with spiro agnew, you get a 40 count federal indictment, that is brought against him.not related to watergate. but because of crimes that he was committing in his own office in the white house. in that case, what the justice department bravely and nimbly and controversial-y brokered with him, is that that indictment would essentially go poof in exchange for him agreeing to get out of the white house. so, that delicate balance between needing a political solution to the criminal in the white house, and needing a criminal solution, a criminal law solution, to the criminal in the white house, is one that 50 years ago, this year in 1973, we dealt with, in 1972, we dealt with with spiro agnew. and at each of the three delegate in a different way, and as you're arguing, a potentially worse way with nixon. now, we're back at it. and i do think, let's say this is the only federal indictment of trump. you know, you look at the general petraeus case from ten years ago. what he was charged with, that was very serious, he got off with i think probation and hundred thousand dollar

his name was spiro agnew facing a 40-count criminal felony indictment in 1973. >> because of these tactics which have been employed against me, because small and fearful men have been frightened into furnishing evidence against me, they have perjured themselves in many cases it's my understanding, i will not resign if indicted. i will not resign if indicted. >> the crowd goes wild. "the washington post" and "new york times" headlines page a-1 in both papers the next day. "agnew declares he will not quit. agnew declares he will not resign even if indicted." 11 days later he resigned. under circumstances that all of a sudden seem very urgent today, very relevant to what we are doing today. as presidential candidate, former president donald trump goes in for his federal felony criminal arraignment on dozens of federal felony criminal charges tomorrow, there is a precedent that is at play here. the last time we contended with something like this as a country the justice department prosecutors working that case back in 1973, they kept their heads down and kept working while he was out there in

spiro agnew use that is a get out of jail free card.e president, it was the prosecutors assumed that nixon was about to become president. in order to keep agnew out, they traded him jail nine for his resignation. i'm not saying what that that's what the doj should agree to or what the defense would offer, i'm not saying it would be good or bad for the country, one other time we've dealt with this is a country, that's how we did it. >> what's fascinating about this theory is that donald trump's face an extreme miasma problems from georgia to new york to everything, that for a blanket non prosecution agreement, if that is possible, if they could get fani willis and the d.a. in manhattan to join a non prosecution agreement, i mean trump says i'm undergo shear. >> i had ron liebermann, one of the prosecutors on of agnew on the show, and he said listen, it would have to be a not global non prosecution agreement, in this with this many charges against him that would be hard. but nothing about this is easy. again, i don't know that this is goi

tri mean, here was the front pae of the new york times, spiro t. agnew vice president of the united states today under an agreement with the doj to admit evasion of federal income taxes and avoid imprisonment. the stunning development, and doing a federal grand jury investigation of mr. agnew, and probably terminating his political career, shocked his closest associates and precipitated an immediate search by president nixon for a successor. it's interesting, they didn't, as part of the plea deal, they didn't require him to swear that he would never run for public office again. that's why the times said it was, this deal had probably terminated his political career. but they did make him resign from the office he was then holding. they figured that the shame of that would be enough to, you know, keep him from ever getting elected to anything again. his supporters were so mad in the wake of that deal. you might have thought for a minute that they would vote for him again if they could. >> i thought he was one of the greatest men that this country has ever

nobody talks about spiro agnew. this is a way of the republicans. am just glad that this morning, i've been waiting for four or five years where republicans allowed him to get away with. the republican party is complicit by being silent and allowing -- paul ryan had a chance when he was speaker. he did nothing. host: we got your point. these indictments have been alleged in other various were. the president talking about receiving them himself. tuesday will be the date when he hears the charges in court in florida. for that to happen next tuesday when it comes to members. various members of congress have put things on their twitter feed. this is kevin mccarthy saying today is a dark day for the united states of america. it is unconscionable for a president to indict a candidate opposing him. i never he american who believes in the rule of law stated with president trump. house republicans will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable. jim jordan, also committee chair, putting out on his twitter feed "sad day for america, god bless preside

