you work in the nixon administration. the reagan administration, do you ever see it this bad? the media list of abusive bias, correct, i've never seen it this bad? >> first i thought sean spicer was very gracious in his departure. but to let me tell you, this is as bad as it was in thehe final days of watergate with richard nixon. though tremendous hostility of the press, the media, any of those press conference looking like things were in the forum, and i think the real problem here is that the president senses that the 80 you are the enemy, and i think the media if you watch all three networks and the major networks of the press,

where do you see happening in the comparisons to the rapid turnover that was going on in the nixon administration? >> i don't see any -- and won 49 states. neil: last general in that capacity and now we have john kelly. >> we've had general around the time sherman adams went out. let me say this, i think your problem is you have a certain culture in the west wing which is chaotic. look like northern italy, all the separate powers and here comes a general 45 years in service, marine, he believes in discipline, order, chain of command and i tell you if some aide gets in his face using the kind of language scaramucci used -- neil: forget it. he's a good catholic we hear. i don't know if that would be tolerated. chiefs of staff in general are only as effective as their boss lets them. >> the chaos in the west wing is a consequence on how donald trump runs the presidency, calling one aide and giving them assignment, tweeting himself, he doesn't operate the head of a corporation who has a chief of staff or a general officer who has a staff beneath him, so how this works out is going to be tough to see.

and the nixon administration then wanted to stop the whole thing. >> my argument inside was, if you wante against the pentagon papers, get up and charge "the new york times" with publishing national security secrets, gross irresponsibility, and sabotaging the war in vietnam. >> the justice department went to court in new york today and got a temporary order restraining the "times" from publishing the next and last two installments. >> attorneys for "the new york times" claim the protection of the first amendment which embodies the concept of the freedom of the press as sufficient to protect their disclosure of the vietnam memorandums. >> the supreme court ruled that "the new york times" may continue to publish the secret pentagon papers. >> i think the lesson is the people of this country can't afford to let the president run the country by himself, even foreign affairs any more than domestic affairs, without the help of the congress, without the help of the public. >> if you had to sum up the prevailing mood here on capitol hill, you could do it with two words, embarrassment and anger.

the nixon administration expressed confidence the cease fire will prove effective before long. >> mr.lies in a long and difficult war. now you can be sure that we stand with you as we continue to work together to build a lasting peace. >> nixon promised that if the north vietnamese renewed the offensive he would send the b-52s back to hanoi. well, it didn't happen, because he was caught up in watergate. 's hectic home: its raised 1 dare devil, 2 dynamic diy duos, and an entrepreneur named sharon. its witnessed 31 crashes, 4 food fights, and the flood of '09. it's your paradise perfecte with behr premium plus low odor paint. the best you can buy starting under $25. unbelievable quality. unbeatable prices. right now get incredible savings on behr's top-rated paints and stains. only at the home depot. but with my back pain i couldn't sleep or get up in time. then i found aleve pm. the only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. and now. i'm back! aleve pm for a better am. the roles you play in life are parlet's dance grandma! you. and you're no

burglary to steal files from the democratic national committee and ended with 48 members of the nixon administrationcted of federal crimes. president nixon resigned before being impeached and a month later was pardoned by president gerald ford for all crimes he may have committed in his presidency. george f. will is a pulitzer price winning journalist. george, it's great to have you on what feels like a historic night, and i just want to point out something. i know you'll like that gerry ford lost and in his subsequently campaign, many analysts believe the pardon of nixon had something to do with it. for the rest of his life, i'm told, ford carried in his pocket the phrasing from the united states supreme court saying how the acceptance of a pardon is an admission of guilt. and he always wondered why people didn't understand that he was the one who got richard nixon to admit guilt by accepting that pardon. >> yes. i became a columnist, lawrence, in january 1973 at the tender age of 32, just at the moment when the judge's severe sentences had the intended effect of causing james mccord to crack and t

