- 22 hours ago
Slow Burn - Se1 - Ep06 - Massacre HD Watch [Full Movie] [Recommended]Full EP - Full
Category
đ„
Short filmTranscript
00:12Alex Butterfield exposed Nixon's secret taping system to the Senate committee.
00:16The American public was outraged and called on the president to release the tapes.
00:21The White House refused, cuing the final standoff with President Nixon.
00:38As we've seen, Watergate is filled with borderline implausible twists and turns.
00:45Remember the stories of Martha Mitchell, John Dean, Alexander Butterfield?
00:51But there is one moment that stands out as perhaps the biggest turn of events in the
00:55whole saga.
00:57The Tonight Show will not be seen tonight so that we may bring you the following NBC News
01:02special report.
01:03It was the night of October 20th, 1973.
01:07Good evening.
01:08The country tonight is in the midst of what may be the most serious constitutional crisis
01:13in its history.
01:15When the battle over Nixon's secret tapes erupted.
01:18Deputy Attorney General Ruckelshaus was ordered to fire Archibald Cox.
01:22He refused so the president fired him.
01:25The president has seized full control of the special prosecutor's office.
01:30The average American who watched it unfold on TV didn't know what to think.
01:34That's a stunning development and nothing even remotely like it has happened in all of
01:39our history.
01:44So can you imagine what it felt like for those people who were actually right there on the
01:48front lines?
01:49Six FBI agents present.
01:51They didn't know they were living through the so-called Saturday Night Massacre.
01:55What can I say, guys?
01:56They were just living through chaos, uncertainty, and fear.
02:02Is everybody ready?
02:03He insisted that the media be allowed in.
02:07It's their stories that we're going to tell.
02:10How they weathered the storm.
02:12The press was mobilized and they had a heck of a story.
02:15And helped write the script of what would become the beginning of Nixon's final act.
02:20Mr. Cox's comment when he was apparently about to be fired was...
02:24Whether ours shall continue to be a government of laws and not of men is now for Congress and
02:32ultimately the American people.
02:34My constitutional responsibility to defend this great office against false charges.
02:42What was it like to live through Watergate without knowing how it was all going to end?
02:47Causing this nation to neglect matters of far greater importance.
02:54One way to find out is to look at that moment of American history as seen through the eyes
03:00of the people who lived it back when they had no idea what was coming.
03:04If we learn the important lessons of Watergate, we can emerge from this experience a better and a stronger nation.
03:12I'm Leon Nafok.
03:14This is Slow Burn.
03:23In 1973, every American wanted to know what was on those secret White House tapes.
03:29And why wouldn't they?
03:31But for Nixon, talk of the recordings had gone on long enough.
03:35He needed to put an end to the noise.
03:38And on the morning of October 20th, it looked like he had finally found his answer.
03:42Based on the evidence I have though, as of now, I think they are authentic.
03:48Nixon crafted what he thought was an ingenious plan that would prevent the tapes from ever
03:53seeing the light of day.
03:55Before the proposal was released, Senators Ervin and Baker of the Watergate Committee were
03:59called to the White House and they approved it.
04:01It was the break the President had hoped for.
04:03Some things I feel very deeply about are at stake.
04:08At least it would have been, had someone not pulled the pin out of his plan.
04:21But the story really begins six months earlier.
04:25Before there was any notion of secret tapes or massacres, there was just this pesky Watergate affair.
04:33And a steady drip of clues pointing towards the White House.
04:38There was a lot of uncertainty.
04:41You know, people started off very sure that Nixon couldn't have been involved.
04:46Then over the two years, there was just a creeping, you know, growing sense of doubt.
04:52Looking to appease his critics, Nixon nominated Elliot Richardson, a widely respected pillar of
04:58Washington politics, as his new Attorney General.
05:02And Richardson, in turn, was tasked with appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the Watergate
05:07affair.
05:08I do solemnly swear that I will...
05:10Now, if you were going to appoint a special prosecutor, someone to dig into a controversial,
05:15high-stakes, intrinsically political situation, you'd probably look for someone with a reputation
05:20for being nonpartisan.
05:23Someone without strong political ties.
05:26Someone it would be difficult to dismiss as biased.
05:31Archibald Cox was none of those things.
05:34In fact, Cox was everything that Nixon and his biggest supporters hated.
05:38He was a professor at Harvard Law School who wore bow ties and tweed suits.
05:43Even worse, he had worked for John F. Kennedy in the 1960 campaign against Nixon.
05:49But his ties to the Kennedys weren't just a thing of the past.
05:52Hi, Archibald Cox.
05:54When he was sworn in as a special prosecutor, Cox invited Ted Kennedy, literally Nixon's worst
05:59enemy, to attend as a guest.
06:01Congratulations to you.
06:02It's really wonderful.
06:05Americans are now more security conscious than ever.
06:09And it was the end of May of 1973 when Archibald Cox started his work.
06:13The secrets of Watergate are being investigated in this building by special prosecutor Archibald
06:18Cox.
06:20In a move that seems hard to imagine happening today, the special prosecutor's office actually
06:25allowed news cameras in to document them moving in and setting up shop.
06:30They even captured workers installing an elaborate security system, presumably to evade any dirty
06:36tricks that Nixon might try on them.
06:38The background of this case is one in which there have been allegations of burglary, electronic
06:44surveillance, bugging, surreptitious entry in the night, etc.
