>> nixon. >> richard nixon. >> nixon. >> yeah, nixon. >> nixon. >> is anybody else running but nixon?e president was a political animal. the president was phenomenally skilled. he was able to handle virtually anything. >> five men wearing white gloves and carrying cameras were caught early today in the headquarters of the democratic national committee in washington. they were caught by a night watchman, and they did not resist arrest when the police came. they were apparently unarmed, and no one knows yet why they were there. the film in the camera hadn't been exposed. in any case, they're being held. >> the democratic national committee is housed in the fashionable watergate complex. the break-in apparently planned well in advance. files were ransacked and papers removed. also in this area, ceiling tiles had been removed for the suspected planting of bugging devices. >> it was saturday morning, june 17th. the phone rang, it was about 6:30. a colleague of mine, chuck work, was on the phone. he said, hello, it's chuck. we have a hot one. we have a burglary at the democratic national co

a look at president nixon's trip to china. every moon landing happened under president dick nixon. this is the visit to china. you can take a picture with dick and pat nixon. you can learn about the diplomacy around the trip. in 1972, air force one touches down in beijing. previous administrations had refused to shake the hands of the chinese leader but here are the most famous handshake. president nixon stretching out his hand to the chinese premier. his hand to the chinese premier. "special report" continues afte. especially in my business. with slow internet from the phone company, you can't keep up. you're stuck, watching spinning wheels and progress bars until someone else scoops your story. switch to comcast business. with high-speed internet up to 10 gigabits per second. you wouldn't pick a slow race car. then why settle for slow internet? comcast business. built for speed. built for business. >> bret: as we told you earlier we are live at the richard nixon presidential library in yorba linda, california. president nixon was a complex figure. he had many great successes, esp

a look at president nixon's trip to china. every moon landing happened under president dick nixon. this is the visit to china. you can take a picture with dick and pat nixon. you can learn about the diplomacy around the trip. in 1972, air force one touches down in beijing. previous administrations had refused to shake the hands of the chinese leader but here are the most famous handshake. president nixon stretching out his hand to the chinese premier. "special report" continues after thisy . got an estimate in 24 hours. my insurance company definitely doesn't have that... you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance your body was made for better things than rheumatoid arthritis. before you and your rheumatologist move to another treatment, ask if xeljanz is right for you. xeljanz is a small pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. xeljanz can reduce joint pain and swelling in as little as two weeks, and help stop further joint damage. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections, including tubercu

nixon knows about these things. he was talking about himself, his own judgment. not long after that, president nixon and donald trump spent a weekend together. ..

nixon knows about these things. he was talking about himself, his own judgment. not long after that, president nixon and donald trump spent a weekend together. >> and booktv's live coverage of the savannah book festival now continues. here's author and former cia agent william daugherty talking about "in the shadow of the ayatollah." [inaudible conversations] >> good afternoon. we have a few more people coming in, but we're going to go ahead and get started. how are you enjoying the book festival so far? [applause] great, great. my name is diane thompson, and we're delighted to have you join us at the tenth annual anniversary of the saw van a that book festival presented by georgia power and sh

nian than nixon.ixon made those comments we only know about because he had his egret taping system and seemed to forget it was on when he was in the office. make those attacks against the media, calling the media the enemy, saying he was going to wiretap them. top hatchete his man call the heads of the networks and read them the riot act for their coverage. trump isifference is, doing this right out and challenging the first amendment, one of our most important, because it involves freedom of the press and freedom of the speech. anything he does not like, reporting he calls being an enemy of the people, it is ludicrous. troublesome he would try theway the press by using bully pulpit of his office to intimidate them. my hope is he does not. i do not think, knowing the journalists i know, that he will. nixon failed. he had a deep reservoir of ill will to draw on when he got himself in trouble. trump is creating the same problem for himself. amy: many have compared his speech to the one given by richard