politics with ken -- talked about adam had had briefly the political grand strategy of the nixon administration while i think he's -- he ranks right up there as a success. politically in the 20th century with fdr, he created that new deal majority that got five straight presidential elections and nixon ranks up there. let's go back 1962. after nixon lost to jack kennedy and got beat by pat badly during the time of the missile crisis. howard k. smith of abc ran a concern -- documentary on next weekend the political obituary and invited to testify on tv to at a failure mr. nixon was and what a loser mr. nixon was at the bottom of his career. 1972 richgd nick son was become and won the greatest landslide in american political history. now how did he do that in terms of political strategy? basically when i went to work for nixon in 1965, i argued that i know about nelson rockefeller in 1960 where nixon tried to bring together nixon and republicans strong enough together to beat john f. kennedy rock feller behaveddedly and didn't take or get him as vp, i told him by '65 because i was gold water. cen

as soon as he graduated he joined nixon administration as a staff assistant and then as a speech writer and special assistant to the president. ken joined former president san clemente to work on his memoir and his chief police researcher for nixon interviews. in ronald reagan 19presidential campaign he enhance speeches and in the white house he was president reagan's chief speech writer are. among the many memorable and historic speeches ken wrote for the president reagan, was his stirring and moving farewell address to the republican national convention in 1988. ken then worked also worked then in vice president bush's successful campaign. today, in his veteran of 9 presidential campaigns. he's been an advisor and strategist for governors and jurors of many of california's most distinguished public servants. he served for many years on our richard nixon foundation board of directors. and continues to advise and contribute in his current ford capacity rule. thank you, ken. [applause] ken still lives in san clemente and remains active in law and politics, and in community life. we're de

been a long, sordid history of fbi abuses over the years, dating back to the jobs during the nixon administration, for which people were convicted and later pardoned. it is mistreatment of martin luther king jr. and surveillance of officials in the civil rights movement, which remains troubling to a lot of americans to this day. that is why you want to vet fully and fbi director nominee. and make sure he or she is going to do the job by the book and according to the law. with respect to some allegations that former fbi director james comey hedley classified information, his friends have said that is not the case. he did share one memo with a law professor friend of his, who then describe the contents to a reporter, but that friend says that was not classified information, it was not top-secret information, and some reports which have moved in that direction this week have been corrected to reflect the reality there. host: we will hear from robert in alabama, a democrat. hi, robert. good morning to you. what is your question or comment. not hearing robert. let's go to dean in south dakota. a repub

built over frank members vote'-- franklin roosevelt's old and/or swimming pool during the nixon administration. reporters basically wandered around the white house. televisedf daily briefings -- i know there was much distress when sean spicer would occasionally turn off the cameras, but they did not exist up until less than a generation ago. i'm not saying they shouldn't exist. i'm not suggesting it's a privilege that journalists should be grateful for, there is nothing in the constitution about any of this. they are all of very recent vintage. host: we have a video of sean spicer talking about that very thing. he considers it to be a bit of performance art happening at the press briefing room. here he is speaking with sean hannity. [video] >> i think you are very accurate in terms of majority of folks now in this -- in the briefing room that are going to journalism. they are not there for the facts in pursuit of the truth. they are trying to figure out how to make it on tv and become a youtube star? there are some good reporters that still spend time getting to know, to learn the facts, get t

they were from the nixon administration, but kennedy johnson administrations and there were-- they were designed to damage work effort. clearly designed to point out that we were lied into war in the "new york times" had supported the war and they turned against it as opposed to the rest. henry kissinger was outraged. the president was outraged by it and they turned out to be a fellow i guess with daniel ellsberg. mr. nixon and i don't pick it was a wise idea, but pushed them to get an investigation going of ellsberg and run it right out of the white house because hoover, ellsberg's father-in-law, former father-in-law apparently was very close to hoover and hoover was not doing it so they said the president wants you to do it, buchanan, the investigation. i said i'm not eliot ness. i don't know how to investigate anything and so they kept pushing me to head it up and get together a team, so i said i will go talk to these investigators and people they had gotten together from various departments and who knows where. i went into this meeting with these characters. they had sideburns and g

