i think mrs. nixonlike all first ladies, this finds all of them together. there is no person who cares more about the success of the president and the presidency and the president's spouse. that is their single focus and that is something that will bind all of them together in what they share as the single person who has experienced the ups and downs, and who at the end of the day is not like any other advisor. they are a different confidant. i think mrs. nixon does not get the credit for just what an incredible political mastermind that she was. this is the hardest working person on the president's campaign. to think about it and richard nixon's campaign he had gone from congressman to senator to vice president of the united states, and in all of these campaigns, some of them were difficult. 1952 running for the vice presidency when the scandal on the finances corrupted and how -- erupted and how that personally wounded her so much because it was a challenge to their integrity, not so much a challenge

mr. nixonnot second guess his field commander. >> teddy kennedy is far and away the democratic front-runner for president in 1972. >> 1972, the great many stories about muskie/kennedy ticket, kennedy/muskie ticket. i want to just say tonight right now, there is absolutely no truth to those stories. ed muskie hasn't picked a vice president yet. let me say, neither have i. >> for democrats the young massachusetts senator, last of the kennedy brothers, speaks out strongly on the major issue where conflict arises with president nixon and republicans generally. >> all of the so-called intellectual elite, the so-called better people, were against what we were doing in vietnam. they thought we should get out. whatever the cost might be. well, if they wanted to end the war, they should have supported what we were trying to do. rather than to sabotage our efforts to end it. >> the president asks for time to end the war, but these people think he's had enough, and they hope the american public will give

mr. nixonnd to obey the law of the land. the people are beginning to respond. the anger and outrage reflected in these telegrams. all of them demanding that the congress act and impeach the president. >> impeach nixon now! impeach nixon now! impeach nixon now! >> good evening. the president agreed to do just what he had always said he would not do. turn over certain tape recordings of his conversations about watergate. >> mr. president -- >> mr. president, wonder if you could share with us your thoughts when you hear of people saying perhaps you should resign or be impeached. >> well, i'm glad we don't take the vote of this room, let me say. >> mr. president -- >> at the risk of re-opening an obvious wound, what is it about the television coverage of you that has so aroused your anger? >> gentlemen of the press, one can only be angry with those he respects. as a matter of fact, i have never heard such outrageous, vicious reporting in 27 years of public life. but regardless of what people see an

normally, nixon, mr. politicald another and business men in the senate, would have been the person to serve in that capacity, but what we were afraid of, joanne and i, if we used either nixon or louis, we may lose some of the other ones, so let's get somebody else, she said. i will tell you who. i said who? she said my pastor, martin luther king jr. i said i met dr. king. i do not know him like you do. but i said let me give you two good positions for these other two men. treasurer, because he knows a philip randolph, who is union, and of the the other man was a former coach at alabama state. he was in the political aspect. he wanted to get people registered to vote. in order to get to the club, you had to be a registered voter. i said let's make nixon the treasurer, lewis the chairman of the transportation committee, because if it is on monday, we will need somebody. jewel is i said co-owner of the largest home in town. guess what? they have automobiles. mobiles.auto going to don i am when we get through

in the nixon administration? mr. lott: no -- i guess it was the nixon administration. yeah. that's right. i jumped over the ford administration, but you are right. it was in the nixon administration. timothy: that is really -- mr. lott: you know, i got to remember my dates and people. after all, that was 36 years ago. timothy: yeah, i know. is there an anecdote we have not preserved that you would like to add? mr. lott: yeah, i'd like to add one. i kept my relationship up with nixon over the years. i still admired him for his knowledge of the world situation and his leadership. i remember when reagan was going to send troops into granada, i was not sure this was a good idea. i called nixon. by then, i am the whip for the republicans in the house. i called president nixon. he took the call. i said i don't know much about what is going on here about this part of the world. thing ande right should i come out for it? historyme a little lesson and said absolutely, it is the right thing. i am for it. i put out a statement and he immediately came out very supportive of the effort.

