherman. with blue eyes. just like you. begin your journey at ancestry.com but on the inside, i feel chronic, widespread pain.like most people. fibromyalgia may be invisible to others, but my pain is real. fibromyalgia is thought to be caused by overactive nerves. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. i'm glad my doctor prescribed lyrica. for some, lyrica delivers effective relief for moderate to even severe fibromyalgia pain. and improves function. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worse depression, unusual changes in mood or behavior, swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. common side effects: diz

do you think mcgahn is pulling a john dean here?ohn cooperated with the investigators during the nixon administration, by the way, when they were looking into the watergate cover-up. >> well it sure sounded from that excerpt like john dean thinks that. you know, it's funny because i had john dean in mind when i wrote that tweet. i don't know history well enough to have any clue what was going through john dean's head at the time. but you heard him just now talking to you make the point that this is a very dangerous situation and that pretty much any attorney would know that this is the bare minimum that you have to do. and i like john dean's point that you don't go pinning a medal on somebody for doing what's merely required. if that's the case, i would like to somebody to pin a medal on me for taking the trash out or doing the dishes after breakfast. >> very good point. do you think that this matters that it was -- happened months ago and nothing came of it? do you think it matters? >> well, you know, you've heard some of trump's w

former watergate participant, star witness and defendant john dean. also with us, cnn political analyst carl bernstein. carl, i mean, obviously, look, the president's allies are going to say richard blumenthal is a democrat, he's obviously going to say what he's going to say. do you think this is a possible obstruction of justice case moving closer to the president himself? >> yes. it's a possible obstruction case. there is a pattern of apparent obstruction, but that's different than a cold case. what's extraordinary is how much we do not know about the mueller investigation, and that makes the attempts by donald trump and those around him to shut down the mueller investigation all the more vile, inappropriate and in itself perhaps an obstruction. he's being joined in this and enabled in this by senior republicans in congress. and we have to ask at this point, are not these senior people in the republican party interested in the truth about what has happened here? are they really that interested in putting partisan and ideological interests above the

john dean, john dean, he repeated, you know what john dean did to nixon.ean was the white house counsel who cooperated with special prosecutors, was fired by nixon and then testified against him in the senate watergate committee. >> turning back to wolff's reporting on steve bannon, the book describes an ugly relationship between he and jared and ivanka trump. the author says bannon referred to them as jarvanka. he revealed details in an effort to take him down. >> bannon and his team, was the jar ivanka conviction that bannon had played a part in many reports of kushner's interactions with the russians. it was a death match. for bannon to live, kushner would have to be wholly investigated, possibly even jailed. in the book, wolff also says the president offered roger ailes the job of running the campaign before bannon. he writes an early august, less than a important after ailes was ousted from "fox news" trump asked his old friend to take over the campaign. knowing his inability to take advice or listen he turned it down. >> the book also details an inte

john dean, john dean, he repeated, do you know what john dean did to nixon?" what does it mean he's referencing quotes related to watergate? we don't have sourcing behind everything that's written. >> it wouldn't surprise me that donald trump knows about watergate because donald trump admired richard nixon. we know that. donald trump showed people a letter that richard nixon had sent him. donald trump, one of his close friends at one point was roger stone, who has a bunch of ideas about richard nixon. so it wouldn't surprise me that he is aware of watergate and that he would share the nixon defense line about watergate, that john dean is the ultimate enemy, the ultimate rat, if you will. i'm in the surprised it's in his mind. the fact that he connected john dean so quickly to comey gives you a sense of why he's so obsessed with comey. >> it reinforces his insistence to people around him are loyal to him. that's a theme that has been without him throughout his presidency, throughout his campaign and it's been consistent with the reporting that's out there. wolf

listen, i asked john dean about your tweet in the last hour. and this is what he said. >> well i don't think he -- he has any choice. in this instance. he -- his client is not donald trump it's the office of the president. he has to respond accordingly. i think walter makes a good point about canonizing the counsel for doing what he is supposed to do. but i think it also suggests that he saw the peril in this and the potential criminality of it and that's why he backed off and was wise to do so. >> so very similar question mr. chavez i asked you before, do you think mcgann is pulling a john dean, john cooperatewood the investigators during the nixon administration by the way when they were looking into the watergate cover-up. >> well it sure sounded from that excerpt like john dean thinks that. you know, it's funny because i had john dean in mind when i wrote that tweet. i don't know history well enough to have any clue what was going through john dean's head at the time. but you heard him just now talking to you make the point that this is a v