became too close and he changed his views to nixon's abuse really and he started to defend the nixon administration so when the vietnam war came to its terrible climax he was among the people to be blamed for it and later for watergate which he did not denounce early enough. >> as i read your book i thought of billy graham as a foreshadowing novelistic, a foreshadowing of what happens after him. he was one person a larger-than-life figure but by the late 1970s to have an entire organized movement to make a marriage happened between conservative evangelicalism and fundamentalism and the republican party which we know is the christian right and a lot of the figures, a lot of the tv back in the day jerry falwell all of them larger-than-life across your pages. start with the birth of the christian right and it's trajectory. >> well, i think he was preceded by an upsurge of fundamentalism in the south. it was the second upsurge but it was an upsurge in the south and it happened at virtually the same moment and industrialization and urbanization and the first one in the north. as we all know that creates

single handedly destroyed what was really his extraordinary historic partnership that the nixon administration was developing with the soviet union and scoop jackson scooped up if i may say so a segment of all the liberals who suddenly became belligerently anti so. yes and i saw that attacking richard nixon the. great cold war as being an impression of spock is so we've heard this story before and you let me go to you because i'm glad that george brought that up here because we have you know the neo cons that you know that were in the democratic party then they went over to the republicans now they want to find you know get into strange bedfellows with the democrats again here which is really interesting because if we go back to the soviet era you know the democrats were loathed to say bad things about the soviet union and now we have democrats can only say bad things about russia i mean this really is a paradigm shift is something that we saw maybe like in the in the one nine hundred sixty s. when we had the democrats in the republican shift forces in the in the in the south i mean we're havi

was in new york and columbia university law school and as soon as he graduated he joined the nixon administration as a staff assistant and then as a speechwriter and special assistant to the president. he joined the former president to work on his memoirs and was his chief researcher for the interviews. ronald reagan's presidential campaign he traveled with the candidates to enhance the speeches and in the white house he was the chief speechwriter. among the many memorable and historic speeches he wrote was festering and moving farewell address for the public and national convention in 1988. he then also worked in the successful campaign. today he's a veteran of nine presidential campaigns and has been an adviser and strategist for governors and jurists and many of california's most distinguished public servants. he served for many years and that foundation board of directors and continues to advise and contribute in the current emeritus capacity will. thank you. [applause] he still lives there and remains active in law and politics and community life. we are delighted that he and his wife were h

this radical political upsurge which also was the birthing of law and order rhetoric in the nixon administration tying quote unquote commonality with radical political upsurge and so then what does the response be is the response of the elites to being able to control the contradictions that have been released inside of these communities by their very own policies now of course they're not going to roll back the policies and start giving people jobs education health care and so on and so forth and so they have to find another way and they put together a plan or out how to use the car several state as an element of social control and one thing i'll say quickly that speaks very heavily to this fifty percent fifty six percent of state inmates and sixty four percent of local jail inmates are suffering from some sort of. sometimes a major symptom of a mental health disorder over seventy percent in both those categories are also people who are substance abuse it's broken people will come right back to that thanks when we were turned we'll hear more from journalist and author eugene per year. in case y

. >> pat buchanan is a super smart guy who worked in the nixon administration and pushing nixon to thechanan became george bush's worst nightmare. he starts talking to the american people who are feeling a little unsure as the reagan prosperity engine sputters. >> while george bush was an excellent foreign policy is president, he was not a good politician. >> to get to that. >> let me quote the words of one arab leader, saddam hussein himself. >> pick this up or take it out of my pocket. >> george bush was a little awkward. it's like he's pretending to be a politician. he did not look forward to the '92 election. >> public criticism of his foreign travels, the president his trip to japan was about jobs. the result was hardly what his image makers hoped for. >> the lone camera in the dining room was locked in on the head table when president bush was overcome by nausea and fell forward. it appears he lost consciousness as he toppled over on to his host. >> this man who had overseen the soft landing of the cold war, who was chander in chief for a brilliant victory against iraq would be v

funding has been a policy in the united states for the past we for decades going back to the nixon administrationkissinger writes about this in his memoirs. like many of trump's seemingly outlandish positions, this is one that bears some fruit and makes sense. >> i agree with that but what i think is so interesting about this trip to poland is how donald trump has tried to set the stage for the g 20 summit which i think is going to be very tense, he will be elected by other nations, there will be protests against him but he is going to poland, laying out his agenda, backing and how i strongly, sending a message to russia and saying to germany and other nations this is our policy. i am not going to be intimidated. >> i don't think he will be intimidated by much but he will get a lecturing but i don't know -- back to you for a second. the meeting everyone is talking about, in the wake of what we heard in that speech, the president not showing a lot of support for vladimir putin in that speech, how do you think that changes this meeting in 48 hours. >> even in these impromptu remarks on energy secur