this is nixon -- mrs. nixon is but these things. of course he was talking about himself in his own judgment. not long after that, president nixon and donald trump spend a weekend together. they went for a charitable event in easton texas -- eastern texas. they barricade themselves and a hotel suite and spent hours talking geopolitics. nixon said trump just fired question at them one after another, wanting to know about brezhnev, about the russians, the chinese. really around the world tour. so the men hit it off and it was nixon who first saw the potential for a trump presidency. i wanted him to run as early as 1988. i was the chairman of his presidential exploratory committee in 2000. i was a consultant to his exploratory effort in 2012, but in retrospect, 2016 was the right year. >> host: why is that? >> guest: i think it was the perfect storm. i think it was not only the tipping point had been reached for alternative media as we discussed, and that's an important factor, but also at it years barack obama the american people were

in the first month of the nixon presidency. president nixon was not obtaining copyrights for his businesses from foreign governments while changing his foreign policy for that country to the granted him a copyright, as donald trump has done with china. president nixon did not have a lease on a federal building in washington where he ran a hotel business in direct violation of the government's terms of that lease which forbids an elected official from holding that lease. no president has ever spent his weekends selling access to himself through a private club in florida that the president owns. no president has ever done anything like those things and donald trump has done all of that. overtly. publicly. it may be years before we know all the nixonian behind the scenes corruption that president trump might have a hand in, but as of now, he is the most overtly corrupt presidency in history. and it's only been a month. the month that feels like a year. how long can this go on? that's what everyone's asking themselves. how long? fo

in case of nixon, both men are brilliant. both men are stubborn when they focus on a goal, you can't get them off of it. both of them are pragmatic. trump is not an idealogy, a populist live i conservative instincts and interested in solutions. like roosevelt. if he tries something and it doesn't work he will try something epps until he solves the problem therapy. bowl pragmatists and realizes. orbit, trump is very much like reagan in terms of his size. i don't mean just his physical size. although they have that in common. both tall and broad shouldered. but there's a command presence there. it is more than charisma, more magna tim. -- magnetism. they fill the room and a stature that is strong on television. think trump is a master communicator as reagan was. trump is more interested in details than president reagan was and in that sense more like nixon. so i like to think that he embodies the best qualities of both. >> host: very interesting. so, if you were to make a call on his performance right now, what would you recomm

up next, the parallels between president trump and president nixon.hen we come back, nixon's former white house counselor join us to talk about why the compartments aren't right. this is "hardball." >>> what did the president know and when did he know it? crest 3d whitestrips whiten... 25 times better than a leading whitening toothpaste i passed the tissue test. oh yeah. crest whitestrips are the way to whiten ♪ [dramatic ♪ ic begins] ready! charge! charge! (in chinese) charge! let your reign begin. evony, the mobile game. download now. >> that was of course senator howard baker's famous quote from the watergate hearings, which ultimately brought down president nixon. now with many questions looming, many are asking the same question of the white house. this is in the latest edition of the "new yorker" with the ghost of nixon telling donald trump, "it's time we had a little chat." "watergate is the biggest political scandal of my lifetime until maybe now. on a 10 scale of armageddon for our form of government, i would put the russia scandal around 5 o

up next, the parallels between president trump and president nixon. when we come back, nixon's former white house counselor join us to talk about why the compartments aren't right. this is "hardball." you foundi'm a robot! cars.com rawr yeti and found a place to service it, too. ♪ jingle bells now when you're ready, you can sell your old car and find your new one all on cars.com you know us for shopping, and now we're there for every turn. cars.com it's about moving forward not back. it's looking up not down. it's feeling up thinking up living up. it's being in motion... in body in spirit in the now. boost. it's not just nutrition. it's intelligent nutrition. with 26 vitamins and minerals and 10 grams of protein. all in 3 delicious flavors. it's choosing to go in one direction... up. boost. be up for it. don't put off checking out your options until sixty-five. now is a good time to get the ball rolling. consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like any of these types of plans, it could help yo

