for crimes committed while nixon was president, which is why president ford pardoned richard nixonin 1974. in the eight presidents from nixon to trump, every one of them was always 100% certain that they could be prosecuted for crimes committed in office just as richard nixon was going to be prosecuted. before he was pardoned. not one of those presidents was inhibited in any way in office in doing their duty by fear of being prosecuted. the history of the american presidency and the american criminal justice system, especially the post nixon history proves beyond a reasonable doubt that this statement in the trump brief is a lie. the threat of future prosecution and imprisonment would become a political cudgel to influence the most sensitive and controversial presidential decisions, taking away the strength, authority, of the presidency. arguing there is no reason for the court to hear donald trump's appeal, special prosecutor jack smith said that the criminal immunity that donald trump is asking the supreme court to write into constitutional law, "would upend understandings about

did you ever think you would admire richard nixon's love letters? no. was why i found it very interesting, because sometimes it's the opposite of wt you what you think. i'm sorry, i someone like jfk. who had wonderful speeches politically, had very little to say. i'm sorry. romantic glee. the only thing that he ever wrote to jacqueline before they were married was a postcard, which said, just simply wish you were here, jack. so that was that was that okay? yeah. we often don't think about nixon in romance, but i think this is a really lovely picture up there. two of them in the east room of the white house. yes, that was that was at a dding of of of. oh, i'm sorry. i always forget. i'm sorry. that was tricia's wedding, i believe. yeah. yeah. thank you for■ that. i also since this is valentine's day and since the president's, like all of us, experienced heartache, let's talk about him for a minute about one of the saddest stories in your book on this day in 1884, theodore roosevelt experienced the darkest day of his life. can you talk about this tragic a

but richard nixon was a complex person we don't understand. but i think gives us warning about can happen if you got the wrong kind of person in the white house. and that's why what's coming is so -- important it's really important that you watch the country. let me ask you, using your harvard and your your experience, but participating and observing, there is a crucial between nixon and the 45th president, which is he's like voldemort. i just try to say the name which really irritates him. so i don't do it a lot. in the end. nixon a sense of shame. yes, he did actually he believed in the institutions enough that it wouldn't have occurred when goldwater and john rhodes, hugh scott, you know, come down i think on the fifth or 6th of august and say you haven't got the votes to survive in the senate. he didn't say, all right, let's get the proud boys together. yep. and to and equally what's often forgotten but you know so well was beginnings of the nixon when when there was actually a legitimate congress controversy about whether in fact nixon ha

richard nixon's letters to pat are really poetic and very deeply touching. on his first date, he proposed to her. he said he fell in love with her. at firstht and you can see this is the letter he wrote afterwards. they met. they were they met in a amateur, dramatic present tation. they were both in a play together. okay. he wrote to her, and this is sometime in 1938. and he was then a 25 year old lawyer. patricia, somehow on tuesday, there was something electric in the usually almost stifling air in whittier, california. that is. and now i know an irish gypsy who radiates all that is happy and beautiful. was there. sh■us left behind her a note addressed to a struggling barrister who looks from a window and dreams. and in that note he found sunshine and flowers and a great spirit which only great ladies can inspire. he knew then why he felt so many fine things for this girl. he had learn and though he is a prosaic person, his heart was filled with that grandpa poetic music which makes us wish for those we love the realization of great dreams, of fulfillment,

krovchuk said this, and it was under the following conditions: former president richard nixon, who cameand this was already after shortly after the belovesh agreements were adopted, at the beginning it was ninety-second year, and kravchuk talked about how he supported yeltsin, yeltsin then had, if you remember... than i mentioned this story with the illegality of the ukrainian referendum on independence, because when we are in ukraine, we must really understand that this is not aggression against another sovereign country, this is staying on territory in which russia, not only historically, but from the point of view of law , has the right to consider it its own. that's right, yes. i'm not going to rush this matter, it requires really very serious work. as for crimea, i will give another example, which indicates the illegitimacy of its presence in the composition. ukraine, when ukraine joined the united nations , it joined immediately after the end of the second world war, it, as you know, joined without crimea, then i didn’t know, yes, crimea was in the rsfsr, the yalta conference took