all of this by the law and order administration of richard nixon.e 40 people pled guilty to some watergate-related crimes. john ehrlichman, bob haldeman, john dean and 16 others went to jail. >>, you know, to this day i'm not quite sure when i enter the conspiracy to obstruct justice -- that's one of the things i'm actually trying to figure out when did i cross the line, had when did i enter that illegal conspiracy? no question i went across it. >> there was a real major breakdown in personal integrity as well as organizational integrity on the part of us that were given those assignments. >> not quite sure exactly where i'm going to be for the next few months, but i'm going to miss you all. >> it also requires you to ask the ethical questions. is this right? is it respectful? is it responsible? is it fair? we didn't ask any of those questions. and we should have started with is it legal? we were so caught in trying to serve the president's needs and desires that we did not ask those questions. >> i, gerald r. ford, do grant a few, free, and absolut

and i believe by the american people that it is unpresidented going all the way back to the nixon administrationeate a constitutional crisis and we'll let the republicans know that. there will be republican senators who themselves will protest if the administrations try to shut the process so trump can have someone rubber stamp his wishes on the russia investigation. >> protests don't seem to bother the president. i am not sure if he knew the women's march took place. beyond the protest, is there something legally democrats can do before you leave washington to stop this from potentially happening. >> we are going to need some republican senators to stand up. we'll put in place a process by which we make it clear that there is going to be a culpability unless those senator stands up and ensure there is a confirmation hearing and we know who the next attorney general will be if jeff sessions is removed by the president during this recess. >> thank you very much for joining me this morning, i appreciate it. >> when we come back. we'll stick with protests, a different kind, protests erupting after

>> my only new year's resolution this year, i think i'm going to try to sleep through the nixon administrationave authors on. you would have heavyweight boxers. there were conversations. >> when you mentioned the national anthem and talk about playing it in any unorthodox way, you immediately get a guaranteed percentage of hate mail from people who say how dare -- >> that is not unorthodox? >> it isn't unorthodox? >> no, no, i thought it was beautiful. there you go. >> i just thought anything that is interesting ought to have a place on a talk show rather than young pretty actresses who use the word "excited" in every sentence. you're not frequently seen on television. is that by choice? >> well, of course, it is the most impressive medium of all. it's the medium that will either save america or send it down into demise, there's no question about it. >> i'm getting out of it myself. >> really? >> we'll be back after this. >> what you do is book the best possible guests from different kinds of businesses, maybe not everybody in show businesses, some politics, some newspaper people. get them all

brian: during the nixon administration and watergate, they all went to prison, they testified, you testified. we have a little piece of video from your testimony. you say you had your brother sit behind you. why? mr. buchanan: i had watched all the others of their and they all andll the others up there they all had these lawyers beside them. and as soon as you have a lawyer, he's got a problem, he must have done something. i did not believe i had done anything wrong, that i did need somebody, just to be with you. so i called my brother on the day i was going to testify and i said, can you go over to watergate where i live with shelley? we will go to the white house to get breakfast and then go to the committee hearing room and he came up and i said, i do not need you to sit at the table with me, but i want you to sit behind me. in the book, i think i have a picture and it's got my brother behind me there and when they would take a break, he would go back in his room with me and we would come back out to the hearing, in and out. you wanted your brother there. i did not need a lawyer. brian: i

you work in the nixon administration. the reagan administration, do you ever see it this bad?of abusive bias, correct, i've never seen it this bad? >> first i thought sean spicer was very gracious in his departure. but to let me tell you, this is as bad as it was in the final days of watergate with richard nixon. though tremendous hostility of the press, the media, any of those press conference looking like things were in the forum, and i think the real problem here is that the president senses that the 80 you are the enemy, and i think the media if you watch all three networks and the major networks of the press, and the media are as hostile to this president as i have seen to any president candidate in my lifetime. >> sean: so what does he do, pat? you know how hard it is inside that house, and you see them media acting this way, what do you do? >> i tell you what is coming, and i think that the president senses with regard to mueller and special counsel, he senses that these folks are coming after him. i believe they are. they are coming after his campaign, his family, and

