true nixon loyalist. he had run one of nixon's campaigns for governor of california. he had been chief of staff for the 1968 nixon presidential campaign. and then he became white house chief of staff when nixon was sworn in. all through nixon's first term in office and through the 1972 re-election campaign h.r. haldeman, bob haldeman, was nixon's chief of staff. which means that haldeman was up to his neck and beyond in watergate. the 18 1/2-minute gap of the mysteriously erased tape from watergate, that was tape of nixon talking about something we'll never know with bob haldeman. also the smoking gun tape. the tape that caused even pro-nixon republicans in congress to give up and turn against him. the smoking gun tape that actually started the impeachment process roll inexorably for nixon, that smoking gun tape really nor than anything was the proximate cause of forcing nixon from office. that smoking gun tape where nixon is heard on tape organized the cia to tell the fbi that the fbi needed to stay out of the watergate investigation. the guy who nixon gave that orde

of the nixon library. we are very proud to have one of our nixon legacy forums here. we have been cosponsoring these with the nixon foundation since 2010. we have produced about three dozen of them, all of which are available on our website and that of the nixon foundation. they feature individuals from the nixon administration, discussing some of the particular public policy initiatives and the documentation that is available to researchers in the archives we maintain at the nixon library in yorba linda, california. today's topic is bridging the branches, how president nixon worked with the democratic congress. now, you all know our constitution divides federal power between three separate but coequal branches, the legislative, executive and judiciary. while each has its own area of authority and responsibility, the system seems to work best when the branches are working together. when president nixon was elected in 1968, he was the first president in 120 years to take office without his party also in con

nixon stuff. nixon's personal financial shady stuff, his tax shady stuff, his campaign fundraising, campaign financing shady stuff, nixon's dirty tricks and paying for illegal spying. nixon had his personal lawyer up to his neck and beyond in all of it. so of course the guy ended up being right in the mithe wat. and the cover-up of that burglary and all the rest of it that ultimately turfed nixon out nixon acal used his personal lawyer, herb kalmbach to be the bag man when he decided to funnel hush money to the guys that had carried out the watergate burglary. nixon gave the watergate burglars over $200,000 in secret cash so they'd keep their mouth shut about the burglary. he had his personal attorney, herb kalmbach, assemble that money from a bunch of various sources, from the campaign to reelect the president, creep, where herb kalmbach was a deputy finance chair. he also used some of that leftover slush fund money from the '68 election. he also added in some money from corporations that had sta

nixon made a dramatic trip to china in february of 1972.arefully orchestrated like a television production. the air force transported almost 40,000 pounds of equipment, including a full television ground station so that they could cover this historic trip of nixon to china. the two most striking images of the whole trip were nixon shaking hands with a premier, a vivid contrast to when secretary of state dullis had refused to shake his hand during a convention back in 1954, as well as nixon's famous walk along the great wall. during their meeting, nixon told mousy tongue -- that those on the right can only do what those on the left talk about. the administration understood the political benefits of this move in foreign policy and they even released a promotional video promoting what they had done. [video clip] 3/5 of all the people in the world today have spent their lifetime under the shadow of nuclear confrontation. the winter and spring of 1972 gave rise to new hopes for a world no longer shadowed by fear and want and war. ♪ >> february 2

i identified with that. >> who was nixon? nixon. nixon was a party guy, an animal. was a character couturcan a tur. i had my nixon down. ten years owed walking around the house. i am not a crook. i have a more complex view of the man and his presidency. >> president nixon created a new federal department, the environmental protection agency. >> the question of who is richard nixon is almost imponderable. i look at him as one of really one of the great minds that has ever really been in the presidency. he had achieved some extraordinary breakthroughs. his opening to china, soviet union. >> i think nixon would by today's standards be considered maybe a conservative democrat, maybe at some levels a radical leftist. >> hello. >> here is one of the men around the president we don't hear much about, alex butterfield. deputy assistant. >> my first meeting with the president, my god. i can't tell it without acting. >> today, butterfield and the president -- >> nixon came out from behind his desk and looked tentative. he had no idea what to do. he began to gesture. no words