by people who were associated with president richard nixon's reelection campaign.ed into a battle between congress and the president over access to tape recordings that contained evidence about the crime and the cover up. and it concluded with the resignation of psi impeachment. so i wanted to point out several documents in this case. one is this security log right here from the watergate complex. and this security log, you can see the date of june 17th, 1972, which was the date, the break in at the watergate hotel. and the log has a note written by the security guard from the watergaterank wells, who made a note there in the log that he had seen a piece of tape on a door that prevented the door from latching and from ouid first, he removed the piece of tape, but later, the same night as he was continuing his rounds, he found another piece of tape on the door and that tipped him off that something was happening and there might be intruders in the building. he the police. and when the police arrived, they found the five burglars inside the democratic national commit

richard nixon, richard nixon was a man who together with... ian dissidents themselves. nixon could not, to some extent, ignore this pressure, because there was the notorious jackson amendment, which simply limited the possibilities of american trade, american loans to the soviet union, unless relatively free emigration was allowed. to meet the pressure, he was able to meet the request, and indeed tens of thousands of people got the opportunity to leave, and then this door closed for a while when on... with the rights of russia in the post-soviet space, but also openly interfere in russian internal affairs, what conclusions would you draw from this? well, like some: it was a cold war, and now a hot war, that’s what they call it, feel the difference, you know, i, uh, remember that all american presidents of recent decades have used the lever of human rights and democracy. not only here, but in china, but seriously, seriously, these questions were the last, precisely the last, not the last, but the last, to be posed by jimmy carter, i don’t even m

charles: richard nixon is more intellectually, before president biden had age issues. not something the american public wants and it is a race in a weird way no one want -- charles: we are bit players. charles: we sound very shakespearean. all the world is a stage. lauren: 1 is that knocking around? charlie gasparino. that is right, you are right. brian yannis joins us. he gets to the bottom of the story, he's in trump land but i noticed, when the former president was commenting via truth social on bowing out of the race, saying great things about her but what and how is he reacting? >> reporter: nikki haley dropped out of the race earlier this morning, wanted to see if the former president would react. so far doesn't look like that's going to happen. nikki haley deciding to drop out of the race after losing 14 of 15 states on supertuesday, she congratulated the former president. she did not endorsed trump and she challenged him to not be as divisive in a general election against president biden. >> i congratulate him and wish him well. at best politics is about bringi

but by the 1970s times were changing >> america >> was losing a war in vietnam and president richard nixon needed a new cold war strategy >> the greatest threat to united states was not china. it was the soviet union china could be an important supplement to the american deterrent against soviet adventurism in europe, as well as asia and worldwide nixon sent henry kissinger on a secret visit to beijing >> east meets west as a handshake bridges 22 years of hostility. >> the following year, he met with mao. >> we do not want laws to ideology or philosophy between peoples opening the door for a whole new relationship with mainland china. >> our two peoples tonight all of the future of the world in our hands meanwhile, at the united nations mao's china was invited in or sign guy sets taiwan hope has confirmed the was forced out >> you say final, leaving okay no, no. no question. yeah. want any question? >> on a few years later america recognized beijing as the real china. >> this will serve the interest of both our nations cutting off diplomatic relations with taiwan to the health the republic

scott: she wrote a lot of letters to richard nixon. there are a number of files in the nixon library that contain nothing but mrs. to inform her. they had an interesng relationship. she had been a longtime supporter. she was constantly haranguing him via email about one problem or another that she saw was crucial to the survival of the republic. generally he would write back asserting he agreed with everything she said and wished there were more citizens like her but then he would do absolutely nothing about what she wanted him to do. he treated her basically like an annoying aunt at thanksgiving who tells you how to dress and vote and what shows to watch and rather than get into a long conversation that will only end with bad feelings, you acquiesce to her and then go about your business because she will not be there. he would say yes, you are absolutely right, and the nothing would happen. and she seems to not notice that often. on the other hand, he did not really want to antagonize her because she had a vast readership through the

