Representative from maine, a republican, a member of the House Judiciary Committee and after months of closed door meetings the Public Session and the articles of impeachment were about to introduced before the committee that you served on. What was happening . Well, republicans were gathering, obviously, and caucusing. I assume the democrats were doing the same thing. There really was very little discussion among the members, i would say i didnt have a discussion until the night before we actually went public. It was the day before. And i met with Tom Railsback in his office. He had invited a number of people to drop by for coffee, and it was at that meeting that i first saw what group might be willing amongst the republicans and democrats who were at least inclined to vote against impeachment who might come that morning. I was surprised. I met jim mann and talked to him for the first. Robert flowers, i talked to him for first time. Ray thornton was there, henry smith. And caldwell butler. We met at that point and said is there anything here that we really all of us could agree on . That would constitute either an abuse of process or abuse of power, i should say or obstruction of justice. We went through all the evidence that we felt that was pretty convincing, and i think at that point i knew who was going to be voting for and who against, at least their inclination. Then we went public the next day. So, you were a 33yearold freshman and a republican. It was not a happy moment. Frankly i was distressed throughout. I knew that this was going to be the most important decision i would probably ever be called upon to make, and i tribd as well prepared as i possibly could. I had spent the previous six years, three it as a prosecutor, three as a defense attorney and so my focus was on evidence and analyzing the evidence without regard to political affiliation or partisan affiliation. I had very strong blinkers on and just looking at the facts. If the be facts justified impeachment resolution i would support it. There were a lot of factions on this committee or was it a black and whitish. Did people have an opinion one way or the other . I think for the most part it was pretty partisan from the beginning. Die not come from a partisan background. I had served on the bongor city council which was nonpartisan as such and mayor of bangor and never had to deal with hard political issues. When i got to congress i found there were deep resentments on the part of both democrats towards republicans and republicans towards democrats and i found that i found myself to kind of being naive in terms of lets find out what facts are and decide on the merits. It was pretty clear that there were very committed democrats to impeaching Richard Nixon from the beginning and republicans were inclined to oppose it almost across the board. It didnt turn out that way but those were the two balancing forces on the committee. What kind of pressure were you under . Well a lot of psychological pressure making sure we all stood together and that republicans tended to look at the case as being an objective, a partisan objective of the democrats to reverse the election and without merit it was simply a political ploy on their part to embarrass president nixon. Some of the democrats look at it as a way to get at Richard Nixon because they really didnt like the outcome of the election and didnt particularly care for him. So it was in the middle of that kind of crossfire, as such, that i found myself, and it was not a comfortable position to be in but one that i felt i was committed to trying to decide it on the merits. So, you were asked to play any particular role by the leadership or did you serve as a lone member of this committee, a republican who felt that the president should face impeachment questions . I was never asked to play any role other than just prior to going public. In some of the private hearings i certainly was as well prepared as any member and perhaps even better prepared than most members with some exception, Chuck Wiggins of california, terrific lawyer and great backer of president nixon and he was very gifted and knowledgeable. But i tried to immerse myself and i had peopmemorized the sen hearings and so when they came before our committee i would be as well prepared as anyone to debate tissues and ask the right questions. I found from time to time even democrats would yield their time to me which didnt make it really comfortable in those circumstances where they would take two of their five minutes or three and then yield the balance of their time to me. That made it a little bit uncomfortable during that time. But, again, i was acting as an attorney, and as a potential prosecutor or defender, i was looking at what do the facts show, what does the testimony show, what can i draw from this and then i dedicated days to listening to the tapes. And i worked through the tapes with the transcripts to try and make a determination if something was omitted or there was laughter or swearing, expletives that were deleted to see if they were done in jest, done as a threat, i associated myself with a very important case. During this time period, secretary cohen, did you have any contact with the Nixon White House . Did the president reach out the, his senior staff to say hey, these are the facts . I never had well i had one contact with president nixon when miss teenage of america was named the winner and i was asked to take her to meet with president nixon and i did. We obviously, didnt have any conversation about what was going on but it was also fairly uncomfortable, but he was very gracious and confiding to the winner and congratulating her. But that was it. Then one other time when we were brought as part of a rally. Do you remember what the president he gave a stump winder about what he had accomplished and what he wanted to do and how this, this really was something that we had to stand behind him and i remember him saying, i may be a son of a bitch but im your son of a bitch and thats way the meeting closed out. Well hear in a moment some Opening Statements from the House Judiciary Committee july 1974. He basically complained to our viewers who will be watching this in a moment the positioning between democrats and republicans on this committee and their Opening Statements . The tone was set by chairman rodi rodino. He tried to be as, appeal to the nonpartisanship as much as important, but clearly there were people on his side that were predisposed from the beginning to find Richard Nixon guilty of impeachable offenses. I think we pretty much anticipated that. We could see from the way in which the private sessions were held who was doing the questioning, what was the tone in which they asked questions and so you could pretty much tell who was, who was going to go in which direction, at least, with the exception of some of the democrats from the south, who really found themselves in a difficult position because they came from districts that were where president nixon was heavily supported. So for them their careers were on the line as well and they tended to be fairly cautious during the course of the examinations. It was hard to tell. Some were hard core for and some who were pretty tentative looking at the facts but understanding that they were in difficult positions as well. So, it was hard to know exactly who was going to vote which way in terms of the totality of the groups but i think the night before, the day before when congressman railsback held that meeting in his office, when i saw the seven people who were there as such knew pretty much how they would vote. Secretary cohen, thank you for your perspective. From the House Judiciary Committee the impeachment hearings. Youll hear the Opening Statements including that of congressman bill cohen, freshman