president richard nixon is greeted by the premier.g the next eight days, the nations will begin the process of slowly bridging barriers. >> that was a big deal. that hand shake was a big deal, see richard nixon, who had been a hard line anti-communist whole career, who had railed against democrats for having lost china to communism in 1949, to undertake this trip, make that hand shake, combined with the salt one agreements. and he did all this while he ruthless secret bombing campaign against the try to bringese to the vietnam war to an end. many credited nixon's foreign policy achievements with his landslide victory against george mcgovern in 1972. conservatives disagreed with was doing between 1969 and '72. they saw it as a mistake. earliest critics of detente came from within the democratic party. washington senator henry jackson, who was called the because ofm boeing the location of this military contractor in his home state, was a liberal on domestic policy but increasingly hawkish on policy. and jackson feared that his own much

nixon and mr. rockefeller. and i would prefer mr. nixon.ter for the whole country. >> convention will come to order. >> 1968 is the last presidential year in which it was possible to run for president without entering any primaries. ronald reagan showed up in miami beach, gave a press conference and said, i'm running for president. >> yes. as of this moment, response to that resolution by the california delegation. >> reagan is in many ways everything nixon is not. he's smooth. he's handsome. people like him. and people are confused, they're like, we believe that he's a true conservative and we've never really trusted nixon. okay, so now what are we going to do? >> the name of the game right now is stop nixon. now, if a lot of those southern delegates move away from nixon to ronald reagan, then they feel that nixon can be stopped on that first ballot. >> the real fear was that rockefeller and reagan could hold off enough votes so they could prevent us having a victory on the first ballot and then it would break wide open. now, i didn't fear

richard nixon has no chance at all.h a very radical maneuver. >> nixon tells his team to use a woman to monkey wrench the negotiations in paris. >> anna, a fundraiser of nixon campaign is telling saigon stay away from peace talks and you'll get a better deal if nixon is elected. >> as my candidate joins me in this, neither he or i will say anything that might destroy the chance to have peace. we want peace. >> i think it's dirty pool for dick's people to be messing with the south vietnamese ambassador. anybody keep measures to all the crowd they're just tied up for a few days. >> lbj feels confident to move forward. the condition that north neat vietnam has asked for has been met. so, four-party peace talks, will happen. well in saigon november 1st, the president stands up and drops his major bombshell. >> translator: south vietnam cannot participate in the negotiations. >> i have no more things to tell you. >> embarrassment is commonly today among americans here in vietnam particularly those of us who have acquaintance

nixon saw rizzo as part of the urban strategy. nixon was a strategist, always looking to -- and as white voters' allegiance was up for grabs after the 1960's. he saw rizzo as a way of getting this constituency that had four decades voted democratic and he saw people like rizzo -- rizzo and nixon became allies. rizzo made a spectacle of himself in a lot of ways campaigning for rizzo. he held a press conference with a rubber chicken with a mcgovern sticker on it to mock him. as much as nixon had his so-called southern strategy, he also had this urban strategy to do this with blue collar whites that really hasn't been looked at as much as the southern strategy has. host: was he a racist? timothy: he wouldn't say so. he would say he's not. rizzo was fond of saying -- accusations dogged him throughout his career from police to mayor. when he was asked, he would very much say the last thing i am is against somebody for being a different color than me. but, at the same time, all of the policies he championed and things he was doing say s

one has to do with president nixon. i firmly believe that if senator robert kennedy had not been assassinated, he would have defeated richard nixon. he would have gotten us out of vietnam, and it would have been a different country. secondly, we are the greatest country in the world. and we're the greatest country because of three words. the preamble of the constitution, we the people. host: david, thanks for the call. by the way he is a regular viewer and just turned 90 years old. we appreciate hearing from him. your reaction. guest: well, first we salute your service. i was happy to see that president trump took the $400 ,000 salarthat his given by the government and donated it for the upkeep of veterans teries i think the veterans health care system in this country may be the number one scandal and something the president feels very deeply about fixing. as far as robert kennedy is concerned, first of all, i am an admirer of robert kennedy. he was a staunch anti-communist. i don't really believe he was a liberal. i th