morning he mentioned politics, which was very rare in conversations with me, he said that he thought richard nixon was going to be elected the next president united states. this is june of 68. so about five months before people voted when it was anything but clear, the nixon was going to win, he said nixon is probably the best qualified in america to be president. he said, i don't always agree with him, but i respect him for tremendous ability. i told him if he gave me freedom to tell mr. nixon just what he had said, that it would be of great encouragement to him. he said, by all means, tell him so. beginning in june, graham effectively a massive mess, a secret messenger between lbj and nixon and someone that never would have been suspected by west media or press. he was kind of the ideal spy, you know, if you want to use that word, you know, not not as a pejorative, just johnson and johnson. nixon came to realize they needed each other in 1968, as much of america watched the chaos that year unfold on their televisions. the surprise tet offensive attack in vietnam against. our our forces at a time

at least four of those judges, three of them at least were appointed by richard nixon. at the time, no one had an issue with that. no one's faith was shaken in the possibility that judges appointed by nixon would be deciding his fate. at this point in the 21st century is another world. >> you are exactly right to think about nixon. there was a concern that the three nixon appointees would side with nixon out of loyalty. they did not. just justice requested. that is the historic world of the judiciary. stephen breyer, the year after nominated by bill clinton with the paula jones case, he ruled against bill clinton despite all of the politics and the pressure. i remember when the affordable care act was being argued and it was chief justice roberts who cast the deciding vote to save obamacare. handing a huge victory to barack obama before the 2012 election. that's what judges do. by the way, that is what the court of appeals did to judge cannon. it was three republican appointees who reversed judge cannon twice last year in stark language. including a trump appointee. this

he felt, if i can beat impeachment this time, i could would say -- donald trump would say richard nixonis a loser and that is the way he views it. when you deal with that kind of personality, you can't treat him like an ordinary person. he does not react the same way. >> amen. that is something i have said for a while. you mentioned we might have disagreement about the ukraine pieces. but in the epilogue to your book that came out roughly at the time of the acquittal give or take a month, you said something that fascinated me. that was, your issue with the democrats was not so much that they charged him with impeachment for ukraine because you thought ukraine's situation was one in which he was using the power of his office to benefit himself. which we all agree with. you thought it didn't go far enough because he thought it was part of a larger pattern and that is what the impeachment should have been a part. do i have that right? >> exactly. i told that to several republicans and democrats, in fact. republican said, nancy pelosi needs to get this over with. she is scared of the impact

president gerald ford would not have had to offer richard nixon a pardon if he was supposedly immune from criminal prosecution. which he was about to face. and how else do we know that trump's whole presidential immunity defense is garbage? well, we heard it directly from his own lawyer during his second impeachment hearing in 2021. >> after he's out of office, you go and arrest him. so there is no opportunity where the president of the united states can run rampant at the end of his term and go away scot-free. the department of justice does know what to do with such people. >> there is only the text of the constitution which makes very clear that if former president is subject to criminal sanction after his presidency for any illegal acts he commits. >> i am joined by lisa reuben, msnbc legal correspondent. catherine christian, nbc news and msnbc legal analyst and former assistant district in the manhattan d.a.'s office, and david jolly, msnbc political analyst and former republican congressman who is no longer affiliated with the republican party. lisa, i'm going to let you talk. y

70 million people on social security next year and yet those benefits that were in place when richard nixon was president have not been changed. we have a cola that's inadequate. people haven't received an increase in their social security payments. there are more than five million americans that worked all their lives and get below poverty payments and three million people are paying taxes on social security that shouldn't have to do so. and for those who have been prevented brew government teachers and municipal employees, from getting their benefits, that deserves to be repealed so they're able to get those benefits. for close to 40% of the american people, the only pension they'll have is social security and on average that's 18,000 per mail, 14,000 per female. living on that amount of money, people aren't going out and buying tock options with this money, they're buying the essentials they need to survive. and this is why it's so critical and why this wealth disparity exists and i commend president biden for saying why don't we pay for that, too. and how do we do that? we lift the cap