president nixon said the press is the enemy of us, that is the nixon administration. it's different to say the press is the enemy of the people. you know, i couldn't agree more. we need to get on, do our jobs, keep asking the questions, the tough questions, do the deep digging, investigative reporting. we understand what's going on here. it is an effort to divide and conquer, divide the press from the people and divide the press among themselves. i don't think, in the long run, i don't think in the short run, it's going to work. we have never seen anything like this in the white house. even during the worst of the nixon period, we didn't see this happening on any basis. >> if you had to look behind you going into a press, a chance to talk to the press secretary and saw one of your competitors said you can't come in the room, what would you have done? >> i would have walked out of the room. i'm proud to say several news organizations did that today. i think more, including the wall street journal would have done it if they realized what was going on. the press needs so

thank you. >>> up next, the parallel between trump and nixon. both joins us to talk about why the comparisons are not right. it's interesting. this is "hardball" where the action is. kerage fees. fees? what did you have in mind? i don't know. $6.95 per trade? uhhh- and i was wondering if your brokerage offers some sort of guarantee? guarantee? where we can get our fees and commissions back if we're not happy. so can you offer me what schwab is offering? what's with all the questions? ask your broker if they're offering $6.95 online equity trades and a satisfaction guarantee. if you don't like their answer, ask again at schwab. pcountries thatk mewe traveled,t what is your nationality and i would always answer hispanic. so when i got my ancestry dna results it was a shocker. i'm everything. i'm from all nations. i would look at forms now and wonder what do i mark? because i'm everything. and i marked other. discover the story only your dna can tell. order your kit now at ancestrydna.com. will your business be ready when growth presents itself? am

i was in the cabinet room the night nixon resigned. i took the notes. , and after ite in was all over, there really wasn't anybody who had transcribed notes. i pulled the note out of my pocket and scrawled things on the back of the envelope, and the next day fleshed it out. some years later i sent them onto the former president. that was my recollection of that evening. i called it a room full of tears. there were several conservative democrats who the president felt close to in the house like tiger , and on our side some of the more conservative members. that was a very traumatic moment for me to be a part of that historical event when the former president had to resign. brian: was that the night he announced his resignation? rep. michel: yes. went outhe room, and within five or 10 minutes he would be on the air to make that announcement. brian: did he tell you? rep. michel: i went back to the notes. the room in his typical rather stiff mannerism. he came around the cabinet room to the president's chair and but you know,, when you try

nixon said this privately. probed his misconduct. 45 year later, reporters are chasing stories about trump, and he hates what he's reading. >> do you think that one media group back there, that one network will show this crowd? not one. >> reporter: of course the networks did show the adoring crowds, and the protesters too. trump's aides are defending his media attacks. >> you get about 10% coverage, the next 20 hours is all about russian spies. >> but you don't get to tell us what to do. you don't get to tell us what to do any more than barack obama did. barack obama whined about fox news all the time, but he never said we were an enemy of the people. >> reporter: some republican leaders are joining democrats in raising alarms about trump's vitriol. >> if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press, and without it, i'm afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. that's how dictators get started. >> reporter: others are hitt

. >> you're a notable fan of richard nixon. in fact, you have to man's face tattooed on your back, if i'm not mistaken. what do you think richard nixon would be making of all this? >> well, he would be very angry about the leaks. >> he sure would be. >> particularly if they were leaks from his own white house. you know they have been -- i've written a book on richard nixon. he was both very great and very flawed. he achieved many great things for peace and made egregious mistakes. my admiration of him has to do with his resilience. the tattoo is a daily reminder that in life when you get knocked down, when things don't go your way, when you're defeated you have to get up and fight again. it's simply that. >> final question. have you spoken to the president since he's been the president? while he's in the white house? >> i have but, again, i'm not prepared to disclose the contents of that conversation. it's not all that momentous. i called to congratulate him, he was very gracious. >> roger stone, appreciate your time tonight, s