most of them demand impeaching mr. nixon. >> nixon was forced to appoint a new prosecutor.nd as the months went by, bit by bit, he was forced to hand over the tapes. they were as damning as he had feared. white house counsel john dean's testimony turned out to be entirely accurate. >> i would say these people are going to cost a million dollars over the next two years. >> you could get a million dollars. and you could get it in cash. i know where it could be gotten. >> would you consider it impeachable if you had lied to us? >> i also quit beating my wife. >> in july of 1974, in a packed hearing room, the house judiciary committee began to debate removing the president. >> make no mistake about it. this is a turning point, whatever we decide. >> committee chairman peter rodino was a democratic machine liberal from newark, new jersey. he was new to the job. some doubted if he could handle it. >> a partisan prosecution if there ever was one. >> mato the nixon followers, impeaching him was tantamount to suicide. so they kept waiting for the evidence. >> the evidence must be cl

they said mr. nixon, mr. president, you are going to have to resign. so we will just see what happens here. thanks so much for joining us on the program. >> thank you. therocs are appearing in world's largest alliance. leaders are in the united kingdom and divisions are becoming clear. the u.s. and french president have disagreed on several points including the return of foreign fighters in syria. it's supposed to be nato 70th birthday, but there is no celebration. instead, an atmosphere of disagreement and division, with the u.s. president who once called the alliance obsolete, now saying he fears that france might leave nato. heardent trump: and i president macron say that nato was great. i think that's very insulting to a lot of different voices including a man who doesn't great job of running nato. it's a very nasty statement to essentially 28 countries, including them. reporter: those comments were particularly pointed as president trump's next meeting was with the french president. there were uncomfortable moments when they were asked about europ

-- and a report surfaces that mr. nixon has perhaps taken finances from someone he should not have done so, so he goes on television and he is in hot water with eisenhower, goes on television and gives his famous speech. it was the famous checkers speech. probably the height of nixon in successful television. he talks about the only president he has ever gotten was his dog, checkers, and so americans thought, oh, what a good daddy is. so he becomes vice president. in his presidency, his mistrust of the press is a landmark of his time in office. after he loses his first run, he goes back to california and says -- then loses another race for governor in california, and at a press conference he says, you are not going to have me to kick around anymore. that is pretty much prevailing. during the white house in -- era he creates an enemy list of reporters who are friendly, who are not friendly, has the f.b.i. investigating reporters. it did not help him much when two young journalists for the washington post dig into the waterga

mrs. nixon's funeral, but we did go to president nixon's funeral. >> president clinton gave a ulogy. were you involved and how he described him? >> i don't recall. he probably talked to me about it. we probably bounced ideas off of each other. i may have seen a draft but i don't recall any specific advice i gave him. >> what was it like to be in that -- you were among people that you had studied. ow did it make you feel? >> by that time i was much more familiar with the role of being first lady. and it was the right and proper thing to be at his uneral, to represent the country as we were all doing. i talked to a number of the former presidents whom i knew, former first ladies, and it was a beautiful day. it was a very touching funeral -- memorial service. >> what should the country have learned from the house's role in impeachment in 1974? >> i think it is such a serious undertaking. do not pursue it for trivial partisan political purposes. if it does fall to you while you are in the house to examine abuses of power by the president, be as circumspect and careful as john doerr was.