you work in the nixon administration. the reagan administration, do you ever see it this bad?, correct, i've never seen it this bad? >> first i thought sean spicer was very gracious in his departure. but to let me tell you, this is as bad as it was in the final days of watergate with richard nixon. though tremendous hostility of the press, the media, any of those press conference looking like things were in the forum, and i think the real problem here is that the president senses that the 80 you are the enemy, and i think the media if you watch all three networks and the major networks of the press, and the media are as hostile to this president as i have seen to any president candidate in my lifetime. >> sean: so what does he do, pat? you know how hard it is inside that house, and you see them media acting this way, what do you do? >> i tell you what is coming, and i think that the president senses with regard to mueller and special counsel, he senses that these folks are coming after him. i believe they are. they are coming after his campaign, his family, and coming after hi

>> i think we're talking often about the saturday night massacre in the nixon administration as an example what can happen when you fire the attorney general and his subordinates. nixon was impeached. you had a democratic congress at that time. we have a republican congress now. the president is unlikely to be impeached by a republican congress for abuse of power. in 2018, after the mid term elections, we may have a different congress. >> the republicans are fed up with his treatment of sessions. you heard from senator shelby saying as much. brutalizing. >> they are fed up. but there's a difference between fed up and voting for impeachment. i want to focus on one other thing i haven't heard people talking about. this attack on sessions is an attempt to get sessions to resign. people are talking about the president firing sessions. sessions is an attorney general approved by congress. in american history, you have to go back as far as john adams to find a secretary -- a cabinet secretary who was fired by the president who refused to resign. when andrew johnson tried do it in the 1860s, cong

during the nixon administration. >> 1973. i went back and watched mr.elly, general kelly during some of his interviews. and what i see, the exact notes, authentic, sober, no nonsense. he does not sound like a politician. >> joe, you could write for "the new york times" ." >> jon: he was a top aide ted two secretaries of defense, and you have to sort of know the political ways of washington, don't you? >> you do, but being the secretary of defense level is different from being in the white house. different sets of skills. and by the way, remember, military people are not supposed to be involved in policy into they are not supposed to be involved in politics. now he is going to find himself in the middle of both. >> and he does not like the political end of the job. he has said, he actually admitted that i don't like that particular part of the job. but you talk about a love affair. all i remember is john mccain used to have a love affair with the media as well. then he ran for president. everybody turn on him. and we saw last week, the address aggressive

administration as a response to the watergate, roger ailes was the media consultant f or the nixon administration, with pat buchanan. , negativity.aid planned ass hub inative information 1972. they have gone to great lengths to discredit all of the media. now we are seeing the repercussions of that. important -- in order to manipulate people, in order to do things, every dictatorship does this. you first have to shoot the messenger. you have to discredit all media. -- the mediat was was made illegal in germany and we are inching that way. do not believe them when they say they do not believe the media, they trust drudge, fox, infowars. studies confirm that fox audiences are the least informed, less informed that people who watch no cable news at all. host: you mentioned the watergate era. let's look at what bob woodward from the washington post during forum aboutid in a the media coverage of president trump. >> at the white house correspondents dinner, you made an appearance with carl bernstein, your co-author and you got huge applause for one line. you said -- mr. president, the media is not fak

the office of legal counsel advised in the nixon administration years that you could not do that. the president could not do that. so that's off the table. he should look into other options. you know, maybe, i don't know, go join mr. snowden over in moscow or something. but this is not going to work. >> carrie, also in the legal realm this week, the report that the trump white house is doing in effect opposition research playing defense against mueller's team. by all accounts, if you lined up all thee erjerseys of the team mueller is assembling, they would be on an all-star team. do you think robert mueller and his co-counsel are pressurable in that way? >> no, i don't. former director muller has put together an exceptional team of lawyers. this is another aspect of the president and his white house trying to influence and potentially obstruct this investigation. whatever they are supposedly conducting opposition research of the lawyers who are on that special counsel. i view this as another part of the pattern of this white house trying to obstruct the investigation that's being