name is john w. deaning struck by how methodically he presented nixon's pattern of deception. >> when the president called me and we had a rather lively discussion i told him at the conclusion of the conversation that evening that i wanted to talk with him as soon as possible about the watergate matter because i did not think he fully realized all of the facts and the implication of those facts for the people at the white house and as well as himself. >> you had the president's counsel. he was the president's lawyer. you can't have anything worse happen to you than your own lawyer turning against you. >> i began by telling the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency. and if the cancer was not removed, the president himself would be killed by it. i also told him that it was important that this cancer be removed immediately because it was growing more deadly every day. >> john dean's testimony was on for four days. it was mesmerizing. people were missing airplanes. people were standing a

she proclaimed george papadopoulos will be the john dean of the russia investigation. john dean, of course, was white house counsel to richard nixon and plead guilty in watergate and became the single most important witness against nixon and officials. i have no idea why george papadopoulos' fiancee says that the john dean rule is the one that her beloved fiancee is going to play in the russia investigation, but that is just what she told t"the washington pos post". there might be a language thing going on. mr. papadopoulos' fiancee is e italian. she says she's going to be the john dean of the russia investigation, but she also says at one point in the interview, quote, there is a lot to come. he was the first one to break a hole on all of this. the first one to break a hole. he was the first one to break a hole. i don't know what that means. there might be a little language thing here. i know what john dean means. i don't know what it means to be the first one to break a hole. we'll have to see how that shakes out. as i say, a bunch of news broke late in the day today

everything john dean is saying to that committee i hope they know it. it is true. >> the counsel was retained at this time. >> what date was that? >> that was on the 25th as i recall. >> the absolutely believed what he was saying and the more evidence we got the more it confirmed what he was saying. >> meeting of march 21st. as i have indicated my purpose in requesting this meeting particularly with the president was that i felt it necessary that i give him a full report of all the facts that i knew and explained to him what i believed to be the implications of those facts. >> we had white house logs of meetings. so when he said i met with the president on march 21st, we could look at the log and see, well, he certainly did. >> how do you expect us to resolve the truth in this matter when you state one story and you've testified here and made yourself subject to cross-examination and the president states another story and he does not appear before this committee? >> k you give us any information as to how we might resolve this? >> mr. chairman, i think

. >> john dean's testimony was on for four days. it was mesmerizing. people were missing airplanes. people were standing around furniture stores that sold tv sets watching in the plate-glass windows, the television. >> i told him the cash that had been at the white house had been funneled back to the re-election committee for the purpose of paying the seven individuals to remain silent. >> and dean wasn't pulling any punches. >> had been a recipient of wiretap information and haldeman also had received some information through straun. >> i said to myself wow, everything john dean is saying to that committee, i hope they know it is true. >> the counsel was retained at that time. >> what date was that? >> that was on the 25th, as i recall. >> we absolutely believed what he was saying and the more evidence we got the more it confirmed what he was saying. >> meeting of march 21st. as i have indicated, my purpose in requesting this meeting, particularly with the president, was that i felt it necessary that i give him a full report of all the facts that i knew and explain to him what i be

i know what john dean means. i don't know what it means to be the first one to break a hole. we'll have to see how that shakes out. as i say, a bunch of news broke late in the day today but we're scrambling the show today a bit because a big story has just broken within the last hour from axios.com. jonathan swan at axios.com reported within the last hour dramatic news about the fbi. he's reporting fbi director chris wray is threaten to resign from the fbi, or at least has threatened to resign from the fbi because of pressure being put on him by attorney general jeff sessions, that he should fire his deputy, that he should fire his -- the number two person at the fbi, deputy director andrew mccabe. here is the lead from this new report. quote, attorney general jeff sessions at the public urging of president donald trump has been pressuring fbi director chris wray to fire fbi deputy director andrew mccabe. but wray threatened to resign if mccabe was removed. that's according to three sources with direct knowledge. according to the new reporting tonight, attorney general jeff s

