you can t prosecute a president for obstruction of justice for things that he can do, like firing somebody. you certainly can t impeach a president for abuse of powers. that was one of the counts against richard nixon. the very kinds of things, the incredible reaching into the independent law enforcement violates people s sense of the constitution. it violates people s sense of right and wrong and they haven t yet heard it from the mouths of people who it blocked. that s critical. in watergate we did that. the senate committee did that. but just take one example, the dangling of the pardons. richard nixon dangled pardons in front of the burglars, that was one of the ways of keeping them quiet. that was an obstruction of justice. in fact, we used it on two counts of impeachment for nixon. we don t know all the facts about donald trump and the pardons. we know that he appears to have dangled them, but those facts have to be brought out. if you bring out those facts and they show that t
things that he can do, like firing somebody. you certainly can t impeach a president for abuse of powers. that was one of the counts against richard nixon. the very kinds of things, the incredible reaching into the independent law enforcement violates people s sense of the constitution. it violates people s sense of right and wrong and they haven t yet heard it from the mouths of people who it blocked. that s critical. in watergate we did that. the senate committee did that. but just take one example, the dangling of the pardons. richard nixon dangled pardons in front of the burglars, that was an obstruction of justice. in fact, we used it on two counts of impeachment for nixon. we don t know all the facts about donald trump and the pardons. we know that he appears to have dangled them, but those facts have to be brought out. if you bring out those facts and they show that the president actually authorized it, was involved in that and tried to
firing somebody. you certainly can t impeach a president for abuse of powers. that was one of the counts against richard nixon. the very kinds of things, the incredible reaching into the independent law enforcement violates people s sense of the constitution. it violates people s sense of right and wrong and they haven t yet heard it from the mouths of people who it blocked. that s critical. in watergate we did that. the senate committee did that. but just take one example, the dangling of the pardons. richard nixon dangled pardons in front of the burglars, that was an obstruction of justice. in fact, we used it on two counts of impeachment for nixon. we don t know all the facts about donald trump and the pardons. we know that he appears to have dangled them, but those facts have to be brought out. if you bring out those facts and they show that the president actually authorized it, was
that s his prerogative. he s going to keep tweeting. no, i know. but tweeting is a long way from firing somebody or obstructing justice. i get it. it is not the tweet. it is that there is a suggest that matt whitaker may be sharing some information since he s now overseeing the mueller investigation, maybe sharing it with someone who is the subject of the investigation. and if we get evidence of that, i will be first. but we don t have the evidence. senator, we appreciate, as always, your perspective. thanks so much. happy thanksgiving to you and john. thanks so much. you too. he is said to take over in just a few weeks, and he says his first subpoena will be for the acting attorney general matt whitaker. so what does he want to ask him first? that s next. stock and bond index fundsfidely with lower expense ratios than comparable vanguard funds. and we re now offering zero expense ratio index funds.
that can you indict and prosecute a president after he leaves office, after he is impeached and removed. second of all, you can t inkitindict a president for obstructions of justice if the president merely exercises his constitutional authorities under article 2 by firing somebody or by pardoning somebody, the george w. bush case establishes that. george w. bush pardoned five people on the evi eve of their trial including the former secretary of defense and he did it for the purpose of ending the investigation according to the special prosecutor, but the special prosecutor never considered indicting him or going after him. third, president trump simply didn t obstruct justice. you can t obstruct justice by doing things in public, making statements in public and firing people in public. that s not obstruction of justice. obstruction of justice occurs in secret and behind closed doors. tucker: in terms of the president exercising authority over executive