counsel of the senate watergate committee under center sam irvin the man i m worship most in public life. and we were also proud to work for him. on may 17th 1973 out of this very room. chairman, sam irvin began hearing from the watergate scandal these hearings touched the heartstrings of america and ended up helping mold. what we thought would be the future of constitutional government. as then minority leader mike mansfield said no one in the entire senate was better equipped. to handle this thing called watergate than senator sam j irvin. i worked for center sam jay irvin for 10 years. and i can personally attest. that things were different then than they are now. civility reigned remember that word civility and all of and all the people who were here some 60 years ago know that that is the case. too much civility is absent today. consider the level of viteral and the political discourse that exists in government today and even in the halls of congress i cannot emphasize e
can t imagine my parents. give me a name like that but backwards is spelled suffer. and and i was the deputy chief counsel of the senate watergate committee under center sam irvin the man i m worship most in public life. and we were also proud to work for him. on may 17th 1973 out of this very room. chairman, sam irvin began hearing from the watergate scandal these hearings touched the heartstrings of america and ended up helping mold. what we thought would be the future of constitutional government. as then minority leader mike mansfield said no one in the entire senate was better equipped. to handle this thing called watergate than senator sam j irvin. i worked for center sam jay irvin for 10 years. and i can personally attest. that things were different then than they are now. civility reigned remember that word civility and all of and all the people who were here some 60 years ago know that that is the case. too much civility is absent today. consider the level of viteral
then stuff started happening in dc that was vaguely reminiscent to some of the things we worked on. and all of a sudden everybody seemed to want to show up. this is just fantastic. on a personal level. raise your hand if you were on the the committee staff. this is pretty amazing. so, we said good-bye to each other 43, 44 years ago. and when i got ready to do this i called jim hamilton who was my boss back then. i say jim, i mean it i ll have it in tomorrow. he says gordon you better have it in tomorrow. so it was just like no time has passed for a lot of us. the other thing i was struck with, when we broke up. i don t know how many remember this. sam dash had a final meeting and we were all stuffed into his office. and he said this is has been the most important thing that s happened in my life and i m sure it will ever happen in my life. and will happen in yours. i m thinking well i m like 21, 22 years old i hope there s something that happens. but now looking back, it beco
this is just fantastic. on a personal level. raise your hand if you were on the the committee staff. this is pretty amazing. so, we said good-bye to each other 43, 44 years ago. and when i got ready to do this i called jim hamilton who was my boss back then. i say jim, i mean it i ll have it in tomorrow. he says gordon you better have it in tomorrow. so it was just like no time has passed for a lot of us. the other thing i was struck with, when we broke up. i don t know how many remember this. sam dash had a final meeting and we were all stuffed into his office. and he said this is has been the most important thing that s happened in my life and i m sure it will ever happen in my life. and will happen in yours. i m thinking well i m like 21, 22 years old i hope there s something that happens. but now looking back, it becomes this thing becomes very real. one of the ways i was trying to think about it is then the truth was a solid. it was something you worked on, you could cou
he joins former congressional staffers to talk about their work in the early to mid-70s and some of the pair lels between president richard nixon and the current trump administration. moderated by lesley stahl. this discussion is under an hour and a half. i m gordon freedman. thank you. three or four months ago maybe we should get people together i. i thought that s a good idea. i started trying to find people. it was difficult. then stuff started happening in dc that was vaguely reminiscent to some of the things we worked on. and all of a sudden everybody seemed to want to show up. this is just fantastic. on a personal level. raise your hand if you were on the the committee staff. this is pretty amazing. so, we said good-bye to each other 43, 44 years ago. and when i got ready to do this i called jim hamilton who was my boss back then. i say jim, i mean it i ll have it in tomorrow. he says gordon you better have it in tomorrow. so it was just like no time has passed for a