if people looking at me say that's a new nixon, all i can say is maybe you didn't know the old nixon.tta with available digital cockpit. blue moon is brewed for a flavorful & refreshing taste, that makes any moment shine brighter. ♪ when i first came to ocean bay, what i saw was despair. i knew something had to be done. hurricane sandy really woke people up, to showing that we need to invest in this community. i knew having the right partner we could turn this place around. it was only one bank that could finance a project this difficult and this large, and that was citi. preserving affordable housing preserves communities. so we are doing their kitchens and their flooring and their lobbies and the grounds. and the beautification of their homes, giving them pride in where they live, will make this a thriving community once again. ♪ hey allergy muddlers: are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool? try zyrtec® zyrtec® starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. stick with zyrtec®. muddle no more®. and try children's zyrte

one has to do with president nixon . i firmly believe that if senator robertkennedy had not been assassinated, we would have defeated richard nixon . he would have got us out of vietnam and it would be a different country at that time. secondly, we are the greatest country in the world, mister stone. and we are the greatest country in the world for three words. preamble of the constitution. we the people. >> host: thanks for the call. roger stone, he's a regular viewer and just turned 90 years old and we appreciate his view. your reaction. >> guest: we salute your service. i was happy to see president trump took the $400,000 salary he was given by the government and donated it for the upkeep of veterans cemeteries. i think the veterans health care system in this country may be the number one scandal and something the president feels very deeply about fixing. as far as robert kennedy eais concerned, on my of robert kennedy. he was a staunch anti-communist. i don't believe he was a liberal, i grthink he was a pragmatic and

richard nixon have handled watergate with today's media environment? >> remember 1973 and 74 and 74 he had a monolithic media with three major networks several national newspapers that there was no internet or alternative media. there was only one narrative that was the washington post narrative so for example we didn't know at the time three of the burglars were still on the cia people and reporting to the case officer we did not know that john had directed tony the two private detective most decorated new york police officers working for the white house weeks for the break-in to case that out and in their own biographies there was only one narrative. so if there was the alternative news media he would have had a better chance to make his case but i will say this and it's important, nixon was great and flawed stage strategic arms with the soviets opening the door to china and desegregated the public schools. he saved unilateral leave in the yom kippur war and launched affirmative-action for minority enterprises and at the same time launched a racist w

three days later, nixon announced his resignation from office. but according to this president and his legal team, there are no constraints on the chief executive's power to intervene in a federal investigation, including an investigation of which he himself is a subject. as they would have it, the president cannot commit obstruction of justice when exercising his vast powers as head of the executive branch. in a letter delivered to special counsel robert mueller back in january and published by "the new york times" on saturday, the president's lawyers argue that his actions by virtue of his position as the chief law enforcement officer could neither constitutionally nor legally cute obstruction because that would amount to him obstructing himself. think ab and that he could, if he wished, terminate the inquiry or even he sdesired. pardon to power, if it's a similar argument to the one nixon famously made after leaving office. >> when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal. >> by definition? >> exactly. >> in introduce over the

one has to do with president nixon. i firmly believe that had not been assassinated he would have defeated -- and we would have been a different country at that time. secondly, we are the greatest country in the world mr. stone. the preamble of the constitution, we the people. >> host: thank you for the call. he is a regular viewer. he just turned 90 years old. we appreciate hearing from him. >> we salute your service. i was happy to see that president trump took the $400,000 salary he's given by the government and donated for the upkeep of veterans cemeteries. i think the veterans health care system in this country may be the number one scandal and something the president feels deeply about fixing. as far as robert kennedy's concern. i am an admirer of robert kennedy. i don't believe he was a liberal. i believe he was a pragmatic a very effective leader. i disagree with the idea that he would it do defeated nixon. i don't know what southern state he could have carry. in his narrow defeat he lost every southern state. k

they have a picture of president nixon says nixon is the one. these are the original ones for the campaign i got a big bag of about 3 pounds of them today and one of them said to me where did you get all the campaign buttons and i said when i was a kid i would've thought where all the headquarters where and get my mom to drive me around. i went to the nixon office and they told me help yourself. she said that is a lot of campaign buttons it looks like it might have been the headquarters entire supply. i said i think it was. and she said that is so sweet of campaign workers to give the little boy old campaign buttons and i said i didn't say they gave them to me the statute of limitations is there any way if you didn't get one, please do. we are associated with gavels so i thought it would be appropriate to bring one to this order. this is a special gavel from my collection. to preside over the iconic 1968 democratic national convention in chicago. this was the gavel used that combination of hubert humphrey as the man that challenged richard nixon