the show is a counterpart of an american exhibition to be opened in moscow next month by mr. nixon. full scale models of sputnik are among the things russia is proudest of. legitimately impressive achievements exploited to the utmost here. >> not too long after that, the united states sent their national exhibition to moscow, hich was a huge hit. over two million russian visitors came to the exhibition. this is a keepsake -- various things were handed out to the visitors, and this is a little polaroid keepsake. the american exhibition covered various topics, including polaroid technology, automobile technology, and of course, kitchen technology. we have heard a lot about the kitchen debates. >> indeed. >> you want to talk about the kitchen debate? >> clearly, what is going on during these exhibitions is this idea of which industry is better, capitalism or communism? in terms of technology. one of the big features in moscow was an american kitchen. there, you have the translators working with president nixon -- sorry, vice president nixon and nikita khrushchev. >> vice president nixo

mr. nixon's landslide tonight. >> according to our cbs news estimate, president nixon has been re-electedblican headquarters at the shoreham hotel in washington. >> i've never known a national election when i would be able to go to bed earlier than tonight. [ cheers and applause ] >> and please repeat after me. i, richard nixon, do solemnly swear. >> i, richard nixon, do solemnly swear. >> that i will faithfully execute the office of president of the united states. >> looking back at the early watergate reports, it's hard to believe that nixon was completely unscathed. >> to the best of my ability. >> and will to the best of my ability. >> imagine a president getting away with that unfolding scandal in today's political environment. >> preserve and protect the constitution of the united states. >> so help me god. >> so help me god. >> woodward and bernstein went back to their desks, put their heads down, and continued to grind away at the story. >> i knew that i was going to be judged, the paper was going to be judged on this story. and therefore, you know, i think you could get away with

mr. nixon's presidency. this lecture is from a temple university course mr. shepard taught called watergate revisited, an insiders view. he helped transcribe the watergate tapes. this is 90 minutes. geoff: we are going to hith

might i just say to the obstruction of congress, neither mr. nixon or mr. clinton obstructedli congress in the manner that this president's doing. the underlying amendment had to do with corruption. and i raise the point of the document that speaks about the july 25th call. let me just quickly say that the language is i would like you to do us a favor, though. and as the white house has distortedhe the interpretation, the us does not have any reference to the department of justice, department of defense, the department of state. and clearly, in the same document, he mentions the vice president. hees mentions crowd strike. all of those have been debunked. it is clear that the vice president was operating as a vice president of the united states at the time. and as he wast operating, he w operatingg, on an official poli to deal with ukraine. this is about the president seeking to have ukraine investigate this political opponent for personal and private reasons. no one misinterpreted what was said. and lieutenant colonel vindman immediately went to the legal c

. >> we had two different nixon cases. >> no mr. rascon we're done with in. >> the gentleman yields back for what purpose is she seeking recognition. >> i move to strike the last word. >> gentle lady is recognized. >> let's go back, as has been stated today, the constitution devotes only a few sentences to impeachment. i'm reading one. it's article one section 2 the last sentence. the house of representatives shall choose speaker and other officers and thus have sole power of impeachment. as professor rascon told us properly the constitution uses the word sole only twice. sole, not shared, not shared with the judiciary, not shared with the executive. this means that we have the -- the sole opportunity and obligation frankly to determine what evidence is necessary for impeachment. sole not shared with the executive. think back. judiciary chairman peter rodino warned president nixon about his failure to comply with the subpoenas issued in the watergate inquiry. under the constitution it's not within the power of the president to condu

and might i just say, to the obstruction of congress, neither mr. nixon or mr. clinton obstructed congress and the manner that this president is doing. the underlying amendment had to do with corruption and i raise the point of the document that speaks about the july 25th call. let me just quickly say, the languages, "i would like us to s a favor though." the "us" does not have any reference to the department of justice, department of defense, department of state. clearly in the same document he mentions the vice president, he mentions kyle strike, all of those have been debunked. clearly the vice president was operating as the president of the united states at the time and he was operating on an official policy to deal with ukraine. this was about the president seeking to have ukraine investigate this political opponent for personal and private reasons. no one misinterpreted what was said and, lieutenant colonel venmo vindman went to the legal counsel in the white house that immediately went dark and then never responded because he was so offended by this campa

