Transcripts For CSPAN3 1973 20240706 : vimarsana.com

CSPAN3 1973 July 6, 2024

Welcome to the National Press club. I covered as a very young reporter, a baby good evening. Welcome to the National Press club. I covered watergate as a very young reporter, a baby reporter, they just let me come in diapers. I covered from the hearings to the trials. I am especially elated to be here this evening i went like to welcome cspan and the cspan audience. This is being filmed for cspans American History tv. Our program tonight marks the 50th anniversary of the saturday night massacre that ultimately led to president nixons resignation in the scandal. It was a significant event in the nations political history to say the least. The National Press club played an Important Role on it, special prosecutor cox, who i would later be lucky enough to become friends with held his News Conference here on the afternoon of october 20th, right in the clubs ballroom. It was at that Historic Press conference that he insisted that president nixon turn over the tapes. We will see a clip later, i think we had seen it when we wrote this without it would be later but it was firstperiod this is wonderful irony. The club held its first Fourth Estate awards ceremony honoring the lifetime achievements of preeminent journalist walter cronkite. As the iconic cbs anchor was delivering his remarks, word began to spread throughout the ballroom that nixon had fired archie cox and his attorney general Eliot Richardson had resigned it it seemed as if, i do remember this, the whole system of laws in the United States was hanging by a thread, the only thing worse is what we saw in 2020 on january 6. People at that time began running in and out of the ballroom, walter carr on kite halted his remarks. The abrupt firing of the special prosecutor turned out to be the biggest story of modern political times and it led to the unraveling of the nixon presidency area forever changing the american presidency as we know it today. Tonights moderator, whom you will hear from in a while, ken gormley wrote the biography of archie cox. It is a gripping account if you have not read it president warmly is an awardwinning author, presentational squat scholar, residential historian and lots of other things. I think originally i was supposed introduce him, since he has been up here, the person i guess im supposed introduce is the man that we missed terribly youre going to do that . Okay, he could do that. This is called fly by the seat of your payouts. Here is the maestro, ken gormley. Thank you very much, nd Jill Winebanks has now made it into the hall. One thing we learned is that things happen to thank you very much, nina had jill wind banks has not made it into the hall. Strange things happen to prosecutors this time of year and washington. She was delayed a little bit. It is my honor to be a part of this event and i would like to welcome everyone gathered for this historic occasion including the viewers watching this program on cspan is history tv. A special welcome to extinguish guests, alums general Michael Hayden and his wife janine, u. S. Senator mark warner and his wife lisa. August and krista lucio, retired congressman mike doyle and so many others tonight. My thanks to the National Press for hosting us and my special thanks to nina. Truly one of washingtons most respected journalist for kicking off this program as we seek to preserve an important piece of American History. As nina said, it was my privilege to watch the but write the biography of Archibald Cox, he was one of the great leaders of the 20th century. He served as president john f. Kennedys solicitor general, he argued many of the civil rights cases in the 1960s and the Supreme Court and then found himself drafted into the unpleasant job of serving as Watergate Special prosecutor. One of the wonderful things about working on the cox biography is having the ability to interview the incredible cast of prominent individuals who worked with cox, not just in watergate but throughout his career. One of those people was a young thirtysomething lawyer at the time working on the it branch of the watergate investigation who went on to be a lifelong colleague and friend of professor cox is at Harvard Law School and remained close to archie until his death in 1992 age of 92 in 2004. Along the way he built his own illustrious career in academia and Public Service ultimately being appointed by president bill clinton to the u. S. Supreme court in 1994 where he served with distinction as associate justice until his retirement in 2022. I have to say his office in the Supreme Court is a little more spacious and less susceptible to bugging that his office on k street was. His he works tirelessly to advance the system of laws and justice. It is my great honor to introduce you a Great American jurist, scholar, and public servant, Justice Stephen breyer , retired justice of the United States Supreme Court. It, the nicest thing about that film, everybody looked great at thank you. It is nice to see so many of you that i recognize. The nicest thing about that film, everyone looked great. I am your fourth introducer. I had a minor role in working for archie. One of the four things we had to do was look up, remember deidre beard, she wrote a memo, the president of the Republican Party told me our noble commitment was to give them space in the hotel with the Republican National convention went a long way to getting our antitrust case called off. Archie and the others wanted me to start and prepare