nixon basically unopposed. johnson was on the ballot when bobby kennedy said he wasn't going to run, johnson said why bother. mccarthy was a joke. lbj it's not even worth it. i'm not going to bother. the governor was a democrat and didn't want new hampshire to get lost in the shuffle. he we wanted to promote new hampshire. he set out pledge cards, 3 pledge cards to every registered democratic voter in new hampshire and they they were pledge, the people of new hampshire recoiled at this card. first of all, all three parts had serial number. what happened to secret ballot. you had to send this pledge to the white house and you had to send this pledge to state party office and governor king went ownt and said, let me tell you why we are doing this, it's time for democrats to stand up or be counted or be counted out. thousands of these started coming in headquarters with mccarthy's name written in. they estimated mccarthy was going to get 5 and 10% on new hampshire, on election day he came within 200 votes in new h

new york gubernatorial candidate cynthia nixon declared lately that i.c.e. is a terrorist organization. >> i.c.e. has strayed so far from its mission. it's supposed to be here to keep americans safe. but what it has turned into is frankly a terrorist organization of its own. >> tucker: williams is a councilman running for the attorney government for new york state and could share a ticket potentially with cynthia nixon and joins us tonight for the special. thank you for coming on. i appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. >> tucker: let's start with being honest about one thing i think that michael antone is right about. most of time we talk about immigration we have a religious debate about who is the good or bad person. so if we could for the next four minutes keep it to policy. tell me how more immigrants bringing in your neighborhood, i think it's eat flash bush in new york, helps the people who already live there? the people already there and citizens how are they helped by it? >> i'm proud to be the son of

obviously in the nixon case which didn't go nixon's way. you know, so smarter people than me are going to debate this. i don't know whether it's going to come down to a subpoena fight, but if it does, it's just going to drag on and on and it's going to be -- if the president's goal is to get this cloud cleared over the white house, this is just going to darken the cloud and have it linger there evenonger. >> matt miller i talked to someone today and i made the point that george w. bush willingly sat down with pat fitzgerald who was investigating the leaking of valerie plame's name. i don't remember, any of this standoff, anybody afraid he was going to lie. we are where we are because even the president's advisors know that he's a liar. so, take me inside what that looks like from the justice department perspective. i mean, how does rod rosenstein preserve the integrity of an investigation when the person at the top of his chain of command is a known liar. >> it's a difficult question. i think the -- you hit on a key point in this, which is

and what was about nixon that made the president be so cruel to nixon? >> well come , on religion, thas faceting. eisenhower came from very spiritual background. his family was from the river brethren, a branch of the mennonites, deeply scriptural people to read scripture pretty much every night around the family living room. his parents later became jehovah's witnesses. he grew up in an intensely religious, indeed pacifist family. after he left home at age 20 he went to west point and he never really went to church anymore. of course the brethren were not as conformist, but he didn't, he wasn't comfortable in church services much of his life but he was a deeply religious man who knew scripture very loyal. when he became president he immediately decided he would have to demonstrate his face in public. so many of you might not know this, just a few days into office dwight eisenhower was baptized, baptized at the national presbyterian church here in washington. that was manes faced. why did you do that? because he firmly believed that judeo-christian faith

of the nixon library. we are very proud to have one of our nixon legacy forums here. we havbe

and what was it about nixon that made the president be so cruel to nixon?> on religion that is fascinating he came from a very spiritual background his family was from the rather brethren deeply scriptural people who read scripture every night in the living room. his parents later became jehovah's witnesses and grew up intensely religious pacifist family. after he left home at the age of 20 went to west point and never went to church anymore. i've course they were not as nonconformist but he wasn't comfortable in church services but deeply religious and new scripture very well when he became president he immediately decided he would have to demonstrate his faith in public so you might not know this but a few days into office he was baptized at the national presbyterian church here in washington. that was mimi's faith. why? because he firmly believed that judeo-christian faith and belief was central to waging the cold war into differentiate americans for all people who were believers. and he embraced the public figures of the day who were popularizing and as