06:48If there were a burglary, we just can't afford that sort of thing.
06:53My staff will all raise hell if I let you take a picture with my feet on the desk.
06:59Contrary to what you might expect from a high society intellect, Cox appears laid back, even
07:04goofy in some of this footage.
07:10And it seems that characteristic endeared him to his staff.
07:14Archie Cox was very modest.
07:17He was almost self-effacing.
07:20He took cabs when there were limousines waiting.
07:24That's just the kind of guy he was.
07:28I'll put this simply.
07:29It felt like working for Abraham Lincoln, and I know that's an enormous statement.
07:38He had big workman-like hands, and he had a farm in Maine.
07:45But close up, he was fair, really a stand-up individual, and brilliant.
07:52I've said many times, gee, I wish I'd dressed like him.
07:56I wouldn't look so ridiculous in the pictures they show now.
08:01My name is Jim Doyle, and I was a senior advisor to the special prosecutors.
08:09I used to brief him every morning about what the press was saying and what it meant.
08:14Where did this story, who leaked this story, and what's the motivation behind that story?
08:19So he was a smart man, and he knew all that, and he knew what he was doing.
08:23But we became close.
08:26And it was the best job I've ever had, and I woke up every day anxious to get to the
08:34office.
08:38I was an assistant district attorney in my hometown of Philadelphia, and one of my law professors,
08:44Henry Ruth, had just been appointed deputy special prosecutor to the special prosecutor Archibald Cox.
08:51I gave him a call and said I was very interested in what he was doing.
08:57Could he consider me for the prosecution force?
09:00And he asked when could I come down to Washington, and it was a Friday afternoon, Friday night.
09:07I said, how about Monday?
09:09I took the Amtrak down Monday, interview with Hank Ruth and Archibald Cox.
09:17My name is Carl Feldbaum.
09:19I was an assistant special prosecutor on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force.
09:26Interestingly, going into Watergate, a number of lawyers counseled me not to take the Watergate job.
09:34They thought it was a career-ending position.
09:37They said, you're going to investigate the President of the United States?
09:40You're going to investigate Nixon?
09:44He's a vindictive guy.
09:46You'll never get a job in a law firm, and no one will want to hire you.
09:51And of course, they were wrong.
09:54But this may have accounted for the youth of most of my colleagues who were young.
10:00You swear the evidence that you shall give the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign
10:05Activities shall be the truth.
10:08Feldbaum's first day on the job was a momentous one.
10:11There was a grainy black-and-white television with Alexander Butterfield
10:16before the Senate Watergate Committee telling the world for the first time that the White House
10:21had a taping system that had recorded President Nixon's conversations.
10:26And all of the President's conversations and the officers mentioned were recorded.
10:30That's correct.
10:31On his first day, Feldbaum was just dropped straight into this heavy moment
10:35when Cox had to decide how to handle this bombshell.
10:39After all, a number of us had a meeting with Archibald Cox
10:44where he pondered in a very academic, in retrospect, extremely thoughtful way
10:50whether we should subpoena the tapes.
10:55He walked us through the potential chain of events and the consequences.
10:59What if the subpoena was approved and then President Nixon appealed?
11:03What if President Nixon appealed to the United States Supreme Court?
11:06What if President Nixon simply refused to turn over the tapes?
11:13We've then created a constitutional crisis for which there's no clear answer.
11:19Are we ready to face that?
11:23Of course, along with the Senate Watergate Committee,
11:26Cox did subpoena the nine tapes which, based on Dean's testimony,
11:31were thought to contain conversations relevant to Watergate.
11:34Archibald Cox pushed rigorously in the courts to get hold of those White House recordings of
11:39President Nixon's conversations.
11:41The word subpoena means under punishment.
11:44It is a compulsory order of a court.
11:47Needless to say, Nixon was not happy with the subpoenas.
12:00For Cox, it was simple. The tapes were potential evidence in a criminal case.
12:05And so, they needed to get them.
12:07The President said he would not comply with a subpoena issued on behalf of the special Watergate
12:12prosecutor.
12:12Tensions between the two men mounted.
12:15I would urge that the tapes be furnished for use in my investigation without restriction.
12:19Strangely, Nixon made no public effort to discredit Cox.
12:23However, his true feelings were later revealed in conversations with staff captured by the recording system.
12:37By mid-summer, it became known that some of the President's assistants were privately referring
12:42to the special prosecutor's office as cocksuckers.
12:48And they continued to ignore Cox's demands for the tapes.
13:01In 1973, I was in Washington.
13:05I had begun writing for The New Yorker earlier that year.
13:12And the editor, I went to see him around Labor Day.
13:17And I said, I think we're going to change first vice presidents and presidents within a year.
13:24Now, this was wild.
13:26I mean, it was way out there.
13:28I just got this instinct.
13:30You go by your instincts.
13:33My name is Elizabeth Drew.
13:35I'm a journalist and author in Washington.
13:37And I covered Watergate and the impeachment period for The New Yorker magazine.
13:43By mid-October 1973, Drew's intuition had proved to actually be half right.
13:50The American people deserve to have a vice president...
13:54But the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew over corruption charges was the least of Nixon's problems.
14:03And then, on October 12th, it had come right back to those damn tapes.
14:09Nixon was ordered by the court to give them up.
14:11All nine of them.
