we are very happy to welcome back philip c. bobbitt, the herbert wechsler professor of federal jurisprudence at columbia university school of law and the director of the columbia center for national security. he has served as an associate counsel to the president, the counselor on international law at the state department, legal counsel to the senate iran-contra committee and as senior director to the national security council. he is the author of the new material in the expanded edition of charles l. black's "impeachment: a handbook." we are also pleased to welcome back akhil reed amar, this evening. he serves as sterling professor at of law and political science at yale university. he is the author of several books on american law and the constitution and wrote the foreword to the second edition of charles black's "impeachment: a handbook." in 2017, he received the american bar foundation's outstanding scholar award and the howard r. lamar award. we are very grateful that professor amar is also member of our board of trustees. our mo

next, on the presidency, constitutional scholars philip bobbitt and akhil reed amar discuss and interpretow the u.s. constitution defines impeachable offenses for the sitting president. philip bobbitt, who was legal counsel to the senate select iran-contra committee, is co-author of "impeachment: a handbook, new edition," which was originally published in 1974

this weekend, on american history tv, constitutional scholars philip bobbitt and akil talk about how the constitution defines impeachable offenses for the president. can be shown that the president authorized or knew about in advance and did not hacking or encouraged and colluded in it, that would be an impeachable offense in your view? >> i think that is right. i think the nixon case offers a president. notrine and precedent are to just a court -- kept just courts. i would answer a question that you did not ask. i would say of course you are right. a president to contrive to have the headquarters of the opposing documentsled and that or used inpublished, some intimidating way would be subject to impeachment. but i would also say from the presidentedent that a who contrive to have the actions of such burglars not investigated or used the instruments of the federal government to mislead the investigators, even if he was not aware or had not directed or plans the original burglary, i think that would be a predicate for impeachment. a learn more about how president can be impeached, thi

bobbitt case flooded with low culture. it disarmed high culture. you'll find references in the philip roth novels.eminem lyrics. >> you know, man, it could be worse. a woman could cut off your penis while you're sleeping and toss it out the window of a moving car. >> there's always that. >> you could almost put the story in the midst of time in the middle of book ends. the book ends being the amy fisher/joey bu trk tafuoco story. and six months later after the bobbitt story was o.j. and the white bronco. right in the middle was lorena and john. >> it's been 25 years. even today, i imagine, if you walk into a store, hand somebody your credit card, you say your name. you get a reaction? >> i gate shocked or startled or wow. you're the guy? you're the guy? yeah. >> let's go back to the beginning. tell me where you grew up. >> niagara falls, new york. born and raised there. when i was 3, i was taken away from my mother. >> his mother was a drug addict, living on the street and not capable of taking care of him. his father pretty much disappeared, didn't really know his father. and he and his two broth