I said to myself wow everything john dean is saying to that committee, i hope they know, it is true. The counsel was retained at that time. What date was that . That was on the 25th, as i recall. We absolutely believed what he was saying and the more evidence we got the more it confirmed what he was saying. Meeting of march 21. As i have indicated, my purpose in requesting this meeting, particularly with the president was that i felt it was necessary that i give him a full report of all the facts that i knew and complained to him what i believed to be the implications of those facts. We had white house logs of meetings. So when he said i met with the president on march 21st, we could look at the log and say, certainly, he did. How do you expect us to resolve the truth in this matter when you state one story and you testified here and made yourself subject to crossexamination and the president states another story and he does not appear before this committee . Can you give us any information as to how we might resolve this . Mr. Chairman, i think this. I strongly believe that the truth always emerges. I dont know if it will be during these hearings. I dont know if it will be through the processes of history, but the truth will out some day. Its very hard to think about the president not being believed and john dean being believed. So if it came down to he said he said, the president was going to win. President nixon and his counsel, john dean, now appear to be at odds over the watergate scandal. One nixon aide knew how to prove who was lying, but no one had asked him. While in the barbershop i am watching the hearings, as was everyone, every place. This is the morning of monday the 16th of july. I was really quite relaxed until i got that phone call. We are going to want you to come up here and testify. A senator wants you to testify at 2 00. I said, you can just tell him im not coming. So on the tube i see this guy go in behind the senators and whisper in urbans ear. And its those big bushy eyebrows of his went, whoop. You can see them going up and down. And he wasnt pleased. You can tell that. He tells this young man something and the guy leaves. Predictably right away the phone rings. And he said i just told the senator what you said and he said if you are not in his office at 1 00 he will have federal marshals pick you up on the street. Thats exactly what he said. Carl stern is outside the Senate Caucus room and maybe can tell us more about mr. Butterfield and what he is expected to tell the committee. Carl . There was a lot of speculation. Obviously something was cooking as far as what he was going to say because we were deviating from the schedule. We believe his testimony will have to do with white house procedures. That room was chock full of people. Boyfriends with girls standing on their shoulders, people in the window ledges up there. Cameras all over the place. Id like to change the usual routine of questioning and ask minority counsel to begin the questioning of mr. Butterfield. Thank you. The caucus room was packed full of famous names and celebrities and whatnot, kind of a circus atmosphere, frankly. Mr. Butterfield, i understand you were previously employed by the white house . Is that correct . Thats correct. During what period of time were you employed by the white house . I would like to preface my remarks, if i may. Im sorry. Go right ahead. Although i do not have a statement as such i would simply like to remind the committee membership, that, whereas i appear voluntarily this afternoon, i appear with only some three hours notice. I wanted them to know i was enjoying a haircut just at 11 00 today. Are you aware of installation of listening devices in the oval office of the president. I tried to think is that direct . Yeah, thats direct. Thats a very direct question. Im not trying to sound dramatic here, but i knew, then, that the jig was up. I was aware of listening devices, yes, sir. I was under the assumption that this tape recording system was still deep, dark secret over at the white house. That secret was well kept. When you stop and think, rosemary woods, his secretary, never knew about the tapes. Henry kissinger, as close as henry was, never knew about the tapes. John ehrlichman never knew about the tapes. Two people told me about it before it became public. I called bradley at home at 9 00 on saturday night i believe and said nixon taped himself. What should we do . Ben, said, i wouldnt bust one on it. Its kind of a bplus story. Okay. The boss says bplus. I wont work on it. I took sunday off and monday they called butterfield. I remember, ben came by and knocked on my desk and said, okay, its better than a bplus. From then on, its a fight for the tapes. Am i telling the truth . Is the president telling the truth. What else happened . The prosecutors immediately subpoenaed the tapes. The Senate Subpoenas them. So nixon is early advised to destroy the tapes. Has grown into an enterprise. Thats why i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. Now, im earning unlimited 2 cash back on every purchase i make. Everything. Which adds up to thousands of dollars back every year. And helps keep my passion growing. In every direction. Whats in your wallet . My friend susie cracks and hello sensitive bladder. Ring a bell . Then you have to try always discreet. I didnt think protection this thin could work. But the super absorbent core turns liquid to gel. For incredible protection. Thats surprisingly thin. So its out of sight. And out of mind. Always discreet. For bladder leaks. Also in liners. Been trying to prepare for this day. And im still not ready. The reason im telling you this is that