even republican women were saying we pray that nixon will end the war. i think by the end of 1968, people were hoping it was going to end. soon. >> one historian makes the argument that given the two leading candidates, humphrey and nixon, were both promising to end the war in some way, the more dominant issue was the situation at home and what became known as law and order and the concern over violence in the cities, but also crime. in 1968, lyndon johnson was trying to push a new crime bill through congress to address that concern because there was some feeling they had seated that issue to the republicans or george wallace. i think there was agreement on vietnam to the extent that people wanted the united states to get out. nixon pretty astutely said he would get the united states out without saying how he would do it, right? but it would be with honor, peace with honor, which is a phrase i think he used later, and then he addressed the domestic issues in a way i think appealed the voters. -- appealed to the voters. >> it is interesting you mention th

and nixon refused and it became this it was the last thing nixon needed for the vice president who had the scandal for running around. they got rid of him in of course, gerald ford became vice president and then became president, unelected president animated story and you cannot make it up. >> host: let's go to chris joining us from tennessee with our line on independence. the book by kate anderson brower, good morning. >> caller: good morning. i'm sorry i missed the first part of theegment. i just caught you speaking about al gore and al gore really was raised in washington dc and that is why i think he cannot win his own state. i believe that is because we do not look at him and we basically looked at him as if he was a creature of washington. his father was a very racist democrat from the 60s whatever but i don't know. that's all i got to say. thank you. >> host: thank you, chris. >> guest: it is true. he went to saint alden's and it was funny when i talk to him it was on the phone so i couldn't tell his facial expression. i like to do interviews in person but he could only talk on

eisenhower would not even endorse nixon. in 1960 he was asked what the vice president's greatest accomplishment had been, and he said, i will have to get back to you, when nixon was running in 1960 and he never did. johnson and kennedy had a fraught relationship, but i think the dick cheney and george w. bush, their relationship really unraveled toward the end. steve: do you think that george w. bush was serious in 2004 in naming a replacement in to dick 2004 cheney? kate: i think they considered it more seriously than president obama did, because there was thought of replacing biden with hillary. and someone who worked for obama told me, the only person who would've been less happy about that would be hillary clinton. she did not want to be vice president. a lot of people don't want to be vice president. it is a difficult job. that i think that it , is an incredible opportunity, and especially for someone like mike pence, who very well could have lost his race for governor of indiana. now he is in a position where he could

richard nixon's campaign manager didn't go to jail until after richard nixon had been forced to resign the presidency on the brink of impeachment. there's something new here. the difference between donald trump and richard nixon tonight is that donald trump's campaign manager managed to get himself charged with federal crimes and in jail much faster than richard nixon's did. what's happening to paul manafort and donald trump is happening much faster than it happened to john mitchell and richard nixon. and as donald trump gazes at the tv tonight trying to fall asleep in the white house, he has to be wondering what we're all wondering, what does paul manafort know about donald trump that could be an indictable offense or impeachable offense? what does paul manafort know that he could tell robert mueller that could get paul manafort out of jail and save him a possible prison sentence a conviction -- a sentence that could then louisiana the rest of his life. and as paul manafort tries to fall asleep tonight on his first night in jail, he has to be wondering what we're all wondering, will d

nixon steps down in 1974.uest: i think one of the things to remember about any president is there is great ability to shape the discourse in terms of who you talk to and who you do not talk to, who you allow into the building, you allow for various conversations. so much of the information a reporter needs is held by the white house. the administration has all of that information. you can really leverage media outlets by offering exclusives to rivals and things like that. as the watergate scandal ripene d, as the "washington post" got closer and closer to the inner circle in terms of the scandal and the cover up, the nixon team once into a defensive crouch. this is not unlike talking about fake news publicly. one of the things that is the great unknown of politics is how different politicians would react in different times. i do not know that richard nixon would be as good at twitter as donald trump is. but richard nixon probably could have made good use of fox news, had that existed in his time. if ronald rea

the nixon tapes laid bare the conspiracy to cover up. if the democrats are true to the arguments they made in the '90s, and why not? they should be. they should look for nixon-level evidence of abuse of power and obstruction of justice before they move on impeachment. >> tim naftali, always appreciate your insight. >> police in ohio rescued two victims from a house explosion in columbus. neighbors say they felt the ground shake out of nowhere. >> a man and woman were inside that house when it exploded. neighbors and police frantically pulled off bricks and debris to try to get to them. >>> all my front windows are blown completely out. this is about to fall out of the house, the whole window. i've got a big old crack in my ceiling upstairs. >> i'm happy to be able to tell you those victims are expected to be okay. firefighters think a gas leak caused the explosion. firefighters say the house was supposed to be empty. >>> ahead, a car drives into a crowd of protesters, demanding the protesters were demanding justice for an unarmed teen sh