my kids came to use sakhi to hide his involvement with the 103 mr nixon letter.to the prince in the senate this becomes to me then i'm just stuck to that they could get was there a point to all the police. to hide mike's 20 percent share in our company and the heart of a $1000000.00 payment sakhi office to launder the function through one of his companies s p k consulting. business my company of the time the old. well the and i'm the only american enterprise that ok then that is the only reason why are we using this to put it because we don't want anybody else. asking questions that nobody will find out that you have hurt us to see it was a good distance if you were on the. pier and. we showed a no maybe i'm professor of law at the evidence set out on the cover reports i had gathered about face cost c.e.o. . to see he would be checking into capacities as a private citizen and as an official and in both cases the beneficiary of that that's just elite that would lend him in. in 2013 you have a says he was offered to provide a payment for fisheries minister bernard

and for her very forceful response and might i just say to the obstruction of congress, neither mr. nixon nor mr. clinton obstructed congress in the manner that this president is doing. the underlying amendment had to do with corruption and i raise the point of the document that speaks about the july 25th call. let me quickly say that the language is, i would like you to do us a favor, though. and as the white house has distorted the interpretation, the "us" has not reference to the department of justice, department of defense, department of state. clearly in this same document he mentions the vice president. he mentions crowdstrike. all of those have been debunked. is clear the vice president was operating as the vice president of the united states at the time and as he was operating was operating on an official policy to deal with ukraine. this is about the president seeking to have ukraine investigate this political opponent for personal and private reasons. no one misinterpreted what was said, and lieutenant corner vindman immediately went to the legal counsel in the white house that

mr. nixon's most loyal supporters are calling for his resignation. the president issued a statement about the evidence he kept secret saying this was a serious act of omission for which i take full responsibility and which i deeply regret. the reaction at the capitol to the president's disclosure that evidence was held back was one of shock and dismay among some of his most hardworking supporters. it is seen by many as a decisive turning point in the impeachment process. here now is some congressional reaction. >> the effect of the president's statements on his supporters in the just dish yar committee was devastating. republican charles wiggins of california said i have reached the painful conclusion the president of the united states should resign. wiggins said the national interest requires the president to concentrate his efforts on a speedy transition of power to vice president ford. >> republican member of congress from richard nixon's california, he was just an unimaginable defection from richard nixon's camp. wiggins was the strongest and mos

and yet the republicans when they saw the evidence they turned on him and they said mr nixon mr president you're going to add to resign so we will just see what happens here indeed that's what we'll have to wait and see for the moment to put your poem from the university of minnesota thanks so much for joining us on the program thank you. crites are appearing in the world's largest alliance leaders are in the united kingdom for the 70th anniversary of nato and the visions are becoming clear the u.s. and french presidents disagreed on several points including nato his role and the return of foreign fighters in syria our diplomatic editor james bays begins our coverage. it's supposed to be nato 70th birthday but there's no celebration instead an atmosphere of disagreement and division with the u.s. president who once called the alliance obsolete now saying he fears that france might leave nato and i heard president mccarthy you know liberator i think it's very shocking to a lot of different. british man very proud. when you make a statement like that is a very very very nasty statement to e

mr. nixon's presidency. this lecture is from a temple university course mr. shepherd taught. in his white house role, he helped transcribe the watergate tapes. this is about 90 minutes. geoff: what we will talk about today, we will hit with a sledgehammer. what i think are the judicial and prosecutorial abuses that characterized the watergate cover-up trial. i understand that people were convicted, but you need to understand that lawyers do not play fair. they argue two things. they can argue, look, the person did not do the crime, the person was not guilty. but usually in a political scandal, the argument is there was not enough proof to find