black was alive when abraham lincoln was president and lived to see the resignation of president richard nixonght abraham was the best. they thought everybody thought abraham was the best president there was. >> reporter: the goal is to put names and faces on this vital history. not only to give the enslaved the dignity they deserve, but to connect those living today with their family story. with the help of the "10 million names" genealogist, we were able to find the direct descendents of celia black. in rhode island, 68-year-old curtis royal who spent time with her as a young man. >> she's my great grandmother. >> reporter: do you remember any of the stories she would tell? >> she told us about how difficult it was, just being alive during that period. and of course, she would tell us a story about the big ox that they had. >> my grandfather had some big old oxen. he had one that -- big with wide horns. oh, looked like a house. >> reporter: was it difficult to talk about slavery? >> yes. and i think what made it so difficult is it just -- realizing, you know, how emotional it was and what th

all of those southern states rob humphrey had a chance to beat richard nixon, in a close election andmade it close not winning himself but gathering enough electoral votes taking them from humphrey so we'll see what happens but thank you very much. in the meantime one guy i don't think is sweating out an election this week is when vladimir putin, you're not going to believe this , but he's the overwhelming favorite. ♪ why can't we be friends, why can't we be friends ♪ all my stresses just melt away. i hear that. this bad boy can fix anything. yep, tough day at work, nice cruise will sort you right out. when i'm riding, i'm not even thinking about my painful cavity. well, you shouldn't ignore that. and every time i get stressed about having to pay my bills, i just hop on the bike, man. oh, come on, man, you got to pay your bills. you don't have to worry about anything when you're protected by america's number-one motorcycle insurer. well, you definitely do. those things aren't related, so... ah, yee! oh, that is a vibrating pain. business. it's not a nine-to-five proposition. it's all

all of us understand business cycles, public policy and financial markets and a long time ago richard nixon said we are all keynesians now. i think this is really a bipartisan understanding he had deep insights into how economies work. >> governor, same question. >> i was going to say ulysses s. grant but he had 10 minutes with the secretary before we came out here and only 10 minutes i'm going to say janet yellen. [applause] >> that is great. the last one is most important and we have a little bit of time left. advice to your 25-year-old self madam secretary. >> in life it's important to figure out what you are really passionate about and what you are interested in what you want to devote your work life to and to try to do it. and to affiliate yourself with an organization whether to affirm or nonprofit or university whose mission it you deeply identify with that you are proud to say i work for this company or organization with people that you like, trust and admire. you shouldn't be afraid to try new things. make changes in your life and learn new things along the way and deepen your know

now i want to bring up because you were there as richard nixon got backed further and further into a corner. and i'm curious from your perspective, what kind what kind of behavior do you predict? we could see from donald trump as more of these cases come to trial, and we get closer and closer to the election >> well, i'll ever be accused of being a great defender, richard nixon, but i must say nixon and trump are very different personalities. nixon was trained as a lawyer. he was a man. all of my proved himself with a conscience trump has neither of those qualities. he, as we've watched with the bond, he plays it to the last minute and he's unpredictable. he is a terrible witness in court he is terribly emotional about some of these things. so i think the show is going to go on if you will as these trials proceed. and i think one or more will play out before the election. >> yeah. i think as you rightly point out, and we are in the midst of of course him fighting these legal battles, but also in the middle of an election cycle. so politics are also at play here and that may factor in

there was a statute that was passed by congress and signed by richard nixon to essentially address disparitiesrnment contracting that minorities were confronting minority were seeking contracts with federal agencies, and they were being denied in large part because of their race. so from what this judge has done now in texas, in rolling it back, is he essentially saying, hey, listen, it is now an even playing field. it's not necessary anymore. ostensibly, that's the effect of this ruling. so a texas court judge issued this ruling and said, i acknowledge that in 93% of the bids in federal contracting, minorities are being denied opportunities, 93%. and yet the contracts or this, this statute that empowers this federal agency to address the disparities is unconstitutional under the equal protection clause. so the judge acknowledges the problem because you can't deny it. and yet he takes away the remedy that was created by congress and signed by nixon to address the disparity. what are the implications for the many other federal agencies that also have a mission of trying to support help elevate