14:14But Nixon still had one more trick up his sleeve.
14:18Remember the Stennis compromise?
14:20A Southern Democrat by the name of John Stennis, who was known by many to be friendly with the
14:25Nixon White House, he would be the only person to have access to the tapes.
14:30He's elderly.
14:32He can't hear.
14:33We're going to put earphones on him.
14:34Senna says he's been promised a free hand.
14:36And Senator Stennis was going to verify that the summaries of the tapes were accurate.
14:44And those transcripts would be sent to Cox's office.
14:49It's really absurd.
14:51But while Baker and Irvin had tentatively accepted it,
14:55Cox was not so keen.
14:57Some think that this may have been the whole point.
15:01It was never a good faith effort to negotiate with the Watergate Special Prosecution Force.
15:08The Stennis compromise was just a way to get rid of Archibald Cox.
15:14The way that week went along, it got more tense and more tense right up to Friday.
15:25On October 19th, Nixon gambled that the public reaction to the Stennis compromise would be favorable.
15:31If Cox rejected it, Nixon believed that he would have grounds to fire him.
15:35By Friday, word came out that there was this compromise.
15:41What the White House put out was, we have a compromise.
15:44It's been accepted by the Senate Watergate Committee.
15:48It's been accepted by John Stennis.
15:51We don't know about Archibald Cox, but he's no longer relevant.
15:56That's when we reacted very strongly and said, whoops, wait a minute.
16:02At that time, it was almost 8 p.m.
16:05Doyle knew that if they didn't respond, Nixon's statement would be the last word on the matter
16:10and could go unchallenged for days.
16:12On a long holiday weekend, at a time when there wasn't 24-7 news,
16:20we could have missed a lot of the morning papers, etc.
16:25At stake was the public's opinion of the Stennis compromise.
16:28They scrambled to get a response out to the press that explained why they weren't on board with it.
16:35Archie typed a very brief statement.
16:37I think he did it on my little portable typewriter.
16:43And I went in to make this statement, and I got the phones.
16:47Cameras were rolling.
16:48I can't tell you which networks, but some were.
16:52And I got the Associated Press on one line and United Press International on the other.
16:58I don't know if I remembered their number.
17:00Anybody know UPI's number?
17:03The number for United Press International, please.
17:06And I said,
17:07This is Jim Doyle from Archibald Cox's office.
17:10This is Jim Doyle from the Watergate prosecutor's office.
17:14I have a statement that I'm going to read as fast as you can take it.
17:17And I read it to them.
17:18In my judgment, the president is refusing to comply with the court decrees.
17:26To turn over tapes, comma, notes, or memoranda, and other documents,
17:34I shall have a more complete statement in the near future.
17:39And of course, the one-two punch was, OK, tomorrow, Archie Cox is going to talk at a news conference
17:46and answer questions and deal with what you've heard from the White House tonight.
17:53Which brings us to that fateful Saturday in October,
17:57when Cox was about to make his objective crystal clear.
18:01He would not stand down.
18:04Archie and his wife walked over together, hand in hand, beautiful sunlight day.
18:12This was Archie's moment.
18:14He will not comply with the president's order,
18:16but will instead continue his investigation and go to the judge.
18:19He sat down and he got in front of those cameras and he talked.
18:25I read in one of the newspapers this morning, you know, Cox Defiant.
18:30I do want to say that I don't feel defiant.
18:35In fact, I told my wife this morning I hate a fight.
18:39And I'm certainly not out to get the president of the United States.
18:43Archibald Cox was taking his case straight to Nixon's silent majority,
18:48explaining why it was reasonable for him to reject Nixon's proposed compromise.
18:52It was Nixon who was being unreasonable, not him.
18:56Nixon was defying a court order to release the tapes.
18:59Mr. Cox, Mr. Cox.
19:00Do you consider the tapes absolutely vital to the case you're developing?
19:05I think it is vital to know whether they're vital.
19:10I think the important thing is that here are conversations
19:16that there has been testimony about by one witness
19:21that would make those conversations enormously important.
19:25Then my question, sir, was how could you expect to succeed in this job?
19:29How could you expect to succeed?
19:32Well, I thought it was worth a try.
19:36And if I lost, what the hell?
19:38Mr. Cox, let me ask you a bit. Excuse me, Mr. Cox.
19:40Excuse me, Mr. Cox.
19:41I mean, this really was all Archibald Cox.
19:45It was all Archibald Cox.
19:47It was a magnificent press conference.
19:51And Archie said on the way back, he said,
19:53you know, it's not correct to do on a federal establishment,
19:59but I sure would like a drink of bourbon.
20:04We were back, and Archie had a drink or two, and we thought, well, it's a tennis game,
20:10and we won that round, and we'll see what happens next.
20:16Cox may not have felt defiant, but to Nixon, he must have seemed it.
20:21Cox had broadcast his rejection of the Stennis Compromise across the airwaves.
20:26And with the court order hanging over Nixon's head to release the tapes,
20:29of course, something had to give.
20:47It was Saturday night.
20:49My wife, Laura, and I had two Watergate colleagues to our apartment,
20:54and the four of us are having dinner.
20:58When around 8.30 or 9 o'clock, the phone rang.
21:08And it was Hank Ruth, the deputy special prosecutor.
21:12And he told me that Archie had been fired,
21:16and that I needed to get to the office as soon as possible,
21:21because the FBI were headed to the office.