>> > president nixon, mr. vice president, governor, congressman thomas and congressman miller. mr. webb, val, distinguished guests and ladies and gentlemen. i appreciate your president having made me a visiting honorary professor, and i assure you my first lecture will be very brief. i am delighted to be here, and i am particularly delighted to be here on this occasion. we meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress in a state noted for strength and we stand in need of all three, for we meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. the greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds. despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are alive and working today, despite the fact that this nation's own scientific manpower is doubling every 12 years in a rate of growth more than three times that of our population as a whole, despite that, the vast stretches of the unknown, and the unanswered, and the unfinished, still are far beyond our compr

mr. nixon's presidency. this lecture is from a temple university course mr. shepard taught called watergate revisited, an insiders view. he helped transcribe the watergate tapes. this is 90 minutes. geoff: we are going to hit with a sledgehammer what i think are the judicial and prosecutorial abuses that categorized the watergate cover-up trial. i understand people were convicted. but you need to understand lawyers lawyers don't play fair. , they argue two things. they can argue, look that the , person did not do the crime, the person was not guilty. but usually in a political scandal, the argument is, there was not enough proof to find them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. very high standard. it is not that they were blameless. it's not that they were innocent. we say, we would rather let 100 guilty go free than convict one innocent man. properly, then it can't come in. if you did not share information properly with the defense, those procedural violations can equally invalidate a verdict. i am happy to argue both. so that is kind of what we are going to go

mr. nixon's presidency. this lecture is from a temple university course mr. shepherd taught. in his white house role, he helped transcribe the watergate tapes. this is about 90 minutes. geoff: what we will talk about today, we will hit with a sledgehammer. what i think are the judicial and prosecutorial abuses that characterized the watergate cover-up trial. i understand that people were convicted, but you need to understand that lawyers do not play fair. they argue two things. they can argue, look, the person did not do the crime, the person was not guilty. but usually in a political scandal, the argument is there was not enough proof to find them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. very high standard. it is not that they were blameless. it's not that they were innocent. but we say we would rather let 100 guilty go free than convict one innocent man. we are loading it to a high standard. the other thing that lawyers argue, which the public sometimes has trouble with, is procedure. if you need to get that evidence -- if you did not get that evidence into the courtroom properly,

mr. block's opinion of eisenhower failing to control mccarthy and nixon went too far, and perhaps persuaded voters not to vote for him and it did run in the areas where mr. block was syndicated and the other newspapers, what you also need ton about this cartoon is that washington post readers missed it. they knew a cartoon had appeared elsewhere and it hadn't appeared in the hometown paper and they were angry, and the washington post ran every single cartoon that mr. block chose to draw after that. he had a lot of power at the post as a cartoonist. we can see that mr. block's art style has evolved from the midwestern-type pen and ink drawing to a very loose drawing style, but much more loose he uses a lot of graphite and ink brush and he's using a stipple board and it grabs the pencil and gives it nice texture. he used white out both as a way to control his mistakes and also to enhance his image. so, for example, on this canoe being guided by president kennedy, he's got budget written in white out on top of the ink and pencil so that it stands out in his cartoon. ken w kennedy was hard for

mr. joins presidents johnson, nixon and clinton, all of whom faced impeachment. mr. trump is confident he will betted by the senate. tonight he called it an absolute disgrace. it is only the fourth time in history lawmakers have tried to impeach an american president and remove him from office. democrats are charging mr. trump with abuse of power and obstructing congress. rep. nadler: the house committea on the jud is introducing two articles of impeachment charging the president of the united states, donald j. trump, with committing high crimes and misdemeanors. trump made a white house visit for ukraine's president and t military aid f country contingent on mr. zelensky announcing political investigations. with the 2020 election looming, democrats say they must movere now. schiff: the argument why don't you just wait" amounts to this -- why don't you just let him cheat and one more election? why not let him cheat one more time? laura: republicans counter that the president did nothing wrong and the demoats are trying to rerun an election they lost. rep. mccarthy: i