touch in terms of where the country was going and that essentially handed the election over to richard nixon. so us you have a serious policy issue, too. that's dragging that the democrats and needs to be addressed and solved before the summer before the convention before chicago. i think the next 48 to 72 hours are huge, right? that leads us into. past this super tuesday. it leads us into the sea. the union may be the most critical moment of the biden presidency. everything's at stake in terms of. >> turning forward to the general election, laying out the stakes and at the same time, perhaps referencing the cast of trump without bringing them up too much and having those distractions that will occur on the floor of the house when everyone this is there and you have the nation's attention, there's a lot at stake for this. and in addition, you know that these 2 candidates are going to lock up their nominations for the end of this month, at least in donald trump's case. he's got nikki haley out there, but he's got to generate some buzz around your campaign about what to do. trump is going to u

quote, as a result of certain acts occurring before his resignation from the office of president, richard nixonssible indictment and trial for offenses against the united states. even as a former president, nixon was still culpable for the crimes he committed while he was in office. so let's be real here, no president would ever need a pardon if they are entitled to the kind of immunity trump is now claiming. and yet trump him self was believed he would need one when he was facing criminal liability from bob mueller in 2018. trump did not claim he was immune. he claimed he could pardon himself. >> on the pardon power, do you believe that you are above the law? >> no, no, not above the law. i never want anybody to be above the law. but the pardons are a very positive thing for a president. i think you see the way i'm using that. and yes, i do have an absolute right to pardon myself. >> so it raises the question, why would trump even consider a pardon for himself if he was already immune from prosecution? and we are back with neal katyal and andrew weissmann. andrew, i hope that is not give you s

he still felt loyal to richard nixon.rence between myself and alex butterfield was the moment he was asked to come forward, he did. he honored his oce and his owes at the public servant as a former member of the military and an american. i saw who i wanted to be in alex. that gave me the drive and push to move forward in this so-called journey. alongside a lot of other incredible, primarily women, my team of attorneys that came in early june. >> i have been asked was it on january 6 you decided to resign? i think that was the tipping pot for me, but it was kind of a slow burn that started after the election because on election night i remember sitting in the west wing and it seemed the result cominin and knowing that georgia was not trending in the way it should be for a republican candidate and i remember telling this roomful of people we lost. there's no coming back from this. people were saying we might wake up tomorrow and things will be different. obviously that evening i think it was like 3:00 a.m. donald trump went

richard nixon's response to the watergate investigation got him into more trouble when he covered up the break-in and was accused of obstructing justice. bill clinton ultimately faced impeachment over his lying about an affair with monica lewinsky during independent counsel, ken stars it's investigation of handle. >> i think the one lesson that's been learned over the years is that a president hides things at his own peril. >> these investigations change the course of presidency is often for what they revealed, the iran contra probe exposed a scheme by the reagan administration to sell arms to iran in exchange for hostages with the money from the sales going to fund the contra rebels in nicaragua. in spite of a congressional law against it, which the president ultimately admitted to what began as a strategic opening to iran, deteriorated in its implementation into trading arms for hostages several officials in the reagan administration were prosecuted by independent counsel lawrence walsh, but not reagan himself. some of these probes have been outright unwieldy. iran contra went on f

records act, which was created in the aftermath of watergate, in the nixon administration, where richard nixon to decide what was personal and what were presidential records. prior to that statute, staff and presidents and vice presidents would take home all sorts of documents for decades, including classified information. this statute makes it very clear as to what is and what is not personal and presidential. it does not apply to classified or national defence information. there have been numerous executive orders which govern classification, no mention of the presidential records act, there were numerous orders that existed before the presidential records act, and there was no mention in that statute. it's a civil statute. had president trump wanted to challenge whether or not these were his records, he could have returned them to the national archives, and then filed a civil lawsuit to challenge. i don't know why this motion is still on the table and my hope is that judge cannon will issue a very well reasoned, whether lengthy or short, opinion and puts this issue to bed very quickly. mark