quote, john dean, john dean. trump repeated. do you know what john dean did to nixon. >> trump tweeting i authorized zero access to white house. actually turned him down many time for author of phony book. never spoke to him for book. full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don't exist. look at this guy's past and watch what happens to him and sloppy steve. a reference of course to steve bannon who is quoted extensively in the pages criticizing the administration and top advisers in blunt and brutal terms. portraying the white house as incompetent and erratic. nbc confirmed the personal legal team threatened the officer and accomplisher with a liable lawsuit unless they halted the release. this was the scene at midnight just a mile from the white house at cramer books in washington, d.c. a lot of people lined up there. where the book went on sale and 75 copies promptly sold out. coming up monday. fire and furry author, michael wolf. >> you think that book is going to be a best seller. >> i think it will be. >> all the

back with me carl bernstein and john dean. gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us here and continuing to join us here on the program. john, there have been multiple times since june that the president has denied he has considered firing mueller. watch this. >> mr. president, you've sought or thought about, considered leading to the dismissal of special counsel. is there anything bob mueller could do to send you in that direction? >> i haven't given it any thought. i've been reading about it from you people saying oh, i'm going dismiss him. no i'm not dismissing anybody. i want them to get on with the task. but i also want the senate and the house to come out with their findings. >> a quick follow-up on an earlier question to sarah. you discussed the special counsel and the investigation currently. are you considering firing robert mueller? >> no, not at all. >> are you considering firing mueller? >> no, i'm not. >> so, john, his staff and his attorneys also denied it at least five other times. yet we know now that's not t

joining us now is cnn legal analyst jeffrey toobin, white house counsel john dean. jeff toobin, do you think this is another potentially significant piece of a possible obstruction case? >> i do. because you have to look at the full context of the president's efforts regarding the russia investigation in the spring of last year. you know, obviously we know he fired james comey, who was leading that investigation. he told lester holt and the russian visitors that he did that not as he said publicly because of comey's investigation of hillary clinton. he did that because of comey's investigation of russia. here we have another example of the president trying to get -- hold control of the russia investigation by telling his white house counsel to tell jeff sessions not to recuse himself, to keep control. and have -- and, you know, one of the remarkable things about this "new york times" story is he's saying, you know, where is my roy cohen? roy cohen was one of the most corrupt and evil lawyers of the 20th century. he also represented donald trump at one time. to think

john dean, i spent a lot of time debriefing him after became a witness.unsel to the president but he playerly met with the president. he at most had a dozen meetings with nixon. whereas flynn was with trump all the time. we was kushner all the time, with don jr. he was very close to all the people there. >> he was likely to know more than what the administration was likely to know. >> no question. particularly in light of his guilty plea where he allocated the lie that took place after the election, according to that. so his lie about sanctions and talking to kislyak, the russian ambassador about sanctions, somehow related directly to what happened during the campaign. if you take it back to papadopoulos, he might be a coffee boy but as he coffee boy who is key to this conspiracy. if there was any crime that was committed here, it was the theft of the moils from the democratic national committee which is a big federal felony. >> you wrote right before the new year that the mueller probe has outgrown the witch hunt phase. that they've even begun questionin

not just a good idea. >> i have to agree with john dean. whenever i listen to john dean, he has got great expertise in this field, he was indicted and charged with obstruction of justice himself. >> he probably knows what to not do, right? >> the charges were that he supervised the payment of hush money to the watergate burglars. he was never charged with fighting back against president nixon. i think it is a big mistake for people to think that you can be charged with a crime for proclaiming your innocence or fighting back and saying i'm innocent. criminal lawyers do that on behalf of clients in every courtroom in america. we have a system designed for people to be able to fight back when they think an improper charge has been brought against them. now, you can go over the line and turn it into obstruction. but trump of course will say he hasn't gone over the criminal line. >> no doubt robert mueller is listening to what the president is saying, what he's doing, what has come before on the record. michael, do you think the president thinks

