could easily win a national election. he had left the 1960 election which he lost narrowly to john f. kennedy with bitterness. and a sense the election had been stolen from him. this allowed the demon that is he always had within him to play during elections. it is about lust for power and absence of morality. it was all about holding on to power. no one can find out about this. whatever it takes. when the president does it it means that it is not illegal. i told the american people i did not trade hostages for arms. there will not be an abuse of power in this office. he develops weapons of mass destruction. we are in trouble. i just want to find 11,780 votes. and that s really when you reach a tipping point in a democracy. that s how dictators come to power. within hours of the arrests at the watergate, the nixon white house started covering up. i was the desk officer of the cover-up. i get the information and gather it and i share it and they were maki
the key to understanding richard nixon is that richard nixon was never self-confident that he could easily win a national election. he had left the 1960 election, which he lost narrowly to john f. kennedy, with bitterness. in a sense, the election had been stolen from him. this allowed the demons that he always had within him to play during elections. it s about lust for power and absence of morality. it was all about holding on to power. no one can find out about this, whatever it takes. when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal. i told the american people i did not trade arms for hostages. there will not be a cover-up. there will not be an abuse of power in this office. when you have a president who thinks he can do anything he develops weapons of mass destruction. i just want 11,780 votes. and that s really when you reach a tipping point in a democracy. that s how dictators come to power. within hours of the arrests at the waterg
national election. we had left the 1960 election, which he lost narrowly to john f. kennedy with bitterness. in a sense, the election had been stolen from him. this allowed the demons that he always had within him to play during elections. it s about lust for power and absence of morality. it was all about holding on to power. no one can find out about this, whatever it takes. when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal. i told the american people i did not trade arms for hostages. there will not be a cover-up. there will not be an abuse of power in this office. when you have a president who thinks he can do anything he develop weapons of mass destruction. i just want 11,780 votes. and that s really when you reach a tipping point in a democracy. that s how dictators come to power. . within hours of the arrests at the watergate, the nixon white house started covering up. i was the desk officer of the cover-up. i get the information and g
Everybody would start talking. i asked what are we doing? this is a quid pro quo situation. is it bribery on our part or is it something else, a crime i didn t know much about, obstruction of justice? so that s when i came back to my office, got my law books out, and found out we were clearly obstructing justice. paying hush money to a burglar so he wouldn t talk. that s obstruction of justice. you are obstructing the administration of the law. it was an obscure, seldom used statute. watergate put obstruction of justice on the map. it was complex because there isn t much law on obstruction of justice by the president or his aides. when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal. by definition? exactly. there were probably many people who believed that what they were doing was justified on some level. obstruction of justice is an
This is a quid pro quo situation. is it bribery on our part or is it something else, a crime i didn t know much about, obstruction of justice? so that s when i came back to my office, got my law books out, and found out we were clearly obstructing justice. paying hush money to a burglar so he wouldn t talk. that s obstruction of justice. you are on instructing the due administration of the law. it was an obscure, seldom used statute. watergate put obstruction of justice on the map. it was complex, because there isn t much law on obstruction of justice by the president or his aides. when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal. by definition? exactly. and there were probably many people who believed that what they were doing was justified on some level. obstruction of justice is an attempt to thwart an investigation.