>> well, there is not precedent for that, and spiro agnew might be the only one, but if they had a different approach, they could come to jack smith, and come up with a very unique or original proposition, hey, we are going to agree not to run for office and we will do x-y-z in exchange for some count, and that would be much less serious, and we have seen general petraeus and others who were high ranking government officials that when there is an acceptance of responsibility and a plea to something, the government is willing to resolve those cases on favorable terms, but don't think that is going to happen here. >> so president trump has defended publicly spoken out regarding the multiple investigations, but defended the handling of the classified documentations, and he said that he can instantly declassify the documents and by thinking it that he can declassify documents as well. last night, one of the former attorneys put out a different defense. i want to get your take. listen to this. >> simply the fact that it has a classification marking on it, and if it does have a classification mark

but unlike nixon, or even his disgraced vice president spiro agnew who resigned rather than face federal charges of his own in 1973, trump is taking a different route. between delivering campaign speeches last night, trump told politico that he will quote, never leave. he intends on continuing his presidential campaign even if convicted. joining me now, melissa murray, msnbc legal analyst and professor at nyu school of law, and former alabama senator and former u.s. attorney, doug jones. melissa and dog, thank you very much for coming back to the sunday show. melissa, what should we expect on tuesday when trump shows up at his arraignment in miami? >> i expect he will be treated like any other criminal defendant. they will be the usual processing protocols that he will go through. i think it will be very straightforward. again, this is not a situation where he is going to be subject to special treatment. he is like any other criminal defendant. he has all of the rights as a criminal defendant under the constitution. so this will be a process where he gets to exercise his constitutional r

nobody talks about spiro agnew who got kicked out. this is a way of the republicans.m just glad that this morning, i've been waiting for 4-5 years where republicans allowed him to get away with. the republican party is complicit by being silent and allowing -- paul ryan had a chance when he was speaker. he did nothing. host: okay, we got your point. these indictments have been alleged in other various were. the president talking about receiving them himself. tuesday will be the date when he formally hears the charges in court in florida. for that to happen next tuesday when it comes to members. various members of congress have put things on their twitter feed. this is house speaker kevin mccarthy saying today is a dark day for the united states of america. it is unconscionable for a president to indict a candidate opposing him. i never he american who believes in the rule of law stated with president trump. house republicans will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable. jim jordan, also committee chair, putting out on his twitter feed "sad day for america,

the man who was hand picked to be the vice president after spiro agnew resigned. ford said it was for the good of the country but 9/11 was never held accountable. do you think that set a dangerous precedent that painted presidents as above the law? >> i think it did. as the person who blew up that administration, i had a special interest and i was following it very closely. so i was sort of distressed that ford so easily pardoned nixon. he did it for his own purposes. not for nixon's. it wasn't really an act of grace but his ability to govern because he thought he wouldn't be able to if he was constantly having to respond to criminal inquiries regarding nixon who would then have been on trial. so i think it has left us in this situation we are today where crowds cheer trump who has an indictment. had that been solved 50 years ago, we wouldn't be seeing the same set of reactions. >> after he resigned, in 1977, he told the interviewer david frost. he gave that infamous line. when the president does it, that means it's not illegal. and clearly, former president trump

vice president spiro agnew, richard nixon's vice president playing guilty racketeering and corruption and resigning the presidency. the condition of his plea bargaining bargain and of going way back to that county days of our democracy thomas jefferson's, former vice president aaron burr being charge with treason which he eventually acquitted by a trial before the supreme court. so this is our constitution has not. i don't is something was going to test. our country is going to test the faith of the american people in the judicial system. and the idea everyone equal under the law and no one above the law. so, you know, all these things are in play as we think what is going to happen in the next few or with this trial. and donald trump and, you know, it's it's something you know, beyond the election. beyond the consequences too, to the nomination of tory. 24 enormous ramifications for our democratic system in our democratic values and the upholding our united states constitution. so there's a lot at stake here, more than just it's not a witch hunt. it's weaponization. it's all those th