-- this is john dean -- is more important in 2018 than taking the u.s. house from the gop and beginning the end of trump's history risk presidency. the well-being of the nation depends on it. don't let a day pass without doing some act to help democrats win control, stop trump. are democrats explicitly, at least for yourself as a leader of the dnc, running on the idea that if they get control back, house democrats will impeach donald trump? >> we're running on an explicit program to put the middle class and working people first. we're running on an explicit program to say if you put democrats in, we're going to focus on your family budget, we're going to focus on human and civil rights for you in your neighborhood. look, nobody should relish impeachment, it should be something that we go into with a tremendous amount of trepidation. because it represents failure. but if the facts revealed by the mueller investigation and other sources reveal it, then it's the constitutional duty to investigate it and to look into it. personally, i think he deserves it. b

and we did have an extraordinary witness with john dean. and he may be right that flynn or even papadopoulos or someone we don't know about is an equivalent witness who will be giving us the smoking gun information that is necessary. we were looking at crimes. and it was only when we came to the conclusion that crimes had been committed by the president that he could be indicted if he was an ordinary citizen, that we had to consider is impeachment or indictment the correct procedure? and what is the best thing for american democracy. and we ended up going with giving a report to congress that set forth a road map to impeachment. which was really basically here are the crimes that has v been committed. and the house did in the senate went forward, using that. and concluded that it was an impeachable offense. >> jill wine-banks and nicholas kristof, thank you both for joining us tonight. ezra, please stick around. >>> coming up, donald trump's tweeting tonight is just one of the reasons why so many foreign leaders and foreign diplomats around

carl burnstein, john dean, stay with me. when we come back, much more on the breaking news. president trump tried to fire special counsel robert mueller last june and only threat by his own white house counsel to quit stopped him. did the president learn nothing over the firestorm over firing james comey. can i help you? it's me. jamie. i'm not good with names. celeste! i trained you. we share a locker. -moose man! -yo. he gets two name your price tools. he gets two? i literally coined the phrase, "we give you coverage options based on your budget." -that's me. -jamie! -yeah. -you're back from italy. [ both smooch ] ciao bella. [ both smooch ] with best in-class towing 2018 ford f-150. best in-class payload and best in-class torque the f-150 lineup has the capability to get big things to big places --bigtime. and things just got bigger. f-150 is now motor trend's 2018 truck of the year. this is the new 2018 ford f-150. it doesn't just raise the bar, pal. it is the bar. directv has been rated number one in customer satisfaction over cable for 17 years running. but some people

and it could be that he is the john dean and that he reveals everything that we need to know. and i also want to point out, you've mentioned several times this i don't remember, i don't recall and how many times our attorney general said that. and in nets ordinary trial, any ordinary jury is going to say, that is not credible. a man of his education, a man of his position, a man of his experience does not forget all of those meetings. he does not forget that he had a conversation about surrogates meeting in russia. it's not believable. he could be in substantive tub trouble for perjury. he could have misled the congress when he was being confirmed. there are so many things that he could be in trouble for and maybe he will want to protect himself and he will cooperate. >> ken, where we heading? ing. > george papadopoulos knew before almost anyone the russians had hacked e-mails. there's no way he kept that information to himself. he's a low level campaign functionary. his whole purpose was to please his betters. he had to pass information on. the question is who knew about it.

another excerpt reads, john dean, do you know what john dean did to nixon? again, these are quotes from people that michael wolff says he talked to in the white house right now. it goes to show potentially what donald trump's mind-set was during this whole time. >> right, if he could not get comey's loyalty and comey to promise him not to be investigated, comey had to go. if you look at the original explanation is because of how he handled the clinton investigation. it's kind of comical now, especially when you read "the new york times" piece because everything is built around the russia investigation, and the president seemed to be obsessed with comey's testimony before congress, and that weekend before comey was fired he watch add repeat of comey's testimony before congress with jared kushner, and i don't think they were looking for hillary clinton tidbits in that testimony, and that was focusing on russia and whether or not the president was being investigated. >> the issue of impeachment, bannon apparently thought impeachment was coming or likely. bannon

