robert bork talking about the spiro agnew resignation. >> he said, let's go see the president. [video clip] >> he said let's go see the president. when they drop that on you, we were -- well, we were down the hall. elliot said, we have to go to the men's room. not had to particular but go in the men's room and turned on all the faucets to defeat any listening devices. you have no idea of the atmosphere of the white house in those days. you had no idea whether something was turned on listening to you or not. so we turned on all the faucets and whispered to each other. elliot said i think it's a resignation issue, don't you, bob? and i said, it certainly is. so we turned off the faucets and want and left and went to see the president. now, the resignation issue is a hard one to deal with because you can't walk in and say to a president, you do this or i'll resign. because if he's any kind of a president he'll say he'll do it and make you resign. >> where did you do that? >> in his home. fantastic interview. he seemed very ill at the time. he's still with us. but this is four year

this is the issue of spiro agnew. >> one of the things that happens is you learn things -- i thought in the beginning i was going to hear stories that many of them had said to the history channel. when you do an interview for the government, it becomes public domain. i was keen on creating free video -- it belongs to everybody now. i assumed they would tell stories that are in proprietary collections. what we started to get worse stories i had never heard. this is one of them -- this is unbelievable. this is bork talking about how he and the attorney general at that point, elliott richardson, are afraid that richard nixon is not going to go ahead with the prosecution of vice president spiro agnew. spiro agnew -- this started out in maryland but there was a maryland prosecutor who discovered that agnew as governor had been taking bribes. he continued to take bribes even when he was in the office of the vice president. apparently this was an open and shut case. there was so much evidence, you could not walk away from this. richardson had to prosecute him. >> the attorney general. >> th

broadcasting was making up with the public, if you will, after this terrible time of being estranged and spiro agnew pointing the finger at us, etc., etc. c-span: was that a fair speech, by the way? >> guest: yes. i think there was obvious, of course, political motivation. c-span: you're talking about the des moines speech? >> guest: yes. but i mean huntley himself told me they had an affiliates meeting shortly after that speech, and the affiliates were in revolt. they kept saying, "you're not showing our point of view. we're out here the heartland. you don't represent us." so a lot of that was going on within broadcasting at the time so, i think agnew -- i don't commend his motives because i think he's a sleazy character -- but he did strike a nerve. there was a silent majority. i think there's still a silent majority. c-span: did the networks change after that speech? >> guest: for a while. i think for a while they did. i think they got very nervous. c-span: i cut you off. you were talking about why you got fired. >> guest: oh, yes. well anyhow, it was put to me that if you wanted to get back to t

he was a political assistant to spiro agnew. he has had key roles in the presidential campaigns of ronald reagan, george h.w. bush, and robert dole. he has been a fellow at the harvard institute of politics. so much for biography. now on to the exciting matters of process. we are on the record. no filing of any kind while the practice is underway. there is no embargo when the burress test is under way except that c-span has not agreed to use video until after it up breakfast has ended. i tell guests that despite major changes in the news business the breakfast cripps group remains committed to conversations between newsmakers and journalists. your help is appreciated on mornings when guests are at the center of a controversial issue, as our guest is. if you would like to ask a question, do the traditional thing and send me a subtle signal and i would do my best to call on one and off. i will give mr. keene the opportunity to make some comments. >> will not spend a lot of time making a speech, because i would rather have a conver