21:25We feared that they would remove and eliminate all the evidence that we had gathered against the
21:32president and his administration.
21:34Good evening. The country tonight is in the midst of what may be the most
21:38serious constitutional crisis in its history. The president has fired the special Watergate
21:44Department of Justice. The four of us jumped in my car, and we drove down Massachusetts Avenue as
21:50fast as I could. We pulled up right on the curb outside the office, and the three of us jumped
21:57out,
21:57got up the elevator, into the office.
22:01Feldbaum went straight to the safe and started feverishly entering the combination.
22:07And it was actually the first time that I'd been able to open that safe on my first try.
22:12I took the evidence out of the safe at that point. My wife, Laura, came in. I gave it to
22:19her,
22:20and she stuffed it in the front of her jeans and turned around to go out just as the elevator
22:26doors
22:27opened and a team of FBI agents came out.
22:34And said, nothing comes in, nothing goes out. Everything stops. And Laura just walked right
22:44through them to the still open elevator. And FBI came in and treated our office as a crime scene.
22:53What can I say, guys?
22:55And we kind of sped off with that evidence. And that's another story.
23:03Former Attorney General Richardson appeared calm, even managing a wave to photographers...
23:07In a chaotic chain of events, the Attorney General, Elliot Richardson,
23:11had resigned when he was asked to fire Cox. When the Deputy Attorney General also refused, he was fired.
23:18Solicitor General Robert Bork quickly was named Acting Attorney General. Bork was ordered to
23:24fire Special Prosecutor Cox. He did.
23:27The news caused a sensation in the White House press room...
23:30For reporters who covered DC, this was unlike anything they had ever experienced.
23:35It was kind of like being in downtown Santiago. There was like a coup going on.
23:44Nixon was her hold away in the White House, and it was terrifying. You never knew what was going to
23:51happen next.
23:53It was hard to work it into our prior understanding of how things worked and what the limits were,
23:59and what was going to happen.
24:02Six FBI agents present.
24:06Would you please take those lights out of here?
24:11To Jim Doyle's great credit, he insisted that the media be allowed in,
24:18so we could explain what had just taken place.
24:22Our hours shall continue to be a government of laws and not of men is now for Congress,
24:27and ultimately the American people.
24:29After the discharge of Mr. Cox and the resignation of the Attorney General,
24:33and the firing of the Deputy Attorney General,
24:35our officers will be allowed in the White House.
24:37And in the simplest terms, it is that an investigator appointed to investigate scandals
24:44was fired because he insisted on investigating scandals.
24:48What it means is that the worst dreams of everyone who is worried about the President's secret tapes
24:54have now become true, become reality.
24:56If I was angry, it was an intrusion beyond intrusion.
25:00It was unprecedented in all of our experience, obviously.
25:05They didn't know what would happen next.
25:07In fact, they didn't even know whether they still had jobs.
25:10Do you still confidate yourself a member of the Watergate Special Prosecution Court?
25:15I think that's an interesting question.
25:19I don't know the answer.
25:23Nixon must have felt relief at last.
25:27With Archibald Cox gone, the Stennis Compromise could move forward,
25:31and he'd never have to release his tapes.
25:33He could finally concentrate on bigger issues,
25:36like brokering a ceasefire for the conflict in the Middle East.
25:39For the duration of a second term, he would never hear about Watergate ever again.
25:45The end.
25:51Obviously, it didn't work out that way.
25:59The fallout and the reaction was unbelievable.
26:03Cars started by, and they were honking, and the size of the crowd got bigger.
26:12And a police car goes by and quietly honks.
26:17It was then that the term impeachment began to re-be in the air and be considered a real possibility.
26:27But the public outcry extended far beyond Washington, D.C.
26:32Telegrams, the early 70s equivalent to emails or social media, were pouring in at such high volume
26:37that the Western Union was completely overwhelmed and had to set up special high-speed printers
26:42and call in extra workers from outside the city.
26:48Hooray for your stand.
26:52Heartily support your position and forthright stand.
26:56Stick to your principles.
26:59Congratulations.
27:01Your courageous action brings hope for the return of honorable government.
27:10Go fight, win.
27:23It was clear that Nixon had misjudged what the public reaction to his firings would be.
27:29And amid this outpouring of public support, the leaderless special prosecution force was emboldened.
27:36The papers had a front page story the next day saying Watergate prosecution force vows to carry on.
27:46Members of the former special prosecutor staff arrived unsure what role they would play.
27:51On Tuesday, October 23rd, they squared off against Nixon's lawyers in court.
27:58Three days had passed since the court deadline to turn over the tapes,
28:01and Nixon was expected to ask for an extension.
28:05The president's lawyers arrived and announced.
28:08But in an unexpected turn,
28:10Nixon's attorneys said that the president would agree to hand over the nine tapes.
28:14This president does not defy the law.
28:18While they had lost their leader, this was certainly a victory for the special prosecution force.
28:24The president's decision came as a total surprise.
28:28Public opinion was swinging against his position.
28:32It seemed that the backlash against the Saturday Night Massacre had changed everything.
28:36We ought to demand a restoration of court.
28:39But Nixon's next move was greeted with deep suspicion.
28:43Turning now to our attempts to get a ceasefire on the home front.
28:49That's a bit more difficult.