v m nixon. to go into a grand jury would somehow put the office of the president in a bad light, well first of all, this president spends so much time playing golf, he winds up going into federal court in los angeles and sue as porn star who he claims he doesn't know, yet he doesn't have time to sit in a grand jury for a few hours and provide testimony, even though the supreme court has held that the public is entitled to every person's evidence? i mean, go through each one of these, and it just doesn't ring true on any of the scores that they're arguing here. >> so, it may appear, switching over to your colleague, that barbara, they may have written this memo, it may have been delivered, but at the end of the day, is it more of a piece to say oh, if it does get leaked, at least the public now knows our thinking, in terms of its legal foundation, as nick is intimating here? there's not a lot of meat, beef, shall we say, going back to an old advertisement, where is the beef in this? >> i agree wi

nixon -- was up for grabs nixon thought it would injure him in the south if you is bringing 200 black people to america. so he stopped the state department from funding the project. then they met and they said he loved africa and he introduced -- to harry belafonte. he was very close to my family and was funding the silver rights movement. harry brought them up that summer and i got to meet him. my uncle was this incredibly dynamic and charismatic man. kennedy cannot help him because the kennedy foundation was restricted to giving money for intellectual disabilities. but they didn't tell anybody about it because they knew it would impact the election. nixon found out about it around the project and had a big press conference about it. in 1963, i went to africa with my uncle. my uncle who is running the peace corps. we went to kenya 1968 all of the elder kids and my family were dispersed so that my mother would be able to spend time with younger children and get their life organized. my brother was sent to be a mountaineer. my sister kathleen lewis sent to work with the eskimos in alas

a da later, nixon resigned. this comes as federal prosecutors for special counsel robert mueller have accused president trump's former campaign chair powell manafort of attempting to temper with the witnesses in a federal tax of money laundering case against him. prosecutors say manafort repeatedly tried to contact witnesses by phone and through encrypted messaging. manafort is accused of money laundering -- breaking money dering laws. the supreme court has ruled in favor of a colorado baker who refused to make wedding cake for a gay couple citing his religious opposition. in a narrow seven at two decision, the justices faulted the colorado civil rights commission's handling of the biggerbrought against jack phillips and the commission had showed a hostility to religion. the case pitted claims of religious freedom against the fight for gay rights, but the ruling stopped short of setting a major precedent on whether businesses can deny people businesses because of sexual orientation. we will have more next suprem

i don't think there's this dichotomy you had with nixon.r races in private and publicly playing the christian story. >> you detail you had it all ready to go with one publisher but they wanted to add a paragraph that you felt was too anti-war and thus you pulled the whole story. how did you have the guts to fight like that and why was it so important to you not to compromise? >> you know, i think journalist are allowed to have opinions. a root canal and the guy who did it, i didn't ask if he was for or against trump. if he does the job professionally, that's what i cared about. we're very objective even though we have views and thoughts. i felt strongly about the war not because i was a left wing wing bat. i wasn't. i covered the pentagon for the associated press for a couple years. i learned from officers. ojt, on the job. how awful it was. how much killing went on that wasn't needed. i came away thinking this is a mess. that was my view based on -- not on a political judgment but what i learned. when i got there i think that's maybe follo

the christmas bombing when there was a peace settlement and nixon wanted more?- nixon wanted more? they do a christmas bombing that has nothing to do with the peace process. come on. what is that? that is murder. juan: i want to ask you about another of your many exposés that received international attention, abu ghraib. and you talked about how you got onto abu ghraib and the impact that story had, not only in the united states cannot but across the muslim world? >> there was nothing that i wrote that wasn't known in a been reportrted by human n rights wa, amnesty international, doing reports talking about torture. it is the same thing i was reading in the 1960's about vietnam. church groups writing books about it i did not make the media. they were doing torture. i could not find -- in the fall of 2003 in december, wewon the war without quickly, but it turns out we did not win. donald rumsfeld, that man, called dead-enders turned out to be the guy -- we're in a civil war ending chopped to death. in that december, i went to damascus and there was a two star gen