donald trump admires nixon and has some people who worked for nixon.going to act like richard nixon but it's happened before in our history. also intercept information at the time but didn't leak because j. edgar hoover wanted to stay chief of the fbi and made sure it didn't leak. but leaked this time. very flobl was collusion of one sort or another between the campaign and people representing russia. and what makes this so dangerous is makes it impossible for donald trump to have a policy with russia we're not all going to wonder twice about. that is a disaster. >> that is what you think. again you said you have no proof but history shows us -- >> the pattern is the same. >> jon meacham, you wanted to react. >> mark twain alleged to have said that history doesn't repeat itself but it does rhyme. it's rhyming at the moment. these are just big questions and they can be answered. what we haven't seen in the last -- my god it's only been a move, longest in american history, makes april 19865 look like a walk in the park -- >> you sound like you were there

nixon was talking about himself and his own judgment. not long after that president nixon and donald trump spent a weekend together. they went for a charitable event in houston, texas. they barricaded this. s in a hotel suite and spent hours together talking geopolitics and nixon said, trump just fired questions at him. one after another. wanted to know about breach never -- brezhnev the russian asks chinese. and nixon first saw the potential for trump presidency. i wanted him to run as early as 1988. i was the chairman of his presidential exploratoriy in 2000 and exploratory effort in 2012 nut in retrospect 2016 is the right year. >> host: why. >> guest: the perfect storm. the tipping point has been reaped for alternative media, as we discussed and that's the important factor. but also after eight year of barack obama, the american people were really ready for something different. in the 40 years i've been involved in politics i've never seen the voters in this angry or sure or disillusioned mood. they're just totally fed up with politi

so nixon had a robust strategy for dealing with struggle policy. that's something that changes over the late 20th and early 121st century. >> in decision the vietnam vets returning, there's an explosive use of marijuana in the 1960's? >> so the explosion of marijuana use is roughly tied to the late 1960's and early 1970's. you see the number of people who were use it which had if you imagine a situation where drug use is confined in marijuana use to arginalize citizens. you can imagine in which the posse might not be as sympathetic to making sure those people were not incorporated to modern society but as more young people started to use drugs, particularly marijuana, there became a greater concern as far as the punitive aspect of drug policy how people cannot be only rehabilitated but ensure they were not locked up for extended periods of time. >> with more demand, you have supply issues. in other words, this is another problem for government in that time period. >> for sure. and one of the things that's really challenging about marijuana restrict

he's more like richard nixon and ronald reagan. >> host: was he surprised a hurt, angry? >> guest: i think that he accepted the later endorsement with grace. >> host: if you'd gone back and forth between insults, there was a declaration that ted cruz father had been in conversations with the kennedy assassin and you write about that in your book. what do you make of that and why are we talking about this if it isn't relevant, can you talk about that a little bit? >> guest: i believe the piece is indisputably an associate writing this in her book with multiple interview interviews te photograph that you see comes from the commission, not from the national enquirer donald trump threw it out there to be under his skin. he questions his patriotism, he was questioning his temperament. they are merely saving time. >> guest: he got him so angry he was drooling. you could see him getting into a fight with a 10-year-old boy at a rally. the kid kept yelling "lying ted." >> host:. >> guest: he's a bush republican masquerading as something else. i would hope somebody would challenge

he defended back in the day, richard nixon -- >> except nixon wasn't making money and his family wasn't feeding off the united states. >> actually, fact check, it's the media that are the losers. >> but we are welcomed to have happy holidays, even though we are haters and losers. when donald trump is caught halfway in between campaign mode and governing mode, nothing is getting done. he's doing neither of the above. as entertaining as he was on the campaign trail, that was all we're getting for him and he's not doing anything. >> but he doesn't know how to do anything. >> there's also a strategic question about whether he would rather fight with the press or the resistance, which is growing around the country. the opponent was hillary clinton in the campaign. who's the opponent here? that's a political question mark because they may feel they're better off not dealing with the democrats or the protests. >> i think so. >> and they're still playing to the base that they believed elected them. that's why i'm say they're still campaigning. that plays to the people back home who want to beli

