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on that troubling year, of political assassinations, convention violence and the election of richard m. nixon in his new text, playing with fire. glad you joined us with lawrence o'donnell in just a moment.

on that troubling year, of political assassinations, convention violence and the election of richard m. nixon. all laid out in his new text, playing with fire. glad you joined us with lawrence o'donnell in just a moment. >> and from con vi tribuplease lawrence o'donnell, back to the program. host of the msnbc "the last word" worked inside the beltway and behind the scenes of hollywood including as a writer for the west wing. his latest text is called, playing with fire. the 1968 election and the transformation of american politics, lawrence o'donnell, good to have you on the west coast and on our program. my friend. >> so good to be in the studio with you. usually, you're coming on my show. and you i am in new york doing it on satellite from here. and we always get the tavis smiley bump in the ratings, what we are going for. never in the same room. >> sure my ratings will bump that you are on tonight. let me start with, that, since you went there, what is it like being on that network covering this moment in our nation's history? awe up a >> it is a completely changed job. there used to be, y

. >> at 9:04 this evening, richard m. nixont ever to resign his office. >> and there is the president waving good-bye to applause. >> as we bind up the internal rules of watergate, more painful and more poisonous than those of foreign wars, let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate. >> there was this collective sigh of relief in the country, okay, we have a new president. it's a new day. let's see how things go. >> secretary kissinger, the president has already announced that he will stay in the cabinet. >> sophisticated vietnamese believe they're the ultimate victims of watergate. they think congress cut u.s. aid to settle a score with former president nixon. >> walter cronkite news, march 18, 1975. >> according to pentagon sources, the north vietnamese have penetrated to a point some 25 miles east of the provincial capital of ban me thuit which fell over the weekend. >> the cease-fire which wasn't a cease-fire involved a lot of bloody combat, and for the first 11 months the south vietnamese fought quite wel

richard nixon. in this conduct of the office of the president of the united states richard m. nixon in violation of are constitutional oath to faithfully execute office of the president of the united states and to the best of his ability preserve, protect, defend the constitution of the united states, this is the interesting part. in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed prevented obstructed and impeded the administration of justice. does this set precedent? the idea that the articles of impeachment say that richard nixon obstructed justice? does this negate the argument some have the president can't obstruct justice? >> probably. it's a piece of the precedent that will be litigated. the obstruction of justice law also, you may have talked about this before. 18 usc 1503, whoever can corruptly impedes justice or threatening letter or communication attempts to obstruct justice can be guilty of that crime. most people think that that means you have to have a ministry or intent. intonight do something wrong. can't just mess up by acc