Stay updated with breaking news from Under nixon. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
Counsel. it potential for secretly recorded conversations and the dismissal of somebody leading the investigation. experts point out that when richard nixon ordered the firing a special prosecutor archibald cox in the so called saturday night massacre, nixon knew that he was the target of the investigation. james, he was fired and we still don t know the targets in the russia probe. as bob woodward, who knows a thing or two about watergate points out, so far, there is no clear-cut crime. watch. there are a thousand questions and they should be answered. but there is no evidence that president trump at this point was somehow involved in collusion here. then, there is john dean, who served as white house counsel under nixon and spent four months in prison for the cover up. dean, whose calls trump an authoritarian says it is way early to draw watergate comparisons, saying, so far, this is just a provocative act ....
White house have a legal responsibility to confirm or deny if tapes exist? i don t think they have a responsibility to admit or not admit. they might get confronted with a subpoena at some point. yeah. now, the law is not quite so clear on congress. when nixon was sued for his tapes, it was by a grand jury and by a prosecutor, and the supreme court ruled on that. the supreme court s never ruled on whether congress has that same power to reach in and get a president s recordings. so, they ll have to barter for them, more likely, than subpoena them. bartering for them, i would love to see how that s going to go down. on the news today, john, you have a national security adviser out last night with a carefully worded statement, trying to deny the reporting, though not really addressing the main substance of the reporting. what, then, effect does the president s words this morning have on this whole episode, when he says that as president, i wanted to share this information with ru ....
Absolute right to do so? well, he does have the absolute right. the entire classification system originates from the president, while congress has adopted some statutes to protect it, he really does control it and is the ultimate authority in the executive branch. it comes out of his executive powers under the constitution. so, he appears to me to have thrown his national security adviser under the bus. i don t know what the national security adviser s going to say when he crawls out from under the bus this morning, because he s been, you know, he s been totally undercut. so, this is just this confusing chaos that from day to day this administration doesn t seem to be able to get any process where they re consistent. well, as former white house counsel under nixon, what kind of advice would you give to h.r. mcmaster right now? just keep i think he s a very truthful man and he has a reputation of that, and he s just got to keep calling it the ....
Russian officials in his oval office meeting? running a little late at this moment, so he could come out at any moment. we re watching that play out. with me right now, kayleigh mcenany is here, cnn political commentator, contributor for the hill and columnist tr above the law. keith boykin, cnn political commentator, democratic strategist and former clinton white house aide. above the law, interesting name to be playing with. just kidding. kayleigh, the reaction you ve been seeing your reaction first to what you ve heard from the reporting, what you heard from h.r. mcmaster last night and what you read from the president this morning. look, h.r. mcmaster, i think it s worth remembering what congressman schiff said about him just this last february. i m happy with the choice. i think he s a bright man, a lot of integrity, certainly very outspoken. i ve heard that even this morning. i heard that even this morning from ben sass. ben sass says general mcmaster, he s a really, ....
I think i made it clear last week that the president has nothing further on that. i said i was very clear that the president would have nothing further on that last week. i made it clear what the president s position is on that issue. i ve answered the question over and over again the same way. yeah, i ve answered that several times. that s his position. he said that he has nothing further to add. of course, that s white house press secretary sean spicer, not answering questions, or very kirtley not answering questions about the possibility the president tapes conversations at the white house, a possibility, you ll remember, that the president first raised himself. with the breaking news today about the president s oval office meeting with russian officials and what he may have disclosed during that meeting, elijah cummings and john conyers are now saying if any audio exists from trump s oval office meeting with those russian diplomats, hand it over. joining me now is john dean, form ....