record --and on the and, nixon on the record. how the story would have gone down in history if they had late confirmation -- leaked confidential information to the press. (vo) new tidy cats lightweight 4-in-1 fights mess right. attacks three strong litter box odors, plus locks clumps tight. ... and now it's light. every home, every cat. there's a tidy cats for that. soledad: president trump directive to crack down on border security includes adding 10,000 additional borders it should -- 10,000 additional immigration security agents and 5000 border patrol agent. he will likely need approval for the money added to the budget. not included in the guidelines, adding legal staff or immigration judges to handle the backlog of more than 500,000 immigration cases. the courts are currently staffed by just a couple hundred judges. litigator,as been a prosecutor, judge in baltimore for morgan 30 years. when he retired in 2013, he was the third most senior immigration judge in the country. under these dhs guidelines, if you are already under

my mother hates nixon. my son hates nixon. i hate nixon and this has brought us all together. [laughter] there was this other line he wrote that always just cracks me up. nixon was so crooked he needed servants to open screw his pants on in the morning. even his funeral was illegal. the thing about obsession is you can't force it. it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing. it's a combination of discussed, physical and moral revulsion but also mixed in with fascination and attraction. for some people ugly is just uglagood but if there are other people who are uniquely sensitive to horrible side of life and endless gradations of ugly, i am unfortunately one of those people. it's the universe of beauty. everybody in the world has a sense of beauty and if you grew up looking at thousands and thousands of faces until one day you see that one face that you feel is put on earth just for you and that's instantly, you fall in love and that moment. for me trump was like that except it was the opposite. when i first saw him on a camping trip i thought this is a person who is unique, horrible, amaz

shades of nixon. it was a point that nixon said if the president does it, then it cannot be illegal. people forget nixon was a highly skilled lawyer. he was expressing this view that the president has broad latitude. >> he does in national security policy. remember cheney got a lot of criticism for the unitary executive theory. the problem for trump is he has a unitary government theory. he doesn't recognize the three branches of government. richard nixon knew there was three. in the end, he attempted sneaky end runs. in the beginning he tried to lead while maintaining respect for the branches of government. the challenge for president trump and his team is to figure out a way to work within the american constitutional system. in the end, richard nixon couldn't. it didn't happen fast. richard nixon's great crimes against the constitution took about a year and a half to start. >> bottom line, what does this tell us? look at this as an historian. >> the bottom line this tell us that our institutions are

nixon's administration also had problems with leaks. the watergate scandal, five burglars arrested inside the office of the democratic national committee. they were attempting to wiretap phones, still documents. without a solid connection between the crime and the white house, nixon was reelected in a landslide. coverage of watergate relied heavily on anonymous sources. after mark felt of the of the eye, known only as deep throat, leaked information to "the washington post, it linked the crime to nixon, who resigned. >> one of the books that shaped america. soon, one million copies of frederic soledad: in advance of the 200th birthday of frederick douglass, the douglas family will print one million copies of his autobiography. they are going to give those million books to young people all across the country upon request. but after they read the book, they have to create a service project to address an issue in their own community. frederick douglass was born a slave, escaped in 1822 become an anti-slave activist. he published a newspape

he entoward the end of his life talked about how he defined himself by nixon in his oobituary of nixon he said some of my best friends hated next job all their lives. my mother, my son hates nixon, hate nixon and this hatred hawse brought us all together and another line he wrote: nixon was so crooked he needed sir vans to help him screw his pants on in the morning. even his funeral was illegal. and the thing about obsession is you can't force it. it's a once in a lifetime thing, combination of disgust, physical and more revulsion mex its with fascination and attraction. for some people the ugly is just ugly but other people who are uniquely sensitive to the horrible side of life and endless gradations of ugly. i'm one of those people, and it's the inverse of beauty. everybody in the world has a sense of beauty and if you grow up looking at thousands and thousands of faces,' until one day you see that one face you feel was put on earth just for you and that's instantly that you fall in love in that moment. for me, trump was like that except it was the opposite. when i first saw him on