spiro agnew and you actually indicted by the u.s. attorney in maryland agreed to resign. and aaron burr with to go all the way back to 18. 0, 7, win. former vice president aaron burr was actually arrested by his former former running mate, president thomas jefferson graduate reasons. and this is this is something that's very rare it's going to be extremely important the think word is what is at stake here goes to very issue, the heart of our national security and our nation's secrets. and the president has the former president has been accused of holding in abeyance from federal government. number of extremely classified documents, documents that country spend billions of dollars of putting together intelligence networks for whether its spy satellites, whether it's shopping, whether it's human intelligence and accused of basically you're not stored a bathroom. knew could see it. so this is stakes are very high and i think there there should be some serious is attached. what's going on here today. >> as we look at live pictures here of some of former president's supporters

and then, of course, there was spiro agnew who was indicted also. but this feels like it was on a level of its own, because this also involves national security than aided states. the casual treatment of our national security by a president who, for whatever reason, for braggadocious eo, two point against general mark milley, or for whatever reason, didn't seem to aggregate to himself the authority and power, even after he wasn't president anymore, to use our national security for himself. this is on a different level from even the worst things that nixon did. >> it's a good point. we'll have to see what the charges are and how serious they are, and also what they say about motive. you are right, if we're talking about a national security indictment that implicates him in using information, the disclosure of which could hurt, materially heard the national security than instate, and he discloses it anywhere, plans to disclose it or retain it anyway for his own personal purposes against the interests of the country, that's a very different thing. both

i'm referring to those -- spiro agnew, our vice president in the administration.s corruption i believe when he was in government and it is a situation with a plea deal where he was only fined $10,000 and, no jail time, and also a situation where they made sure he was going to run for elected office and be part of the department of justice said that particular time. kind of knew about what was going on with warranty and that perhaps nixon was involved. therefore, the justice followed through with the plea deal on spiro agnew to make sure he did not become president of the united states. and i also just mentioned about the abortion situation. there is a great quote by george washington about -- as far as the majority -- minority taking over the majority. the majority of the people as i understand it here in the united are for pro-choice. we have our supreme court go against vat. george washington pointed out the problems that i am having in the minority dictating over the majority. he indicated that those are nothing but anarchy and confusion to be expected thereaft

i teach mccarthy, i teach spiro agnew. they're like the triple-a gold standard of that.and they're not alone. they could demonize us, but i've never realized now we have people calling us actual demons. okay, well, this is a moral struggle in the classrooms, and we're the ground zero of it. and teaching conspiracies while you're trying to forestall all that has become important. how we fix that? we remember our training. and when i went to university, chicago, i was a latin american. that was my first career. i studied somoza and the cold war. and we had our terminology. had our reading. i knew what the dependency theory was, because that's what john coatsworth taught me. we flew our flags for tribes in history, and that's how it works. we all do that. but one of the things i start to learn is i teach the conspiracy classes. i start moving into other fields. and i read a very good journal from stanford and university of maryland faculty from last year and talking about the educational psychology of conspiracies and, online learning. and i ran across this word called heur

nobody talks about spiro agnew. this is a way of the republicans. am just glad that this morning, i've been waiting for four or five years where republicans allowed him to get away with. the republican party is complicit by being silent and allowing -- paul ryan had a chance when he was speaker. he did nothing. host: we got your point. these indictments have been alleged in other various were. the president talking about receiving them himself. tuesday will be the date when he hears the charges in court in florida. for that to happen next tuesday when it comes to members. various members of congress have put things on their twitter feed. this is kevin mccarthy saying today is a dark day for the united states of america. it is unconscionable for a president to indict a candidate opposing him. i never he american who believes in the rule of law stated with president trump. house republicans will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable. jim jordan, also committee chair, putting out on his twitter feed "sad day for america, god bless preside