the groundwork for davis and joe conley who came later. I had a minor role. From my point, it is not what i contributed, it is what i learned. I did learn quite a bit. I will give you a few examples why did Eliot Richardson quit . One reason, it was not just a moral judgment, he also told the senate he wouldnt. He wouldnt quit in the circumstances. I thought, pretty good. In those days i wonder if that would still be true. You make a promise to the senate that is making a promise to the American People. I am sure that was in his mind. It is not just quitting, he was a professional politician. That was the end of his career and he knew that was going to happen and he thought, i promised it, i said i would do it, i will do it that is an attitude that i think would help a lot among the younger. They want to see how to behave, there is. Archie was a man of the most integrity that he ever met. That was true. How did he communicate that integrity to the staff . I think the words he used and showed us , you know what you doing this job . You do your job. He said i was not appointed to this in order to chase the president out of office. I was appointed to this to do an investigation, and thats what im going to do i will do an investigation, and thats what he did. That speech that produced those hundreds of telegrams, he made that clear. The way he put it was very new england. He said sometimes when i see was going on i think i have grown too big for my britches. Is and that new england . Thats what he wanted to stay away from. He is an investigator. Where it really turned up was, i happen to be there a day or so later when he was fired. Eliot richardson had promised the senate. He was the one who was fired. Bork had not promised the senate. He was not breaking a promise but archie said to the staff, i know everybody is excited, roughly, he did not say these words, i know you think everyone should quit, dont. You are here to do a job, do it stay here and do your job and thats what they did. We know the result. The third thing i learned, which i try to communicate to the students in front of me, this document here, this document that Alexander Hamilton and the others were so frightened would not work, they were going to hang in the smithsonian, they actually did not have the smithsonian, but they thought if we could not make this work it will not work. Had we get it to work . You worked and everybody for a few weeks and a bit longer, not so bad. Free press. Freespeech. It actually helped. Dont tell anyone i admitted that. It actually helped. You go and see the grand jury, it worked. It helped. All of these procedures that you have to go through in the criminal process, i learned a lot from people who knew about the process. Those things tend to show, subpoenas, a judge, all of those things tended to show that the words in this document meant something. They were not just there to hang in a museum. I remember phil and i stayed at ella burlings house and we drove in together. We said, after archie subpoenaed the documents, we set, suppose i believe it. Suppose what president nixon does remember the judge said turn over the documents. Turned them over. He could appeal. Suppose he did not appeal . Suppose what he did instead of appealing was just say, sending his lawyer over, im very sorry, judge, you are one of many judges in the United States and i respect your opinion and your orders but i cannot turn it over. Suppose he had not turned it over, what do we do then . How can he appeal . Years later i was sitting with charlie right, who is a very good procedure professor and nixons lawyer i said why did he do that . He said we couldnt, we thought of it, maybe hes thought charlie thought of it, but he said we couldnt, undermine the system. It would undermine the rule of law in the United States. I thought, i hope that is a true story, even there on the other side there was some thought this country lives under a constitution and this constitution is important to maintaining 334 Million People under a rule of law. Now it is my job to transmit some the things that i learned in large part here to the Younger Generation and i end by saying my friends, what should we do now . You are the ones who have to decide that it is your country and they like that because they are looking for something. They want to participate. Here we are. Thats what i have learned in my introduction is finished and now you have people involved. F distinguished guests today. First to my immediate left, Richard Benveniste served as thank you so much Justice Breyer. We do have an esteemed panel of guests today at first to my immediate left, richard, served as chief of the watergate breakin task force. Richard also served as assistant u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york special outside counsel for Government Operations acted as minority chief counsel of the Senate Whitewater committee and served on the bipartisan 9 11 commission. In recent years you have seen him as a legal analyst for cnn along with george frampton, he is the coauthor of the classic, stonewall, the real story of the watergate prosecution. Please welcome Richard Benjamin estee. Next is Jill Winebanks was the only female assistant Watergate Special executor. She later served as general counsel to the u. S. Army under president jimmy carter as solicitor general and Deputy Attorney general of illinois and as executive Vice President and ceo of the American Bar Association and and other positions of public trust. Today she is an analyst