. >> reporter: nixon and white house counsel john dean.wants the tapes and subpoenas the white house for them. but nixon invokes executive privilege and refuses to give up the tapes but the u.s. court of appeals steps in ruling that nixon must comply. nixon tries to hand over summaries of the recordings. but cox balks at the idea. >> it is my duty for what seems to be noncompliance of the court order. >> reporter: nixon takes a gamble and orders his attorney general to fire cox. >> reports that attorney -- to fire the special watergate prosecutor arch bald cox. >> reporter: refuses and resigns in protest. >> for me to have acquiesced in his being firing. >> reporter: he too refuses and resigns. before the night is done though, the u.s. solicitor general filling in as attorney general agrees to fire archibald cox. still nixon is hardly immune to it all. nine months later, nixon on the verge of impeachment, but instead of being removed from office, he resigns. >> i shall resign presidency. >> we decided to assemble a group of people involved

joining me tonight cnn contributor former nixon contributor john dean.ouse correspondent senior political analyst maggie haber man. this seems confusing. is kelly parsing words, they didn't tell bannon, but maybe bannon's attorney? >> that's my understanding. to be clear, what we have had coming out of both the white house and reports about what actually happened and what was relayed during this committee hearing has all been very muddled. i think sarah sanders words most closely represent what this white house views its position as, whether that is acceptable or not, whether it is acceptable for topics to be cleared through the white house as we were later told steve bannon's lawyer is in open question. the other question to remember is bannon's lawyer represents two other people who are witnesses in this probe. one is reince priebus and one is don mcgahn, the white house counsel. so, i don't know that there is an actual conflict, but certainly it is an appearance issue that a lot of people have raised the question about. >> so, maggie, just to clarify,

with me is john dean along with philip mudd. phil, you used to work at the fbi. the news the president asked mccabe who he voted for, talked about his wife's political beliefs and history, what do you make of that? >> this is personally painful. and let me confess up-front, i know andy mccabe personally. i've had dinner with him. i joined in 1985 that was president reagan. then we went to president bush, president clinton, then president bush again, his son, and president obama. i served under all of them. what are you supposed to do every time we change president? are you supposed to say i didn't vote for you and therefore i can't serve in president anymore? i served in the bush white house in 2001 for president bush 43. he was the president-elected by the american people. you serve him, hopefully loyally. i was nominated by president obama in 2009 for a senate confirmable job. i would have served him loyally had i gotten that job. in government, the position you take is i can vote for anybody i want after hours, but nine to five when you're working on the job,

and cnn contributor john dean was nixon white house counsel. so good to have you both on. m going to start with you. explain why you think there are echos of watergate in this russia investigation. >> well, they both start with a penetration, if you will, or attempted penetration in one case of the d.n.c., the democratic national committee. and roll out from there. of course gordon liddy and a team of burglars broke into the watergate complex where the democratic national committee was located and tried to plant or fix a bug and take some photographs. the russians electronically penetrated the democratic national committee and spread the fruits of their entry all over the world in e-mails and what have you. so that's where the parallel starts and it goes on and on with a cover-up that we still don't have the end of the story with regard to mr. trump. >> elizabeth, john was here last night so i know his thoughts on the reporting of this story. i want to hear yours about wanting to fire mueller in june. tell me yours. >> well, i mean, the parallels to watergate are scarey. i

perspective from nixon white house counsel, john dean. cnn legal analyst, jeffrey toobin.ternational university's elizabeth foley. according to the report from the "times," papadopoulos seemed to be more than a coffee boy or insignificant campaign volunteer as the president and his allies previously said. >> that's right. the story suggests that this conversation was the root of the investigation and this is how fbi investigations start. if it started with the steele dossier, that would have been appropriate, too. the idea that you need some official source to start an investigation is just false, but -- but the "times" story, as you say, if it checks out, basically puts the lie to everything that the president has said about the origins of this investigation, and we now know this is an investigation that has led to two guilty pleas, pending indictment against two senior officials and, you know, we'll see where it goes, but, i mean, this story establishes that this investigation began in a way completely separate from the way that the president has said it began. >> profes