nixon. they were very critical of the johnson administration. into the hands of foreign governments, as well as part of them getting into the papers, and the president and kissinger were very upset that this man would be doing these kinds of things. >> you were so mad at elsberg, this dirty guy. i don't have to tell you or anyone else that the anger and the resentment toward elsberg was near hysterical levels in the white house. >> this didn't develop into any pathological hatred of elsberg, it developed into a rather cold blooded, and in my view, a misguided attempt to discredit him in the public eye. because at the time, he was being made a public hero and there was an effort to try to show that this man was not necessarily the great savior of the nation that many were portraying him as. >> i think i changed during the time i was at the white house. i'm not sure whether it was for the better. it probably was not at the time that i was there. when you first go in, at least when i first went in there, i asked a lot of hard questions. why are we d

the office of legal counsel advised in the nixon administration years that you could not do that. president could not do that. so that's off the table. he should look into other options. you know maybe -- i don't know, go join mr. snowden over in moscow or something but the self-pardon idea is not going to work. >> carrie, also in the legal realm this week, the report that the trump white house is doing opposition research, playing defense against mueller's team. by all accounts, if you lined up all the jerseys of the attorneys mueller is hiring, they would all be on an all-star team in their particular branch of what is, in effect, white collar crime. do you think robert mueller and his co-counsel are pressurable in that way? >> no, i don't. former director mueller has put together a really exceptional team of lawyers. again, this is just another aspect of the president and this white house trying to influence and potentially obstruct this investigation by releasing publicly whatever is this information that they supposedly are conducting some kind of opposition research or looki

the panel also answered questions on parallels between president nixon's actions and the president trump administration. this was recorded at the watergate hotel in washington, d.c. it's just under an hour and a half. mr. freedman: hello, everybody. i'm gordon freedman. elizabeth here and i -- [applause] mr. freedman: thank you. three or four months ago, we said maybe we should get some people together, and i thought that was a good idea. then i started trying to find people. it was a little difficult, and then some stuff started happening in d.c. that was vaguely reminiscent to some of the stuff we worked on, and all of a sudden, everybody seemed to want to show up. this is just fantastic. raise your hands if you were on the committee staff. this is pretty amazing. we said goodbye to each other 43, 44 years ago, and when i got ready to do this, i called jim hamilton, who was my boss back then. i said, i mean it, i'll have it in tomorrow. he said, gordon, you better have it in tomorrow. it's like no time has passed. when we broke up -- i don't know how many of you remember this -- sam dash had a final

the kennedy administration in the nixon administration all regularly tried to the politicizing weapon eyes the fbi against the rights activist and lots of other people were not able to fight back against that big overreaching state. one of the reasons why you have heard so much support for the way you conceive of this mission and calling today is because of the ways you make clear how you think this calling in both obligate you to work for the constitution on behalf of the american people [inaudible] behalf of either political party. as you have reiterated your willingness to resign if ever forced to politicize and that's why think you have so much bipartisan support for your confirmation today. would you also pledged to this committee that if ever directed by the white house to shut down or curtail an investigation, that you would report that back to this committee, not necessarily in a public setting, will you commit today that any white house direction that you would curtail would and an investigation is something you would report back? >> i was really report it wherever it is appr

kelly is the first general to be chief of staff since alexander hague in the nixon administration. who will fill kelly's spot. lindsey graham tweeting his displeasure that sessions could be moved there saying ag jeff sessions has a good ring to it. dhs secretary jeff sessions doesn't sound right. >> president trump is criticizing members of his own party of senate republicans failed to replace obamacare last week. it's an idea that majority leader mitch mcconnell has dismissed in the past. the president also wrote quote, after seven years of talking repeal and replace, the people of our country are forced to live with imploding obamacare. if a new health care bill is not approved quickly, insurance companies and bailouts for members of congress will end were soon until the republican senators are total quitters, repeal and replace is not dead. demand another vote before voting on any other bill. and yesterday tom price was asked whether he would continue to implement obamacare following the senate's failure to repeal and replace the bill. >> our law is to follow the law of the land