with msnbc and cohost of the very popular podcast sistersinlaw. She is also author of the acclaimed book watergate girl. Jill was a big help to me in organizing this program. Please welcome Jill Winebanks. [ applause ] next, a man who is familiar to all of you, bob woodward is associate editor of the Washington Post where he has worked since 1971. An iconic figure in american journalism, he has shared two Pulitzer Prizes first for coverage of the watergate scandal with Carl Bernstein and second as the lead reporter for coverage of the 9 11 terrorist attacks. He has written or coauthored dozens of awardwinning books including the classic all the president s men, and the final days, both related to watergate. Most recently, the trump tapes, and externally work a political nonfiction. Ladies and gentlemen, mr. Bob woodward. [ applause ] next, another familiar face, leslie stahl is among americas most respected and expressed broadcast journalist during her 30 year career as a 60 minutes correspondent. Leslie has received 13 emmy awards. She served as cbs News White House correspondent from 1972 to 1991. As a Young Journalist she cut her teeth on the watergate story. Please welcome the and comparable leslie stahl. [ applause ] finally jt smith served in the Central Intelligence agency before becoming executive assistant to Elliott Richardson , first when richardson served as secretary of hew, and then secretary of defense and finally may 1973 when richardson was named attorney general by president nixon. In later years jt served as general counsel of the Commerce Department and deputy special representative of the u. S. At the un conference. Please welcome jt smith, and all of our distinguished panelist. Audience may not havn alive during watergate or intentionally i am going to start with you, bob, for the benefit of members of the audience who may not have been alive during watergate or intentionally suppressed it, can you give us a brief snapshot of the watergate scandal which forms the backdrop of what we will be discussing tonight. No. Okay the next question. Senator irvin, who did the investigation, really the Gold Standard of the investigation of watergate was asked in his final report, what was watergate . His answer was, it was a successful attempt to subvert the process of nominating and electing a president. Irvin also asked the larger and more important question, why watergate . His answer was relevant, not only to nixon but recent events. His answer was why watergate and lust for political power . I think in many ways that is what watergate was and i will not conceal this, this is what donald trump was also. We will hopefully get to any comparisons toward the end of the program. Leslie, let me ask you because you were a broadcast journalist new at the time. If we can, can we watch a brief video clip of you and action from a recent cbs special on watergate . I came along in april 1972. Brandnew, i had just started. Washington bureau cbs was huge. Most of the reporters were out covering candidates. It was a subversion of our democracy. People have to know whether or not the president is a crook. I am not a crook. He said he was not a crook, but that was the point he was a crook. What were the men after at watergate . Who sent them . How are they paid . What is making republicans nervous is it is beginning to look as though some of the president s Reelection Committee may know the answers. You pretty much look the same. What do you recall in terms of the seriousness of the watergate investigation at that time in 1973 . One of the first things i remember, it was very early on after the breakin, bob woodward said do not let them ever take the story away from you. He knew from the beginning this was going right to the top, almost in the courtroom. Bob and i were in the courtroom when the original burglars were arraigned and they had 100 bills with consecutive numbers and funny passports, and you said this is big, right away. I was just trying to get a date. That part did not work out for you, bob. Oh, yes, it did. I think we will save that for the sequel what i remember and it haunts me. That is, how the republicans stood by him, nixon, and formed a little Protection Unit around him, almost up until the saturday night massacre. That is when the republican phalanx, they tried to protect him and they began to crumble. Everything does lead to this moment in terms of that presidency. The other thing i remember is at various times we really did think that he was committing a coup ditat. We thought he was going to send the military in and there was fear that he was going to destroy the democracy. We will get to that in a little bit. I do want to give everyone a little context. Archibald cox gets the call from Elliott Richardson asking him to serve as Watergate Special prosecutor in may of that year. Cox has just served as a de facto president of harvard during the very difficult student riots of the vietnam era he was exhausted he was getting ready to head to his farm in maine and Elliott Richardson called, he was coxes former student. He was named attorney general but his confirmation was dependent upon hiring a neutral special prosecutor to get to the bottom of this scandal that leslie was talking about. Archie hesitated and set he told phyllis he was going to be by everyone if he took the job but then he said i will do it who better to do this job than a law professor who is not going anywhere in public life anyway. He to

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