so how did the media do that to richard nixon?ne tiny little thing that he did, one tiny, tiny little thing he did. >> what tiny little thing? >> one tiny little thing which was to discuss a cover-up. he didn't do the cover-up. he didn't follow through with the cover-up payments, he just discussed it. this is a guy who brought more peace to the world than any president in the 20th century, open relationship with china, the limitations with the soviet union and leading to an agreement. ended the war in vietnam, brought on the prisoners of war and saved the life of the state of israel. and so -- >> so you think the watergate scandal and what was uncovered was phoey. >> it was not a good thing. compared with his achievements, they are doing the exact same thing to mr. trump. whose achievements compared to mr. nixon's are nil, but they are trying to undo him basically before he gets started. i think it's just extremely unfortunate. the country has real problems. and for them to be focusing on trying to bring down this guy before he's

. >> a number of veteran journalists have told me they see parallels to richard nixon now. we have an all star panel to help break this down. when it comes to comparisons to nixon, there's one expert i must start with, carl bernstein that broke watergate wide open. nixonian. is that fair comparison to make 30 days into trump's presidency? >> trump's attacks are more treacherous than richard nixon's attacks. they were largely in private. there's a history of what enemy of the people, that phrase means as used by deictators including stalin and hitler. i'm not about to say anything comparing hitler and trumpdemag. there is no civic consensus in this country about acceptable presidential conduct. there was a consensus that nixon had to leave office because he had breached that acceptable conduct. we have no such acceptable compact among republicans, democrats, conservatives, liberals in this country today. trump is out there on his own leading a demagogue attack on the institutions of free democracy including the press. >> do you have a sense it's working? one reaction would b

of his the republican peat to be president in 1964 who marched to the white house and told richard nixonhad to resign. all i'm suggesting here is we need republicans to be as jeff said, patriots. find out what happened. if all is in order, that's great for everybody, but we need to find out, and we need republicans to join with democrats and say we want the truth. >> mary katherine? >> i think it's possible to hold two ideas in your head at the same time. that's to be concerned about what went down in the campaign and the connections with russia and to be concerned about the deep state of the intelligence community feeling emboldened to make what seems like a coordinated leak campaign against the white house. those are two things to be worried about at the same time, and i am. i would love to get to the bottom of it. what concerns me is if you do the investigation and so much of the information is classified, because it become illuminating to the public, or do we continue to see leaks from the either side trying to figure out what's going on? i am concerned this does not become illuminat

on nixon's time in the white house, his energy policies and initiatives in israel and southeast asia. >> richard nixon in confused minds of being an anti-semite -- >> for our complete american history tv schedule, go to c-span.org. >> sunday, in depth features a live conversation with pulitzer prize winning author dave barry. during our live discussion, we will take your calls, tweets, e-mails and facebook questions on mr. barry's literary career. >> in 1986, i moved to miami and have been there ever since and carl and i are going to talk about it but it's really a good place, if you want to be a humor writ writer, it's an excellent place to go. >> dave barry has published over 30 books including dave barry slept here, dave barry's greatest hits, and the recently released best state ever, a florida man defends his homeland. watch in depth live sunday from noon to 3:00 p.m. eastern on book tv on c-span 2. >>> next, a discussion on what can be done to help war-torn syria in the future and how the u.s. and russian militaries have played a role in the conflict leading up to now. brett mc

but one thing to keep in mind is that when nixon was forced out of office, when clinton was impeachedress, the house of representatives was in control of the opposition party. and here republicans are in charge, and they are not inclined to investigate donald trump, and you see that throughout these tumultuous three weeks we have seen, and that's a major distinction that will help trump a great deal. >> it sounds like the senate's more willing to look into it than house republicans. >> not to be too xenical cynica uncynical, there's a lot too look into here. the russians may have attempted to control the outcome of this election with the involvement of the trump campaign. that's a pretty big deal. i think there's some patriots in the senate of both parties who think this is worth looking into, and that's what they're doing. >> the president is focussing on leaks. are all leaks illegal? >> no, it is illegal to leak classified information. it's illegal to leak grand jury material, that's before a grand jury. but most of what reporters get is confidential in an employment setting but lik