it was wrong during nixon's time. it's wrong now.n many respects, this president's abuse of office's disregard of our system of checks and balances goes well beyond anything nixon said, and it ought to alarm every american. >> i'm going to close with a customer service question because we're all your customers. we have this house intelligence committe what if tomorrow, god forbid, terrorism brings the subject of real intelligence front and center? we have watched out -- how the committee has dealt with this matter. i would compare it to children, but that could diminish our children. are the democrats blameless in the mess that i think you would agree the intelligence committee has become? >> well, the problem we've had with our committee has been our chairman, and i think it's -- >> devin nunes. >> i think it's confined to our chairman. when you've got someone who is the leader of your committee who is going off on midnight runs to undisclosed locations to get secret evidence and then you learn that that secret evidence he got from

the supreme court person in here says from the nixon case, that you -- documents can be subpoenaed in a criminal case, it didn't go to the president's testimony. the paula jones case, bill clinton was required to testify in a civil case. >> it's less important. >> if you put thattogether, take it to the t, the court's going to say that trump should haul himself to court and testify. the thing is, if they want a quick investigation, if they're opening all these major constitutional questions, that's going to prolong it. >> it could take it all the way to the courts. >>> coming up, i join an expert on this entire legal theory. it goes all the way back to nixon. >> when the president does it, that means it isot illegal. >>> and we'll tell you how trump's own team mayave created more exposure for don junior and what the supreme court did and didn't say in the ruling today. >>> and bill clinton's comments playing out in a me too era. >> you didn't apologize to her. >> i did not talk to her. i've never talked to her. but i did say publicly on more than one occasion that i was sorry. >>> and

it was accepted fact for decks aids what richard nixon was saying wasn't in fact, true.the president's lawyers are basing their whole difference on it. >> it is the return of the ghost of richard nixon. it is being adopted by donald trump as his defense. it has just been astound to go me to think ofwhat'sgoing on in the past week. our founding fathers purposely wanted to make sure we didn't create a demagogue as president, somebody who thought they were above the law. we did everything we could with checks and balances, and supreme court. but here you have a president threatening i'm above approach, above the law and sending messages i can pardon anybody i want to at any time, including myself if need be. so we are heading into a constitutional crisis when the mueller report eventually comes forward with its findings. it look like there will be obstruction of justice charges. donald trump will say there is no such thing. the president can't obstruction. >> when you say he charges that suggests there will be something legally filed here. that's what we don't know. they w

under the nixon administration, nixon finally agreed and was compelled by the court to produce the nixon tapes, but nixon never personally testified. and the only examples we have of personal testimony are situations where presidents have voluntarily agreed to testify. bill clinton did that, for instance. so it's still an open question whether a resistant president could be compelled to appear in front of a grand jury. >> ron, the president is accusing the mueller team of leaking this lett. who do you think is helped more by having it out there? >> reporter: that's a really good question. there has not been a lot of leaking that you could trace back to the mueller team. i think, you know, this -- usually, when you get this kind of leak, there is some level of dissent within a team, and i would assume within the defense team. i mean, the real question -- to me, there's kind of a contradiction at the heart of this, which is the argument from the lawyers seems to be that the president cannot obstruct justice, cannot obstruct an investigation because his power over federal investigations is

even back in 1974, richard nixon's justice department made it quite clear that nixon could not pardon himself. the same thing is true here. it is a rule of law. nixon made very clear that under our constitution, no one is allowed to be the judge of a case and then simultaneously be able to pardon themselves from any consequences of their own illegal activities. so it is just a continuation of an attempt to delegitimize the special counsel, which is clearly constitutional >>ver, it seems to be working in the court of public opinion among republicans at least and among his base. and that is that our most recent polling shows that these consistent attacks from the president seem to be working and that fewer and fewer people are supportive of and view the mueller probe favorably when you look at the president's base and republicans. does that concern you? >> i think that may be true for the most conservative of donald trump's republican supporters. but in the wide swath of independent swing voters in our country, i do not think they subscribe to the idea that our president is in fact a mo