say what up, rocco. ♪ >>> back now with our echoes of watergate panel, john dean, david gergen, johnis is a serious, troubling decisions that are looming over the investigation. >> the most important decision is what mueller is going to do. and we don't know what he's going to do. it's clear that he has got the president's campaign, his closest associates, members of his family, in his sights. now it doesn't mean he wants to bring them down in his sights, he wants to find out what they have done. and they have been resisting letting him know what has been done and what they did. >> there's a passage of carl's book which he co-opted with bob woodward. you said, quote, the moral authority of the president is collapsing, how can you be thinking about housing? to me it's a really interesting question. is that what it's like in the white house when all this is going on, to try and get things done and to avert a potential crisis or a huge investigation. >> a lot of people around the president are very honest citizens, they have come in for what they hope is a good cause. when something lik

and john dean. jeff tuben, do you think this is a significant piece of a possible obstruction case? >> i do. because, you know, you have to look at the full context of the president's efforts regarding the russia investigation in the spring of last year. obviously, we know he fired james comey, who was leading that investigation. he did that, not as he said publicly because of comey's investigation of hillary clinton, he did that because of comey's investigation of russia. here we have another example of the president trying to get ahold, control the russia investigation, by telling his white house council to tell jeff sessions not to recuse himself, to keep control, and have -- and, you know, one of the remarkable things about this new york times story is, he's saying, where is my roy kohn. roy kohn was one of the most corrupt and evil lawyers of the 20th century. he also represented donald trump at one time. to think the attorney general of the united states, who represents not the president, but who represents all americans and runs the department of justice, should behave like t

i want to bring in john dean, former white house counsel for president nixon. and renaldo mariotti, who is running for attorney general of illinois. gentlemen, good evening. welcome to the program. ranaldo, steve bannon is evoking executive privilege. is there precedent for that? >> there isn't. that is really bizarre. they're claiming executive privilege when donald trump was not yet the executive. so that's a problem for them. you know, we have seen very often people from the administration refuse to answer questions without saying why, without saying they're invoking executive privilege. now we're seeing the reason why that is, because when you invoke executive privilege, there's case law out there, in other words, court decisions out there on this issue. and i think if the congress actually pushed back, which is a big question, i think dana is right. you know, congress seems to have been fairly compliant with the president thus far. but if they push back, i think they would prevail on those questions. >> john dean, representative jim heins says that bannon

john dean, he repeated do you know what john dean did to nixon. what was your takeaway from that? >> you know, again, it is this -- this is about loyalty. trump asked comey for loyalty and comey said during one of his testimonies to congress, i believe, i could be conflating a couple things comey said so forgive me, this idea that it's about protecting the throne and it's not. it's about protecting the constitution. but this conspiracy theory, deep state, some of the things you've heard the president say on the campaign trail and now in the white house, that hasn't gone away. while on some of these claims haven't been independently verified that are in the book, it does lay bare some of the things that a lot of us have heard off the record and behind the scenes. >> carrie one more legal question before we let you go, it has to do with the air force one drafting of the response to all the reporting about donald trump, jr.'s meeting at trump tower where the russians promised dirt on hillary clinton. the president, michael wolff says, insisted the meeting was purely and simply about

i want to bring in now cnn contributor, john dean, a former white house counsel for president nixon, and renato marrioiotti mariotti. bannon's testimony appears contentious and he's right to invoke executive privilege for the time, including the transition, according to dana's reporting. is there precedent for that? >> there isn't. i mean, that is really bizarre. they're claiming executive privilege when donald trump was not yet the executive spop that. so that's a problem for them. you know, we have seen very often people from the administration refuse to answer questions, without saying why. without saying that they're actually invoking executive privilege. and now we're seeing the reason why that is. because when you invoke executive privilege, there's actually, you know, case law out there, in other words, court decisions out there on this issue and i think if the congress actually pushed back, which is a big question, i think, dana's right, you know, congress seems to have been fairly compliant with the president thus far, but if they do push back, i think they would prevail on