richard nixon knew there was three. in the beginning he tried to lead while maintaining respect for the branches of government. the challenge for president trump and his team is to figure out a way to work within the american constitutional system. in the end, richard nixon couldn't. it didn't happen fast. his great crime against the constitution took about a year and a half to start. >> bottom line, what does this tell us? you look at this as a historic. >> the bottom line this tell us that our institutions are strong in the united states. if this were some kind of banana republic, president trump would have no pushback from any institution. the courts would have just followed or he would have removed the judge. the u.s. military pushed back on torture. for people around the world, this is a test of our institutions and so far the american institutions have passed the test. this was a great week for the u.s. constitution. >> fascinating conversation. next, former secretary of state madeline albright. former national se

he kind of let them have the spotlight, which is what-- interesting story about the nixon eisenhower relationship is that nixon when your grandfather says, you know, you may want to go from a cabinet position to own issues-- issues to be credited with changing some things knowing he was run for president and nixon sees that as-- he wants to just kicking off the ticket and that wasn't what we found. there was this skepticism, i think, that drew at that moment and maybe that's one of the reasons he was kept off the trail in dick nixon's campaign. nixon said it was about your grandfather's health, but i think when your grandfather gets on the trail at the end for dick nixon it turns the tide of that campaign to the point we found that kennedy talking about it and he says every day that eisenhower is on the trail i feel like i'm standing on a pile of sand and a wave is coming in and i'm sinking and i'm thinking and i'm sinking and they believe that if he was out a few more days that nixon might have won that election. host: that's the big controversies is that? guest: it is. host: about

after the watergate disaster, after all the ways nixon impeded the rule of law, after all the ways nixon tried to strangle the investigations that ultimately brought him down, this was an important post-watergate reform. preserve the independent letting them do their job. particularly when an investigation involves the white house but also in general the white house shouldn't be able to steer prosecutions, right? shouldn't be able to steer investigations. the rule of law should be independent. the justice department should be independent. that rule put in place firmly and through this interesting mechanism in the aftermath of watergate. and for good reason. that said, nothing lasts forever. one of the scandals of the george w. bush era is that they let that rule, they let that post-watergate reform slide. do you remember there was a scandal in the george w. bush administration about them making federal prosecutor jobs, u.s. attorney jobs, making those jobs into political plums they handed out. remember the phrase loyal bushys. in the george w. bush administration one of their big scandal

nixon entered office in a deeply divided country.ry faces deep divisions once again. my colleague, "nbc nightly news" anchor lester holt. >> tom, 50 years, you have seen this country go through a lot of crises, political, war. where are we as a country right now? >> i think we're at a very divided spot. this era of confrontation and division has to come to an end at some point. >>> coming up, the only predictable thing about politics is how unpredictable it is. >> i think the democrats plan are the demographics are such we just have to sit back. >> politics and presidents. ♪ if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis isn't it time to let the real you shine through? where are we as a country right are the demographics are such we it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. some people who took otezla saw 75% clearer skin after 4 months. and otezla's prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. n't take otezla if you are allergic to anyits ingredients. otezla may increase the risk of depression.