there will be moments in your life that. Youll never be ready for. Your little girl getting married being one of them. The discovery of the nixon tapes would ignite a new Battle Ground in the watergate drama. It went Something Like this. Nixons attorney general had appointed a special prosecutor, archibald cox, to investigate watergate. The special prosecutor demanded nixon hand over eight of the tapes. Eight specific tapes of conversations either in the president s office or on his telephone. Nixon not only refused but on a saturday night in october 1973 he also ordered his attorney general to fire the special prosecutor. The attorney general was appalled. He said no and resigned. Then the president told one of his assistants to call the Deputy Attorney general. I picked the phone up and it was al haig. He said he wanted me to fire cox and i said im not going to do it. Ruckleshouse refused in a moment of constitution of drama to obey a president ial order to fire the special watergate prosecutor. First attorney general to say im not going to do that and then resign and then the next person who is the Deputy Attorney general, bill ruckleshouse, one of the great people in the Nixon Administration, one of the most ethical men i have ever known, he, too, was not willing to do it. So the Deputy Attorney general, ruckleshouse, also resigned. There will be an announcement out of the white house later on. There will be . Does it have to do with the resignation of the attorney general . It might. You will have to get it from them. Haig said your commander in chief has ordered you do this. I dont know what that added to the discussion. He said, well, who else is around . I said bob bork is here. He was the number three guy in the department. Bork was the last one that was really eligible to do it. The commander in chief found someone willing to carry out his orders. Bork fired cox. And i have asked all personnel in the department to stay and help keep the department from going in this extraordinarily difficult time. And so ended what would become known as the saturday night massacre. One white house source said the president s motive was to premove a constitutional confrontation as quickly as possible. Richard nixon violated the law, he compromised the office and he violated the compact that we thought we had with him. Before he did all of this he must have considered the probable reaction in congress including the possibility of impeachment. There with some of us who felt that the imperial presidency was getting out of hand. The saturday night massacre was a signal to the American People that a president was putting himself above the rule of law and they demanded action. And the public outcry to the saturday night massacre was so significant. Just the insanity of the saturday night massacre like who does that . How could you think you could get away with that . Its just not stable. People in high office tend to want to have power to themselves and they tend to want to keep it. Power still tends to corrupt. President s by the nature of the job are just unlikely to ever shed any of the executive power that their predecessors have accrued to the office. Every president since jimmy carter has expanded the powers of the presidency. And when president obama ran for office, he had, as part of his pitch as a candidate, what was wrong with the expanded executive power that was asserted by the george w. Bush administration especially on National Security issues, thinks like torture and secret prisons and all of that stuff after 9 11. He hasnt given any of that power back now that he is president. Tonight i would like to give my answer to those who have suggested that i resign. I have no intention whatever of walking away from the job i was elected to do. After four months of legal squabbling the president ial tape recordings were delivered today. We wont hear them, however, until all the discrepancies have been accounted for and today that situation grew worse, not better. Much worse. Nixon had handed over the tapes but there was a catch. I was in the white house. Things were fairly quiet. And i got a call to go to ron zieglers office. I go up to rons office thinking its something routine and ziegler is clearing his throat a lot and is kind of rattling his coffee cup and that is when we learned about the gap in the tapes. We had been told just about three days earlier that the worst is behind us and suddenly there was an 18 1 2 minute gap in the tapes and all hell broke loose again. Conversation in question took place three days after the watergate burglars were caught and the watergate prosecutor thought it was important. We know the 18 1 2 minute gap was a conversation about watergate because it was with haldeman and the president and haldeman was a meticulous note taker and he took notes. The president s president ial secretary, rosemary woods, was recalled to explain how she accidentally erased 18 minutes of a conversation with the president three days after the watergate break in. It didnt happen by accident would have been our first suspicion. I was the lawyer who questioned rosemary woods about the 18 1 2 minute gap. Are you discussing testimony tomorrow . I dont want to comment on it. Im called the mini skirted bitch. That was my name. Pictures of me were always head to toe. My male colleagues are shoulder up. Thats just how it was. Rosemary woods represents really the majority of women at that time. You could be a nurse. You could be a teacher. You could be a secretary, or you could be a housewife. Those were your choices. I was a very early professional and there we were head to head combat basically. Ms. Woods said it was a