against nixon, when john dean said that nixon was part of the cover-up.annon, by saying that nothing don junior would do without daddy getting involved, bannon was saying the same thing. bannon is saying that president trump participated in the discussion with the russians. so, we haven't seen anything like this for a long time, and bannon's motives are interesting. >> and what's also interesting, nia, is that putting aside what the white house said, that this book should be in the bargain basement trash bin or whatever they said, it's a best-seller and people want to read it. >> yeah, people want to read it. it comes out in a week or so. you imagine there is going to be more and more press about it. there are more excerpts coming out next week. >> pretty stunning things in them, i believe. >> "the hollywood reporter." exactly, because that's what you want to put on in a book, the most stunning substances. this is what the president for many days will be looking at when he tunes into fox news or cnn or whatever he likes to watch. this is what he will hear

our democracy as we have known it then they're going to have to nanosecond that congress act. >> john dean. >> liz mentioned something that's very important, is the timing. watergate spanned a much longer period of time. news cycles were a little slower, had a little more time to absorb it than they do today. but the american people were ready for nixon to leave when he left. the american people i don't think are there at this point with trump. i think it will be both a legal resolution and a political resolution. you had phil lokavar at a on earlier. fifl is one of those who during watergate believed a president could and should be the prosecuted. that is however not the policy of the department of justice. they believe that they can not prosecute a sitting president. that leaves only impeachment as a remedy. and the republicans right now probably wouldn't giannecchini trump if he shot somebody on fifth avenue, to use a familiar analogy. that's how partisan it is. but that can change with the 2018 election. the house will turn over. the democrats will take control and start the education

drove down we got passes from senator kennedy's office when we got into the watergate here when john dean was testifying and when he and mo dean entered the room when she walked in everybody held their breath nice analogy is when. after being humiliated with this story of the shell corporation and delaware on her thirteenth wedding anniversary that's the part you won't see on t.v. but i guarantee you will hypnotise the room are going to be watching i think it's awful i really do i have my issues with the president but i legitimately best point feel bad for millennia because he's. he's not doing or any favorite songs even those of us who disagree this is another instance i think night where we might see something different i'm not i'm not saying it's kind of a lie. presidential i'm getting a month ago that margolis but he's definitely going to maybe try a somewhat more bipartisan or conciliatory approach but the republicans elected you know yeah outlier right so do they want him to reach across the aisle or do then i mean does that even work and you know with all of this sort of like you k

nats of john dean/then-white house counsel: "i would say these people are going to cost a million dollarsr the next two years." nat of pres. richard nixon: "we could get that." richard nixon and white house counsel secret recordings talking about the watergate break-in. the special prosecutor - archibald cox - wants the tapes.and subpoenas the white house for them. nat of pres. richard nixon: "play it tough, that's the way they play it, and that's the way we're going to play it."but nixon invokes executive privilege and refuses to give up the tapes. but the u.s. court of appeals steps in - ruling that nixon must comply.nixon instead tries to hand over summaries of the recordings.but cox balks at the idea. archibald cox/special prosecutor, watergate investigation: "i think it is my duty to bring to the courts attention to what seems to me non- compliance with the courts order."thinking he has the country on his side, nixon takes a gamble and orders his attorney general, elliott richardson, to fire cox.nats of tom brokaw/nbc news: "good evening, there are reports tonight the president nixon

joining me tonight is cnn contributor john dean. and cnn political analyst, maggie halverman.s? >> to be clear, what we have had coming out both of the white house and reports about what actually happened and what was relayed during this committee meeting has been muddled. but sarah sanders' words most views. topic to be clear through the white house that steve bannon's lawyer is open question. bannon's lawyer represents two other people who are witnesses in this probe. one is reince priebus and one is don mcgahn. certain there is an appearance issue that a lot of people have raised a question with. >> do you think kelly does not know they are in contact with bannon. >> i think kelly knows and i suspect that he is parsing his language to make it steve bannon specific. >> john, this is reporting the bannon slip up. i'm wondering how significant you think that might be? >> well it could be considered one thing, a waiver of the privilege. you can't partially invoke executive privilege. more importantly he doesn't have a privilege to invoke at all. >> he doesn't? >> the president