. >> what about using the logan act against nixon and kissinger? >> not kissinger but there was briefly some talk of using it against nixon. very brief. there is another chapter in my book from 1968 that nixon was worried johnson would start to talking about peace in vietnam to help home free win the election. he was conspiring to reject any peace overtures from johnson. johnson found out about this he actually did use the word treason to describe this talking to was senator on the phone who was an ally of nixon you do learn that he snorts a lot when he talks. [laughter] but lbj did consider using the logan act but they did not have fully the evidence they needed to go public at that point in he decided it would be bad for the country with a new president coming in over his head so they kept it to themselves. maybe the americans knew what they were getting into had that come out. >> joseph mccarthy era then named roy cohn comes to mind did you write about him? because it turns out he was a big time mentor to the president-elect. >> i believe he wis

in his obituary of nixon he wrote some of my best friend have hated nixon their whole lives and this hatred has brought us all together. there was another line he wrote that cracks me up nixon was so crooked he needed servants to help him screw his pants on in the morning. even his funeral was illegal. and the thing about obsession is you can't force it. it is a once and a life time thing. it is a combination of disgust, physical and moral revolt, and mixed in with fascination and attraction. for some people ugly is ugly but if there are other people sensitive to the horrible side of life and their endless gradations of ugly and i am unfortunately one of those people. everybody in the world has a sense of beauty and if you grow up looking at thousands and thousands of faces until one day you see that one face you feel is put on earth just for you and that is infinate and you fall in love. trump was like that bought it was the opposite. when i first saw him on the campaign trail i thought this is a person who is unique, horrible, amazing, terrible characteristics were put on earth spe

you worked for president nixon. brokaw nixon years ago. i think it was asked him if thes anything he would have done differently. i supposesponse was, i could've treated the press a little bit better. then he followed it up by saying, i suppose they could have treated me better too. someder if you think at point president trump might say something like that. do you leave room for that possibility? some mainstream mediager: the monopoly was in full swing when richard nixon was president. he took them on anyway despite the peril of that. in this case, the media is now much broader than it was, frankly keeping reporters honest and some news organizations honest is not a bad thing. but this election is also the first one in which the majority of the voters figured out that big media was in bed with the big establishment, and to a media xtent, many in the reselling them right now. is that, as for as you can , as theone strategy come out strong on everything and then figure out where you can back off a little bit? roger: i think it would be pres

nixon was much more so behind closed doors. people probably wouldn't have realized his full personality, because he had a very different public persona. trump is right out there and doesn't try to be anybody in public that he's not in private. in fact i hope in private he's a little bit less authoritarian than he plays in public. there is a similarity. many of the things trump is doing are rather nixonian in their style. we'll see where this goes. >> coming from you, john dean, that means quite a bit. great to see you, thank you so much for coming in. >> thanks, kate. >>> so president trump rushi to his daughter's defense, blasting the retailer nordstrom in a new tweet that just came out. nordstrom making moves to drop ivanka's label from its stores. is the president stepping into another potential conflict of interest here? good parenting or bad business? that's ahead. >>> plus hours after being silenced on the senate floor after attempting to read a letter from coretta scott king, senator warren will be joining cnn live. wait

that was the first article of impeachment against nixon. obstruction of justice. in the aftermath of watergate, in the aftermath of nixon's resignation, in the aftermath of that national political disaster, there were a bunch of political reforms. and one of the reforms was a structural, basically technical fix to head off some of the sins outlined in that first article of impeachment, the issue of the president interfering in this case specifically with the fbi and the department of justice in one of their investigations. in the 1970s, in the aftermath of watergate, they started putting rules in place to stop that from happening again. to specifically limit contact between the white house and the justice department when it came to either ongoing or pending investigations. as these rules have evolved over the years, there have been become areas that are carved out there. have been exceptions made for matters of national security and things that are imminently important to the president being able to do his work as president but beyond those carveouts, they set in

. >>> at 8:00 on the presidency, ben stein, former speech writer for presidents richard nixon and gerald ford reflects onyxen's time in the white house, his energy policies and initiatives in israel and southeast asia. >> richard nixon left israel's defense in a way that no other president ever had. >> for our complete american history tv schedule, go to c-span.org. >>> c-span where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. >>> now a conversation from the brookings institution on republicans' plans for repealing and replacing the affordable care act. we'll hear about how obamacare works in different states and what will be needed in a replacement plan to make sure that millions of americans are able to keep their health insurance.