. >> michael, you bring up the nixon administration. and in fact that was the last time there was a general apon d -- appointed to the chief of staff position. he plans to bring order to the white house on day one. listen to what kellyanne conway said about this. >> i think general secretary kelly will bring strength and discipline and put out without even saying so the saying that loose lips sinks ships. and people will think before they hurt each other by using the press to do so or even to think they are helping the president to convey information that is perhaps not yet ripe for public disclosure or is in negotiation or conversation. >> you mentioned this a little bit earlier about a general taking on this role. maybe the president would have more respect for john kelly versus reince priebus just because of him being a general, having had the leadership and experience that john kelly has. but going back to the nixon years when there was a general at the helm, how did that work out? >> well, general hage refused the president's order

has done that, but i'm also not aware of a factual situation as before. >> of course in the nixon administration, it was referred -- attorney general or deputy attorney general. both refused to comply to president nixon's order that they hire a special prosecutor archibald cox. and they of course took the choice of resigning and rather than simply disobeying and waiting to be fired, which of course they would have been. neil as i mentioned is representing the state of hawaii in this case, in the supreme court. why don't you talk about your experience in the case, and what's happening and what's going to happen and all that cool stuff. >> okay, sure, i just want to situate sally's remarks within the role of the justice department. when you're the solicitor general, you have two kinds of traditions that are not about zealously advocating for winning cases but just to do justice. those two cases are being willing to -- every solicitor general, i did this and my democratic and republican predecessors did. they go to the supreme court and say, that case that we won, we should have lost, so hear this

about roadway cohn, the infamous roy cohn being his lawyer during that federal case that the nixon administrationcial discrimination in his father's buildings. >> loyalty. and loyalty is a great tralt. in my opinion it's a great trait. it's a trait that can maybe cause problems. >> so now you see this guy demanding loyalty there jim comey, demanding -- his son essentially trying to take the fall for him. what do you make of it? >> same old, same old. >> yeah. >> he's very -- and he can't handle, obviously, anyone who disagrees. >> right. >> how about the cabinet meeting where everybody like bobbleheads, am i great, am i great? yes, you are. i mean, that was -- >> yeah. >> icky. i mean, anybody who was capable of that and didn't see the horror of demanding this kind of public proximate cause la magsz of loyalty. just total fidelity to the king. >> yeah. and, you know, one of the things, you know, that i guess the media missed during the campaign, that you had to sort of be a trump supporter to get is that he did even back in the 1980s make this appeal to a certain kind of american who feels put up

he brings in david goering ginn, fellow cnn analyst, a member of the reagan administration, nixon administration to try to steady the ship. he eventually subs out his chief of staff in favor of leon panetta. that makes all the difference. he took the poll numbers in rough shape because of a series of small scandals and redid the way his white house operated. >> no sign that the trump white house has changed at all. they face continuing disapproval over the russia drip, drip, drip, things that keep coming out, a.b., 60% of the polling say the meeting with donald trump jr. and the russians was inappropriate. another number, a.b., really remarkable, the poll of those who voted for obama in 2012 and then flipped. in those counties, 44% approval, 51% disapproval. under water. looking at key trump voters, voters he really needs and they may be starting to turn on him, a.b. >> right. you see republicans clinging to the republican support percentages in these polls for donald trump and thinking they have more time because if their party turns on him, they'll be forced to. as we know, stutrump has about

the kennedy administration, the johnson administration, and the nixon administration all regularly tried to politicize and weaponize the fbi against civil rights activists and against lots of other people who weren't able to fight back against that big and overreaching state. and i think one of the reasons why you've heard so much support for the way you conceive of this mission and this calling today is because of the ways you've made clear how you think this calling and this oath obligate you to work for the constitution and in defense of the constitution on behalf of the american people. not on behalf of either political party. and as you've reiterated again and again, you're willingness to resign, if ever forced to politicize an investigation. and i think that's why you hear so much bipartisan support for your confirmation today. would you also pledge to this committee that if ever directed by the white house to shut down or curtail an investigation that you would report that back to this committee? not necessarily in a public setting, but at the very least in a classified setting. w