with that, i welcome them all to the stage. let everything again. [applause] good afternoon everyone. this is so such a fun thing to be a part of even the watergate itself is not really fun. but, certainly very interesting to have this opportunity and i will start out by saying sometimes life is very strange. i was having breakfast this morning in the restaurant of the hamilton hotel thinking about this event and the anniversary which is today. and i looked up and said to my breakfast partner, that looks like carl bernstein and she said it is. and i said who s that guy next to him? it was bob woodward. so that is the way the day started out. i thought that was auspicious. i will get to questions. this is actually a very interesting great panel that we have. i will just mention that we do have an opportunity for audience questions. and that will happen at about a quarter to six. so that we wrap up by 6:00. and i would urge you there will be a microphone. if you raise you
with that, i welcome them all to the stage. let everything again. [applause] good afternoon everyone. this is so such a fun thing to be a part of even the watergate itself is not really fun. but, certainly very interesting to have this opportunity and i will start out by saying sometimes life is very strange. i was having breakfast this morning in the restaurant of the hamilton hotel thinking about this event and the anniversary which is today. and i looked up and said to my breakfast partner, that looks like carl bernstein and she said it is. and i said who s that guy next to him? it was bob woodward. so that is the way the day started out. i thought that was auspicious. i will get to questions. this is actually a very interesting great panel that we have. i will just mention that we do have an opportunity for audience questions. and that will happen at about a quarter to six. so that we wrap up by 6:00. and i would urge you there will be a microphone. if you raise you
welcome to the washington post for this event. years ago today, breaking someplace at the democratic national committee headquarters in the water. it s two miles from here. white house press secretary at the time referred to the incident as nothing more than quote a great burglary. that may have been out history would have recorded it but for the recording of two men about to hit the state. former publisher of the washington post phil gramm once said journalism is the first rough draft of history. bob woodward and carl bernstein wrote their first draft of the story and their second and under the guidance of legendary editor brett ben bradley who sadly is not with us today the support of publisher katharine graham whose son don is with us exposed a tale of corruption at the highest levels of government. some quality of their work changed journalism politics. recognition from around the world and led the washington post to be honored with a pulitzer prize or public service but
[applause] all the people who were here some 60 years ago know that is the case. too much civility is absent today. consider the level of vitriol in the political discourse that exists in government today, and even in the halls of congress. i cannot emphasize enough the importance of the relationship between him and the vice chairman. welcome to tennessee. [laughter] [applause] they made a pact in the beginning that this would be a nonpartisan hearing. the sole purpose of which was to uncover the truth. it is hard to imagine this happening today, because it required level heads and plain old-fashioned civility. they proved a congressional committee devoid of malice and political bias could fulfill its function of informing the public and then propose legislation that would prevent this egregious scandal from ever happening again. they knew only a well-functioning separation of powers could ensure democracy and our great country for generations. today we commemorate the 50th
political processes in the years to come, long after i have left this office. i looked at my own calendar this morning as i was working on this speech. it showed exactly 1361 days remaining in my term. i want these to be the best days in america s history. god bless america, and god bless each and every one of you. central to the problems faced by president nixon is the watergate tapes and their tangled history. fred graham traces that story. it all began suddenly when an obscure former white house official named alexander butterfield appeared as a surprise witness before the senate watergate committee. are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the oval office of the president? i was aware of listening devices, yes, sir. when i got the confirmation that there was a taping system, i was elated. they would tell much more than i could even remember about what had happened in those conversations. my mind is not a tape recorder. it does recall im