woodward and bernstein had to spend months and find a source to link nixon to the watergate break-in. mr. bloch true footsteps leading directly to the white house. other scandals were originated. it is careful not to draw nixon. this cartoon said you are not really going to run that by you. when he said yes, she went ok. she was prepared for the call she was going to get the next morning when that paper landed on people's front porches. involved in treating negotiations. if you know your constitution you know it's not the president who gets assigned treating death assigned treaties. assigned treaties. a congressman, a generic congressman can't do that. we haven't agreed to anything yet. mr. bloch is also there are constitutional differences between the white house and the u.s. capital. finally when we have a cartoon during the bush administration, george w. bush administration, mr. bloch believes strongly in separation of church and state. he believed that funding for religious groups violated that. one way he depicted it, of course, is by showing the newspaper headline. the guy rolling

most demanding impeaching mr. nixon. few congressmen were in town because of the holiday.publicans and businessmen and people, most of whom begin their statement by saying, i have supported the president, i have never believed in impeachment, but he has now gone too far and we want the congress to take strong action. that's a real wave in the country today, ray, on impeachment, and it has support it never had before. >> that was october 22nd, 1973, nine months before articles of impeachment were formally filed against president richard nixon. at the time the american public used a rather limited method of communication to make their voices heard, the western union telegram. let's bring in nbc news senior correspondent tom brokaw. his latest book is entitled "the fall of richard nixon, a reporter remembers watergate." it seems like these were much simpler times, tom, when there were pieces of paper coming in from people across the country and they could just be counted. now, it is the wild west of social media. >> in fact, i have been thinking this morning that the public i

clinton and mr. nixon because they were far better liars in so many ways, as david said. >> they didn't say get over it. >> and they didn't -- and neither one of them would have said, yes, yes, i subverted american democracy and helped our enemies in russia and i actually am trying to have a foreign power rig the 2020 election, get over it. i don't think any of them would have said that. so we're in this bizarre moment now where donald trump admits doing things, again, far worse constitutionally than bill clinton did. and even, i agree with her, even worse than what richard nixon did in watergate, and that say very high -- >> that's big. >> -- bar. >> very high bar. and what donald trump did is specifically the kind of thing that the founders were worried about. foreign influence in our elections. a president who -- who does illegal and unconstitutional things in order to perpetuate his power and to stay in office. i mean, he did all the things that they've wrote the impeachment clause for, and he has admi

have the honor and privilege weld interviewing william in new york city for the richard nixon oral history program. mr. weld, thank you for joining us today. please tell us how you came to be involved with the inquiry? a call in the fall of 1973. i was an associate at a law firm asking me if i'd be interested in interviewing for a job on the impeachment staff. point it really hadn't gotten off the ground. i said, no, i have to stay here i make partner and then i called the guy back 15 seconds made aaving realized i dreadful mistake and i said can i still interview for it and he had a telephone interview with sam garrison who was running the republican side was not yet who fully unified. some thought it never was. went down and had a good interview with sam and i was in shortlycome thereafter and reported for duty in december of 1973. timothy: tell me a little bit about, first of all, about sam garrison. give us a word picture of him. william: he was a devoted family south,think from the from richmond, and he worked in on sunday slept mornings but that was about it. personalhad a good relationship. tim

. >> reporter: the charges are similar to those the committee passed during the nixon impeachment process. >> mr. hogan? >> aye. >> reporter: in 1974. >> this is a moment where we had to hold the president accountable. >> it's a scam. >> reporter: president trump had this reaction from the oval office: >> i tell you what, some day there will be a democrat president, and they'll there will be a republican house, and i suspect they're going to remember it. >> reporter: the votes came after more than 13 hours of debate that ended suddenly in rancor near midnight. >> the committee will now stand in recess until tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. >> there was no consulting from the ranking member? >> that's more stalinesque. >> not even consult? >> reporter: the final decision now rests in the hands of 431 house members. >> i'm hopeful that there are republicans out there who will consult your conscience and consult the constitution and will keep an open mind about how to vote. >> reporter: g.o.p. defections are unlikely. >> well, this is really a travesty for america. >> reporter: the final house impeachme