28:54We have decided that we'll appoint a new special prosecutor for what is called a Watergate matter.
29:04On November 5th, Leon Jaworski was sworn in as special prosecutor.
29:09Do you, Leon Jaworski, solemnly swear?
29:12There.
29:13Many members of the special prosecution force saw Jaworski as a Nixon ally.
29:17Someone who might work to undermine their efforts.
29:22Archie Walcox was, number one, a really hard act to follow.
29:25And many of the young prosecutors, my colleagues, had been Cox's students.
29:30And here comes Leon Jaworski.
29:33I do.
29:35Congratulations.
29:36He was a conservative Democrat from Texas.
29:38Obviously, this raised some suspicion, particularly because Nixon had appointed him.
29:46I was urged to accept it. I did not seek it.
29:52We called him Leon, as we had generally called Archibald Cox, Archie.
29:57And did not know that back in Houston, Texas, at his law firm, that even his senior partners referred to
30:02him as Colonel Jaworski.
30:05And so we were inappropriately casual Yankees.
30:10Somebody in the office said, well, you know, he's called Colonel Jaworski in Texas as a sign of reverence.
30:18And I said, oh, yeah?
30:19If he opens a chicken joint in the basement, I'll call him Colonel.
30:24Their suspicions would soon be put to the test.
30:37Yeah, one Saturday morning, I was in the office.
30:42Leon Jaworski had asked me to come in, and we were having a discussion when he got a call from
30:49Fred Buzart, President Nixon's counsel.
30:52John Jaworski said to me, the tapes are ready to be picked up. They're going to be ready to be
30:57turned over.
30:58So I volunteered to go pick them up.
31:10It was about a five block walk, and crowds of tourists around the White House was escorted into Fred Buzart's
31:21office.
31:22He was a West Pointer, very proper guy, wearing a suit.
31:28And I was wearing pink bell bottoms.
31:36Fred Buzart wouldn't be caught dead looking like that.
31:39But for us, it was a Saturday.
31:43And he said something like, here they are.
31:46The nine tapes kind of scattered on a table in the center of his office.
31:52He seemed a little absent-minded.
31:55I said, I need a bag or box to take these back.
32:00So he left the office for a minute and came back with a cardboard box.
32:05And it occurred to me, I said, I think we need a receipt for this transfer.
32:10Fred got a couple pieces of paper, and each of us signed it, and picked up the tapes, and left
32:17the office,
32:18and walked through a throng of White House tourists, and then back through downtown Washington.
32:28It's kind of incredible to imagine the evidence was not transported in an armored car
32:32flanked by dozens of federal marshals, but was carried down the street on foot
32:36by one 30-year-old hippie in pink bell bottoms.
32:39I think it was actually, in retrospect, a pretty good disguise.
32:43And I looked behind me once or twice, and no one seemed to be following me.
32:49There was no media press helicopter.
32:52I don't think there were any foreign intelligence agents.
32:56I think I took the special precaution of crossing the streets with the light.
33:02When Feldbaum got back to the special prosecutor's office,
33:05he and three other staffers gathered around a reel-to-reel player.
33:10When Feldbaum asked which tape they should play first,
33:13someone suggested March 21, 1973, one of the conversations that John Dean had described
33:20in his testimony as being particularly damning to the president.
33:23My colleagues had the tape recorder set up, so we put that tape on.
33:29We all strapped on our headphones.
33:34The four of them sat there and listened for about seven minutes.
33:39Then they heard it.
33:55It was just like Dean had said in his testimony.
33:58At that point, press the stop button.
34:04We looked at each other, and I don't think we said anything.
34:09I picked up the tape recorder and knocked on Leon Jaworski's door and indicated that
34:15he needed to listen to this as soon as possible.
34:19And he put on his headset.
34:21For about five or seven minutes, he just looked at me across his desk and just stared at me without
34:26betraying any expression whatsoever. And then the part came on with Dean and then the president's
34:35response, which was clear obstruction of justice.
34:48Leon had no expression on his face and just said,
34:53Carl, that will be all. Thank you.
34:56So I took the tape recorder and left. And my colleagues asked me, what did he say? How did he
35:03respond? And you may have to bleep this, but I said, I have no fucking idea.
35:12It was the coolest, coldest poker face I'd ever seen.
35:18While Feldbaum and his colleagues were uncertain what Jaworski's next move would be,
35:23on Capitol Hill, Congress was now moving forward with an impeachment inquiry.
35:27The single purpose and that is to proceed full steam ahead with the question of the impeachment
35:33resolutions which are before us. However, the strand of that story that we're going to tell
35:38starts one year earlier in Brooklyn.
35:48In 1972, I decided to run for Congress. I was running against the incumbent, been in the House
35:57of Representatives for 50 years. He was not really visible. The constituents didn't call on him for help.
36:04He was really a non-presence and I thought I could win.
36:08We had no money for polls. We had no TV. We had no radio. We had one newspaper ad and
36:16one mailing.
36:19But I made up for the absence of money with shoe leather.
36:24I campaigned at every single subway stop in the district time after time after time.
36:31I went door to door. I campaigned in supermarkets.
36:36I campaigned on movie lines. Anywhere there was more than one person. I was out there campaigning.
36:46My name is Elizabeth Holtzman. I was a member of the House Judiciary Committee during Watergate.