with me now is john dean, and phillip mudd.bout his wife's political believes and history and what do you make of that? >> this is painful and let me confess up front. i know andy mccabe personally. i joined in 1985. and then president bush the son, and then president obama. i served under all of them. what are you supposed to do every time we change president? i didn't vote for you? i served in the bush white house. he was the president elected by the american people. you serve him hopefully loyally. i was nominated by president obama in 2009. i would have served him loyally had i gotten that job. the position you take is i can vote for anybody i want after hours but 9:00 to 5:00 on the job, you serve him. we voted private and we serve anybody the american people elect. that's it. >> phil, have you ever been asked by president or you know, an elected visual who you voted for? >> no. and i served under mueller. i can't remember having a conversation at the table that involved politics. 2,000 plus conversations. the issue you ha

the white house counsel, john dean, he went to jail. orney general, john mill tch, he went to jail. one was an assistant attorney general of the united states. he'd been part of creep, the party to elect the president. he was up to his neck in the watergate break-in. and in the cover-up of the watergate break-in. his name was robert martian. he was trying to get the burglars out of jail once they were arrested. he helped with hush money and with concocting the false story to put a shine on what had happened there with that burglary. robert martian was indicted in conjunction with watergate in 1974 and ultimately convicted and sentenced to ten months in prison. but in 1976 his conviction was overturned for a very unusual and specific reason. assistant attorney general robert martian did not have to go to prison for watergate. he got his conviction thrown out, his sentence thrown out in the end for a very specific reason. because in the middle of his trial for watergate, his lawyer collapsed in the courtroom and was unable to go on. his la

cnn contributor john dean is here, a former nixon white house council, and senior commentator ken cuccinellis here as well. good evening, gentlemen, so good to see you. john, sources tell cnn that lawyers for president trump are expecting a request for the president to meet with special counsel robert mueller. and they're hoping to get some guidelines on the interview. how do you see this playing out? >> well, i think the lawyers will try to get written interrogatories, which will not be acceptable at all to the president. i think it's a high stakes situation to the president. he has a lot of experience with depositions, and i would tell you from the attorneys i've talked to it's not been a good experience with depositions. >> written interrogatories mean written questions to answer. >> it's written questions that are set forth and they're generally answered in a combination of the person being asked and the lawyers fashion them. and you can be very evasive, and there's no follow up on them. and they're not favored by most prosecutors or acceptable. >> it is not unheard of presidents to be d

john dean, john erlikman, bob holdiman. because the american people wanted to know what was going on, and i think that's critical. the other thing i wanted to say is president trump has a lot of bravado at work here. he doesn't want to show -- when he says he wants to show up, he doesn't want to show that he's weak or afraid in any way. if you heard what he said, of course i want to show up, but subject to what my lawyers are going to say. >> yes. >> and his lawyers do not want him to go. >> you hit the nail on the head with donald trump. he never wants to look weak. you know, my mother attended the watergate hearings. part of the reason why she got into journalism. side note, not relevant here. natasha, donald trump yesterday, when he was talking to reporters, he was telling them he would be willing to go talk to the special counsel under oath. he also said something that was really interesting that devlin barrett at the "washington post" noticed. and take a listen to this sound bite. here's where it is. >> because here's

and i think john dean said recently that the problem in the white house in the nixon administration is they didn't realize how much he actually knew. and that was one of their big mistakes, was not knowing that. and that happened a lot in watergate that people said things thinking they could get away with it. but we had documents, we had calendars, a lot of little details that got people in trouble. >> two terrific lawyers. we'll have you back often. our thanks to jill winebanks and squenfer rogers. >>> coming up, you may pick one. was it a rare look inside or was it the perfect opportunity to show amen tale agile president because there's a book outright now saying he's not fit for office. we'll talk about both options when we continue. say hello to pre-tox! a whole new concept in skin defense. new absolutely ageless®... ...pre-tox day mask from aveeno®. its' powerful anti-oxidant formula... ...fights pollution and keeps skin looking younger, longer. aveeno®. hi, i'm the internet! you knoarmless bowling.lt? ahhhhhhhh! you know what's easy? building your website with godaddy. get your