mr. chairman. like president nixon, the allegations against president trump involves seriousness election related misconduct. nixon associates burglarized the dnc headquarters and nixon tried to cover up the crime by obstructing federal investigations and he abused his power to target political rivals here. here we are confronted with evidence suggesting that president trump tried to leverage appropriated assistance to resist russia by ukraine to convince a foreign ally to announce an investigation of his political rival. professor karlan, i would like you to tell me your view on how president trump conduct meaning his request of the former allies, how is that compares to what president nixon did? >> not favorably. as i suggested in my opening statement, it was a kind of doubling down. president nixon abused domestic law enforcement to go after his political opponents. what president trump has done based on the evidence that he asked a foreign country to do that. it is sort of like a daily double if you will. >> right. >> professor, gerhardt? >> what we are talking about is abusive of power. only the presid

mr. jer os ski during the nixon impeachment proceedings and then mr. starr to have an independent process of investigation. the congress was not privy to any of that investigation at all. they proceeded. they were not interfered with as mr. mueller was by the doj because he was an employee of the department of justice and his employer, his boss, came out and characterized his report before he could even discuss it. in the instance of the proceedings of 1998, the congress received a report just as both our friends on the other side of the aisle and we in the majority received reports from the impeachment inquiry committees who were investigatory committees. they did their work, yes, in a classified setting as i imagine both mr. starr and mr. gentleja had to do. they were prosecutors and had witnesses that were not in the public. and of course they had firsthand witnesses who heard the call and testified not on any secondhand knowledge but firsthand knowledge. it is clear that we're dealing with a question of a continuing threat which is why we have to r

that's what happened with nixon. and mr. trump is courting the same thing. >> let's take a closer look at murkowski. she's sort of an interesting story politically. ended up winning re-election as a write in candidate, so i think she's shown the ability to exercise independence than some of her colleagues in the senate. how far do you think she's willing to take a comment like this, is it just sending a public message, getting a record to mcconnell or is it actually following through and potentially voting against mcconnell on a key procedural question? >> look, murkowski has definitely been more than willing to buck her party in the past. whether we think about justice kavanaugh's confirmation hearings, there's been a number of issues she's been willing to speak out when she thinks there's a need for it. i think her comments are significant also because it creates an opening in which moderate and vulnerable republican senators to be asked where they stand on it. so we could potentially see people like mitt romney and susan

mr. chairman. like president nixon, the allegations against president trump involve serious election related to misconduct, nixon's associates burglarized the dnc headquarters, to give him a leg up in his election. nixon tried to cover up the crime by obstructing federal and congressional investigations. he also abused his powers to target his political rivals, and here we are confronted with evidence suggesting that president trump tried to leverage a procreative military assistance to resist russia by ukraine to convince a foreign ally to announce an investigation of his political rival. but professor karlan, i would like to tell -- you to tell me your view on presidents conduct to announce an investigation of his adversary, how does that compare to what president nixon did? >> not favorably. because as i suggested in my opening testimony, it was kind of doubling down. because president nixon abused domestic law enforcement to go after his political opponents. and what president trump has done based on the evidence that we have seen so far is he has asked a foreign country to do that. which means it is

mr. raskin, you had? something >> nixon was charged in the abuse of power article with conducting a break in others political opponents and campaign headquarters. president trump is being charged with conducting a break-in of american democracy in order to harm his political opponent. the two crimes have the additional factor as you pointed out of dragging a foreign government into the equation and extras that the framers cleared but both of these are abuse of power and the house of representatives didn't say oh, you've got to demonstrate that there is burglary in columbia before you take it up as an abuse of power. so, it is true that our abuse of power claim has some overlapping elements of bribery as which was discussed in the report with the services fraud against the people perhaps an extortion and many other crimes and all of this can be prosecuted on to the constitution later but that's and control of our constitutional responsibility and high crimes, misdemeanors against people in the meantime. >> mr. collins -- put