john poindexter in the 1980s with reagan which is were they able to say things that implicated the president directly in the scandal. john poindexter did not do that with the iran contra. john dean said president nixon has committed offenses. he said i hope that he will be excused and that he ll be forgiven for these. but that led directly to nixon s resignation. doane s testimony led to the revelation that nixon taped the secret conversations. exactly the right lane to put those in. poindexter didn t implicate reagan. reagan survived narrowly around contra. he could be asking that question tonight about mike flynn. exactly. michael beschloss, nbc presidential historian. thank you, as always. much more ahead. t i keep it grog by making every dollar count. that s why i have the spark cash card from capital one.