36:51You might wonder why we're diving into the story of a young congresswoman from Brooklyn.
36:56But it's important for two reasons. The first is this.
37:00At the time I was selected to go on the House Judiciary Committee, nobody knew there was going
37:04to be an impeachment proceeding. Because you know that if they'd known there was going to be an
37:09impeachment proceeding, they'd never put me on the committee.
37:13As a first term congresswoman, Elizabeth Holtzman found herself in a far more consequential place
37:19than she could have ever imagined.
37:21I had no clout, no political backers. I was, you know, this person who won this bizarre race in Brooklyn.
37:30The second reason is far less obvious. The man she unseated was formally the chair of the
37:36Judiciary Committee. He was a divisive character and fiercely partisan.
37:41If Elizabeth Holtzman had not defeated him in the primary, he would have been the man who presided over
37:47the impeachment hearings, which could have yielded a very different result.
37:51My opponent had been chair for 50 years, so Peter Rodino became chair of the committee because
37:56of my election and my defeat of Manuel Seller.
38:02Question of the impeachment resolutions which are before us.
38:06Which brings us back to 1973 when the House Judiciary Committee tackled the presidential question head on.
38:17I was covering the House Judiciary Committee hearings from the first day on.
38:22The chairman was this unknown New Jersey congressman, Peter Rodino.
38:28The resolution authorizes and directs the committee on the judiciary.
38:33Diminutive in size, who many people feared could not rise to the occasion,
38:39because this was a big job he had to handle.
38:43The advisory committee on impeachment met for more than two hours.
38:46While there were concerns about Rodino's capability as chairman,
38:50House Judiciary members had an even more basic concern. And that was this.
38:55The president hadn't been impeached since Andrew Johnson more than a hundred years earlier.
39:00And nobody really knew how the process worked.
39:02Members of the House Judiciary Committee, every one of them a lawyer.
39:05I didn't actually know what impeachment was because we didn't study that at Harvard Law School.
39:10I don't think many Americans knew what impeachment was. And so we had hit the books right away.
39:19So the founders put a clause in the powers of the Congress about impeachment,
39:28that the president could be removed for treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors.
39:35So what did they mean by that?
39:38Is a high crime a crime? In other words, can a president be impeached for something that's not
39:44a violation of a U.S. statute?
39:47It turns out it's not abundantly clear in the Constitution itself.
39:51So the members had to dig deeper. They turned to the Federalist Papers
39:55and other writings by the founders dating back to the time when the Constitution was written.
40:00It started with British parliamentary history and the history of the King versus Parliament.
40:07And you sort of said, what does this have to do with the United States of America?
40:14And ultimately the committee determined that a high crime and misdemeanor means
40:20a grave abuse of power. It did not mean violation of a statute.
40:27Once the members of the committee had a firm grasp on what constituted an impeachable offense,
40:32the obvious question was, had President Nixon committed such an act?
40:37If a majority of the 38 members in the committee voted yes,
40:41then the vote would go to the full House of Representatives.
40:45If the full House voted to impeach, then it would go to the Senate, where Nixon would stand trial.
40:53Because Democrats had the majority on the committee, 21 to 17,
40:57it may seem like it should have been a given how this vote would go.
41:01But it wasn't.
41:04Just because we had more Democrats than Republicans didn't mean that we
41:08had an automatic majority when it came to impeachment.
41:12We had three Southern Democrats on the committee.
41:15Objectivity.
41:16And those Southern Democrats represented districts that were at least as pro-Nixon as any Republican on
41:22the committee. So when we started the process of impeachment, we didn't know whether we had the
41:27votes for impeachment. Nobody even knew what the case was against President Nixon at that point.
41:32It pretty much boiled down to seven committee members, three conservative Democrats,
41:38and four moderate Republicans. They were popularly referred to as the Fragile Coalition,
41:44though some called them the Unholy Alliance.
41:47The Unholy Alliance is a coalition of Republicans and Democrats who are debating about the idea of
41:55impeachment. They are very hesitant to support the idea of impeachment. In many ways,
41:59they start off seeing this as a radical idea.
42:02For a brief period, the power they wielded, to impeach or not, made them the most important
42:08politicians in America.
42:16But despite the deliberations in Congress, the vice around the White House was tightening.
42:22Special Watergate prosecutor Leon Jaworski asked a federal court today to issue a subpoena
42:27for a long list of White House tape recordings.
42:30Shortly after Carl Feldbaum played the recordings for him, the new special prosecutor went back to
42:35the White House with a subpoena for 64 more tapes.
42:39Once he saw the tapes, Jaworski just, he moved forward.
42:45I admired him tremendously. He wasn't Archie, but he got the job done.
42:51Jaworski, it turned out he was tough. And he carried on in the same spirit as Cox.
42:59He's proof that this investigation will not cave to the president's demands.
43:04If it wasn't clear before, it was now.
43:07Jaworski's loyalty was strictly for his country and the rule of law.
43:11The credo of the Texas Rangers was one riot, one ranger. And to his great credit, Leon Jaworski didn't bring
43:20a single
43:21law partner, junior associate, not a staff member. And that was all to his great credit and really
43:28accelerated respect on behalf of all of us.
43:35But the Nixon administration was not backing down without one last fight.
43:40In these transcripts, portions not relevant to my knowledge or actions with regard to Watergate
43:46are not included. But everything that is relevant is included.