mistake. A record button hit accidentally while she took a phone call. She described that she pushed the wrong button. Instead of pushing stop, she had pushed record. She had to keep her foot on the pedal. Mrs. Woods used the machine to show how it happened. When i asked her to demonstrate, she pushed the button, kept her foot on and she supposedly reached back about six feet to get the telephone. Her foot came off the pedal just with the mere movement. There was no way it was believable. The white house intention that the talk between the president and haldeman was accidently erased would give more ammunition to the president s critics. To hear something so obviously untrue changed a lot of the american publics view of the whole situation. Rosemary woods would stand by her story. Bob woodward would later write the 18 1 2 minute gap became a symbol for nixons entire watergate problem. The truth had been deleted. The truth was missing. Stay with me, mr. Parker. When a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. Stay with me, mr. Parker. 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All day, and all night. Now packed into a pill so small, we call it mini. New clearminis from nexium 24hr. See heartburn differently. Watergate was becoming a bloody mess. Nixon was a wounded president. All the president s men was a very violent movie. It was violent in a different sense. You didnt see anybody shot or blown up or poisoned. But people were out to kill each other. Get out your notebook. Theres more. And the weapons were telephones, typewriters and pens. Your lives are in danger. So as a result we would accentuate the volume in all those instruments. I love the scene when redford playing the part of bob woodward sees carl reworking his story. Hows it going . What are you doing . Polishing it. Whats wrong with it . Nothing, its good. What are you doing with it . Im just helping. Its a little fuzzy. May i have it. I dont think youre saying what you mean. I know exactly what i mean. Not here. I cant tell. May i have it . Yes. Im not looking for a fight. Im not looking for a fight either. Just aware of the fact youve only been here nine months. Now, having known both of them, that was so true and thats what goes on in newsrooms. If you are going to do it, do it right. Heres my notes. If youre going to hype it. Hype it with the facts. I dont mind what you did. I mind the way you did it. The thing about bernstein that i think you captured so well was his assuredness about how right he was, at the same time, totally intuitive and instinctive, how he had to push woodward. And how you have to rewrite me because youre a better writer. And you do it without even thinking. Woodward was didactic. He would go a, b, c, d in his investigative work. And bernstein would go a, b, h. We had the luxury of a fat dynamic institution in the washington post, it was right at its peak. There has always been some chicannery in american politics, youre always going to have some underhanded dealings. Nothing comparable to this. Ended up they ushered in a new era of journalism that opened up the white house in a way that would have made lbj and jfk and fdr very uncomfortable. Marcus, everyone asks the question, could the post do a story like watergate or do watergate now . What is your you know, in todays world that story would catch fire much faster. The minute the breakin occurred, you know, you would tweet it. Both sides would seize on it. Its an election campaign. They would be using it immediately as fodder for their both sides in the battle. Everybody would chase it. There would be bloggers. As a result it would be much harder to do what you did probably because there would be such it would clamp down much faster. Its a great question how watergate might unfold in the current news environment. You could look at the Glass Half Full argument and say with all of these people on twitter and all of these reporters the 24hour news cycle, a big story began to emerge, it would never be two lonely guys pursuing it forever because the entire pack of the cyberuniverse would bay like wolves after the white house until it happened. They used to say a reporter was only as good as their phone numbers. We can hunt and stock sources so many different ways. The tool box that i have available to me as a reporter, digital voice recording, email, social media. We can truth tell them in realtime. When they Say Something we can be googling what they are saying. Playing back to them. We have access to all known thought one click away. Ability to surround and ferret out a source in a way that woodward and bernstein only dreamed of. The internet is a tool just like a typewriter is a tool, a telephone is a tool. At the end of the day journalism requires incredibly dogged persistence on the part of journalists who are seeking the truth. We worked over here. Im here. Youre here. And im here. Yeah. And it was the noise of typewriters and it was the smoke of people who smoked. People smoking. 38 years ago. Jesus. Why did things have to change . Every day bob and i would go have a cup of coffee together in the morning in a vending machine room off the newsroom. It sure is quiet in here. And on this particular day, not that long after the break in, i put a dime in the coffee machine, which is what it cost then. And i literally felt this chill go down my neck. I mean literally, made my hair stick up, i think. I turned to woodward and i said oh, my god, this president is going to be impeached. Woodward looked at me and said oh, my god, youre right. Oh, you brought butch. Yeah butch growls at man hes looking at me right now, isnt he . Yup. butch barks at man butch is like an o