the implications of the verdict of the civil war. cut to nixon. andrew johnson was about politics. nixon, the reason he had to resign was they had him on tape. there was clear evidence of obstruction of justice, he was ordering one federal agency to stop, another federal agency, and we forget this, and we may end up with another element in this crisis. nixon fold the rule of law when the supreme court ruled 8-0 in july of 1984 that he had to hand everything over, he did, in fact, hand everything over. so he left after barry goldwater went down and said you don t have more than a dozen votes and i don t think i m one of them, mr. president, which brought that home to nixon. then with clinton you had a question of proportionality. pretty clear what happened, but basically the country and the institutions decided it wasn t worth undoing an election over that. here we are now with something
instructed but not dispositive. the republicans tried to get andrew johnson before 1865 was out. they opened hearings in the house trying to find reasons to remove him from office. ultimately it failed by a very narrow margin in the senate. but they were really after him because he was trying to undo the implications of the verdict of the civil war. cut to nixon. andrew johnson was about politics. nixon, the reason he had to resign was they had him on tape. there was clear evidence of obstruction of justice, he was ordering one federal agency to stop, another federal agency, and we forget this, and we may end up with another element in this crisis. nixon fold the rule of law when the supreme court ruled 8-0 in july of 1984 that he had to hand everything over, he did, in fact, hand everything over. so he left after barry goldwater went down and said you don t
what extent was candidate trump and president trump a knowing part of that conspiracy or to what extent did that conspiracy has it affected what he does? those are the questions that depending on the answers to them i think we could be in a dramatic place very quickly is this a case where it seems that the reasonable approach is as in the clinton case wait for the special prosecutor to finish his work? congress didn t wait for the special counsel prosecutor to finish the work in the nixon case. that s true, but you also had the evidence emerging. remember, it was a little different. you had the tape, you had the june 21st tape, which was the smoking gun. so there was more explicit evidence there. it may be congress has that as a layman i don t know about. it s pretty clear already. you have him, i think, as
remember, it was a little different. you had the tape, you had the june 21st tape, which was the smoking gun. so there was more explicit evidence there. it may be congress has that as a layman i don t know about. it s pretty clear already. you have him, i think, as effectively an unindicted coconspirator. we should point out, as you know, it s not impossible that president trump gets indicted secretly and mueller waits out the term and then they open it. and then they test the guidance on whether you can do that. but i think on the russia question, which to me is the most pernicious, the most destabilizing, we have to know a little bit more. once we know that, then i think the house will have a duty to move seems to me jon meacham, thank you very much for joining us. appreciate it. tonight s last word is next. .