43:51On April 29th, 1974, Nixon announced that he would release not the tapes themselves,
43:56but 1,200 pages of transcripts.
43:59These materials, together with those already made available, will tell it all.
44:09I remember him next to this huge stack of loose-leaf folders and saying,
44:16oh, look at what I've turned over.
44:19While this was not exactly what the special prosecutor had asked for,
44:23it was, apparently, what the American public wanted.
44:26Copies of the transcripts flew off the shelves,
44:28and the public was finally given a taste of what Nixon had said behind closed doors.
44:34CBS News even staged live readings of the juiciest moments of the transcripts.
44:39We have a cancer within, close to the presidency, that is growing.
44:42It is growing daily. It's compounded.
44:44But there was one problem.
44:46The transcripts were filled with these parenthetical statements.
44:49There's an unintelligible phrase.
44:51An expletive is deleted.
44:52Busted his blank, a word for posterior.
44:55There's an expletive deleted.
44:57They had removed all the expletives, all the curse words.
45:03Expletive deleted.
45:05That just made everybody say, oh my goodness, foul-mouthed man.
45:09And so it really did not help him at all with the American people.
45:13That kind of became a joke.
45:16People were naturally suspicious.
45:18I'm sure they're doctors.
45:20I, at least that's my opinion.
45:22I'd like to hear the exact transcript has it.
45:26Actually took place.
45:28House Judiciary Committee is meeting to consider its response to the release of White House
45:33transcripts on Watergate.
45:35The release of these White House transcripts just added to the mountain of evidence that the
45:39House Judiciary Committee had already compiled.
45:42In fact, there was so much paper in the House Judiciary Committee's headquarters,
45:46that at one point, the official architect for the Capitol had to call in workers to reinforce the floor.
45:55The committee is expected to hold at least three more closed sessions during the next two weeks,
46:00and Chairman Rodino says they'll decide later if and when the evidence presented in the closed hearings will be made
46:06public.
46:06Then on May 21st, open hearings are scheduled to begin.
46:10They'll be televised, and they are expected to last at least six weeks.
46:15Chairman Rodino was trying to find the way forward.
46:19Impeachment was never going to happen if it were done on a partisan basis.
46:25Republicans had to feel involved.
46:28That was the only way we were ever going to be able to persuade the American people.
46:33Rodino wanted the committee to move slowly and carefully.
46:36This 932-page document constitutes the Bible the House Judiciary Committee will use.
46:41Evaluating all the evidence step by step.
46:44I mean, some of us felt that it was a little bit too careful of the other side's feelings.
46:49The hearings are closed at this stage only because the materials that are yet being presented
46:56do bear on cases that are scheduled for trial.
47:01Rodino locked the committee in a room and had every single instance of potential evidence read out loud to the
47:07members.
47:08Every member of the committee had to hear all the facts.
47:12There was no escaping.
47:14We were sat down and we were read to.
47:18And if you didn't agree with the facts, then it was your problem because you could always challenge.
47:23And if you didn't have an objection, forever hold your peace.
47:27So the facts were presented, fact after fact after fact.
47:36I mean, the number of instances of abuse of power, of obstruction of justice,
47:45of criminality that Nixon engaged in was just overwhelming.
47:50I just remember my reaction to that after a while was as though I was sinking into quicksand
47:59and there was no bottom.
48:05And there was more uneasiness in the air.
48:09Still unwilling to release the recordings, Nixon appealed the case one final time to the Supreme Court.
48:15Those who wanted seats and waited through the night on expectations, this would be the day of the big decision.
48:23The case went to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court looked at it and said,
48:27this is a no brainer.
48:30On July 24th, in a unanimous decision, the judges ruled 8-0 against the president.
48:36The judges affirmed Mr. Jaworski's demands for the tapes and Mr. Jaworski seems very pleased.
48:42Nixon now had to turn over every tape.
48:46But the House Judiciary Committee would not get to hear those recordings just yet.
48:51First, they would have to vote on whether or not to impeach the president.
48:55Make no mistake about it.
48:59This is a turning point, whatever we decide.
49:07It was like the Kentucky Derby. You know, who's going to win?
49:12Who's going to lose? Who's going to vote yay? Who's going to vote nay?
49:17As I mentioned before, many representatives had approached the question of Nixon's misdeeds
49:22in legal terms, tracing the Founding Fathers' intentions as to what high crimes and misdemeanors
49:27actually meant. But one Democratic congresswoman had a different strategy.
49:32I recognize the gentlelady from Texas as Jordan.
49:39Barbara Jordan was part of the 1972 squad of female freshman representatives to Congress.
49:46Barbara Jordan of Texas, one of the first members of Congress who was African American.
49:52A large woman with a very deep, interesting way of speaking.
49:58Mr. Chairman, I join my colleague in thanking you for giving the junior members of this committee
50:03the glorious opportunity of sharing the pain of this inquiry.
50:07Jordan lay claim to many firsts with a congressional win.
50:11But it was her opening statement to the House Judiciary Committee
50:14that catapulted her into the national spotlight.
50:17And she made it personal.
50:20Earlier today, we heard the beginning of the preamble to the Constitution of the United States.
50:28We the people.
50:29It's a very eloquent beginning.
50:32But when that document was completed on the 17th of September in 1787,
50:37I was not included in that we the people.
50:41But through the process of amendment, interpretation and court decision,
50:46I have finally been included in we the people.
50:51My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total.
50:56And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion,
51:04the destruction of the Constitution.
51:08She just captivated the room.
51:11She was clearly quite amazing.
51:13And my belief in the Constitution as whole, she said, it was very, very moving speech.
51:18I yield back the balance of my time, Mr. Chairman.
51:21But not every member was ready to take that step.
51:24Each of us on this committee must consider the effect
51:27a president's removal would have on the strength of this office
51:31and the respect it enjoys throughout the world.
51:37The call of the roll is demanded, and the clerk will call the roll.
51:41Following three days of proceedings, the moment of the vote finally came.
51:45Mr. Donahue.
51:46Aye.
51:48And by all accounts, it was a very somber one.
51:52I didn't want to say it.
51:53Mr. Kastenmeier.
51:54Aye.
51:58It was difficult to get the word out.
52:01I knew I had the responsibility to do it.
52:04Ms. Holtzman.
52:05Aye.
52:07It was not a moment of joy to vote for his impeachment.
52:13That was one of the most solemn moments in my entire life.
52:17And I think that was true for every member of the committee that voted for impeachment.
52:22Mr. Railsback.
52:23Aye.
52:24Mr. Cohen.
52:25The aye votes included the four Republicans.
52:27Aye.
52:28Mr. Flowers.
52:29Aye.
52:30And three Democrats in the Fragile Coalition.
52:32Aye.
52:33Aye.
52:33Plus, two more Republicans on top of that.
52:36Aye.
52:38Mr. Rodino.
52:39Aye.
52:41Nobody took pleasure in having to vote to impeach a president of the United States,
52:46even a president we disagreed with.
52:49Mr. Chairman, 27 members have voted aye,
52:5311 members have voted no.
52:56That resolution is adopted and will be reported to the House.
53:02The unthinkable had arrived.
53:04With bipartisan support, the committee would be recommending impeachment.
53:10And I'm told that Peter Rodino, who was a very liberal Democrat, went back to his office and cried.
53:22It was commonly said at the time that the system worked, and generally I felt that.
53:29It was heartening, it was heartening.
53:33The committee charged the president with a broad pattern of misconduct in three categories.
53:38Obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and defiance of Congress.
53:43The fact that a president would be held accountable for his actions.
53:49Before Nixon, we didn't impeach presidents. We respected them.
53:56I think the country and all of the rest of us who are watching this,
54:02breathlessly came to the conclusion that Nixon had no way out.
54:07The next step would be to bring the vote to the entire House,
54:11and from there to the Senate for trial.
54:14But neither of those things would ever happen.
54:17The president's case in the Senate is in critical condition.
54:20Senator Goldwater told a meeting of Republicans,
54:22you can only be lied to so often.
54:25Speaking with emotion, Goldwater said,
54:27it's time to take a stand and say we want out.
54:30To me, the end really came when Barry Goldwater, who was his staunchest supporter,
54:36went down and asked him to resign.
54:37When the most conservative Republicans abandoned him, you knew that the end was near.
54:45Let me see, did you get these lights properly?
54:49My eyes always have a little fine as I get past 60.
54:53On August 8th, 1974, Nixon spoke.
54:59I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.
55:13The next day, fighting back tears, Nixon addressed his White House staff one last time.
55:22I look around here and I see so many in this staff that,
55:26you know, I should have been by your offices and shaking hands,
55:30and I'd love to have talked to you and found out how to run the world.
55:38Everybody wants to tell the president what to do.
55:41And, boy, he needs to be told many times.
55:52Thank you very much.
56:02Almost half a century after Watergate, the conventional wisdom is that the system worked.
56:10Nixon didn't get away with it. He abused the office of the president, and eventually it led to his downfall.
56:17Many people see it this way.
56:20But I still wonder, was this truly the inevitable result of checks and balances working as intended?
56:26Or is there another way this could have ended?
56:34The burglars broke through a fire escape door that led to the committee's offices.
56:38When I look at the long and winding saga of Watergate, all I see are moments that could have gone
56:43in a different direction.
56:47The Washington Post could have assigned the story of the break-in to reporters
56:50who were less aggressive than Woodward and Bernstein.
56:54James McCord could have kept quiet about the cover-up.
56:58John Dean could have stayed loyal to Nixon and taken the fall for him.
57:02Or he could have had a worse memory.
57:06Nixon himself could have decided not to install tape recorders in the Oval Office.
57:11Or Alexander Butterfield could have kept those recordings secret.
57:15Oh, and the Democrats could have not had a majority in both the House and the Senate.
57:19That's a big one.
57:21There are a whole host of other factors, big and small,
57:25that could have transpired differently and changed the outcome.
57:29So, to me, Nixon's resignation doesn't seem so inevitable.
57:34It's easy to imagine an alternate reality where if any one of these elements had broken differently,
57:40Nixon would have weathered the storm and served out his second term with a scandal falling by the wayside.
57:48I suppose you could say we got lucky.
57:50But I have to wonder, what about the next Watergate?
57:58When historians look back, will they be able to say that the system worked?
58:04Is Russia home?
58:07Or was Watergate a political moonshot, rarely, if ever, to be repeated?
58:20I'm Leon Nafok, and this is Slow Burn.
58:41I'm Leon Nafok, and this is Slow Burn.
Comments