1974 Nixon Impeachment Hearings; 1974-07-25; Reel 7

chairmanbeginning of this meeting let the evening with chairman invited meto make an introductory remarks following in herdiaper earmarks made by him and an order that it mightnot appear the violent crime in to speeches soclosely and are all understood thati would not be recognized for an astounding begun would waive my seniorityand be recognized at the end of the roster the others havemy eloquent than distinguished colleagues have expressed a widerange of views on impeachment process that would leave many hours ofawkward speeches i would be more specific at all are therisks trespassing on endurance of all those who listened to this committee's of the reasonswe're not for the finance gravity of the subject matteri have great respect for any man who occupies the

office of president but my respect for the constitution is even greaterall americans should be grateful for a splendidconstitution and for the foresight of our founding fathers in providingthrough impeachment bombings for removing a president during his term of office whencircumstances necessitate so doing theconstitution places the responsibility for initiating proceedings for the removal of president in thehouse of representatives in this case the house have demanded ofthis committee to report with the recommendations concerning whether the hourfor the exercises impeachment our recordsi listened attentively for those of mycolleagues learned men and women all oral argument greatintellect in favor of the impeachment of the president i remainedunconvinced by their argument i believe their case is weak

and i'm unconvinced as well i regret to say by their view ofthe impeachment process itself as the trust is based incongress to safeguard the liberties of the people through the awesome an extraordinarypower to remove a president so musto congress is vigilance befierce and saying that they trust is not a viewthe proper use of impeachment power depends upon our understanding with thecurrent focus on the cost of the constitution provides that the presidentmay be impeached tried convicted and removal office for the commissionof treason bribery or other high crimesand misdemeanors the meaning of the words treated and bribery areseldom their crimes i try and directed against the stateto me the meaning of the words another high crimes and

misdemeanors is equally obvious it means what it says that affirmsthem ambien before the commission of crimes and misdemeanors with likeother crimes with bailing them about the proven treason and briberyare not in the sense that they are crimes directed againstwriting great impact upon the system of government itself bostonlyceum the constitution imposes two separate conditions orremoval of a president one criminality and twoserious impact of the kremlin of that criminality upon the governmentgoing might never in judgment as to the impact on governmentof specific act i'll that we would all very imperious me ifthat's a significant impact on government is required but someof my colleagues feel that for prime time at allany roundup which they think are feel as a

significant impact on your mouth i suggest that they are equal with other very effectivelyabandoning all together the only specific standard set forth in theconstitution for a presidential impeachment in doing so they left with nogovernment guideline at all except their own judgment of impactthey were only alarming risk of abusing the very trucks with the founding fathersso far away and i would like to believe prudently place in their namelet me give an example where the dangerline last night two articles of impeachment or interviewed foradoption by this committee the second of those articles have been referred to in the debateto earth as an abusive far it is in fact agrab bag of allegations ranging from matters of nationalsecurity the subpoenas served on the president by this committee on thepresident's administration administrative oversight of the executive department of

government republican veterans of the nation the conceptsunderlying this report radical seemed to me that if you can make anything or any singlecharge that many of them succeed in removing the president of all the chargeswhere this reported while any indictment so broadlydrawn with the fuss about poor but were asked to treat thepresident by a lower standard than would be accorded any part of the law theloneliest family friend that brings in enough to another point ofstandard approved what is applicable to an impeachable an impeachmentproceeding in the entire history of our nation no man hasever been lawfully then beyondreasonable bell yet some of my colleagues on the committeeover the application of the lesser standard here i

need not even say i suppose that i loved him lay upon most of iti believe it is again being heard of the most basic notions of americanjustice for the sacrifice much has beensaid on the evidence in the case and i doubt whether any explanations of my views without love onceyou've heard let me just say that not onlydo i believe that we're aboutwhat i do not think of cruelty of an approach to the lesser standards of proofwith some of my colleagues have either weekend edition from its investigation the lawand i'm not really that we can strike man who are stackinginferences one upon a mother are we're making repeated demands for information fromthe frozen which we know we will we'll now and which he believes in principle we cannotsupply them but trying to draw inferences from a refusal which we fullyanticipated before the demands were even made i believe it

was perfectly proper for this committee to undertake this indoor one seriouscharges of president for misconduct i have been madeas it is the purpose of impeachment as much honorably to exonerate as to ifyou and by mr i really this inquiry has beenconducted with fairness at the tablebut i would urge my colleagues to avoid now and themoment of the losing side of the normal principles with ourembodied in our great constitution and with riot theirconscience thank you mr black and mr hutchinsonsee our idsjohn and we now approach that timewhen after their eyes been flowing for a debate

that we can share the unending only on opposing aproposed for the impeachment of the president of the unitedstates however before proceeding to that phasewhich will take place on tomorrow i would liketo make a few common few comments ofappreciation first of all for the able to staff thereas very objectively professionallyand with arrow dedication under the leadershipof this the door for so thatthe ordeal only trying work that wasnecessary in order to find thefacts and present the facts this committeei think the most the door is the be saluted

for his great feel for onlydesire that the truth presented to us in a professional andobjective way it is a greatamerican who has contributed a great deal of the workof this committee and along with him a man who hasstated that before this body that heloves the constitution about any party stage andactually improve contribution orthose who work with themright now has been designated the minoritycouncil lot of those who worked under your direction whoare the unsung and then came with total dedicationriley going i first sought

to select a staff and talk with is thehutchinson i i laid down acondition takenpreceding that the hiring any member of thatstat and that was that they were to come to thisin hiring with no preconceived notionadvocating no position but advocating onlythe search for the truth and the pre invasion of the fatand this you have done and i applaud you forthe nonpartisan approach and if a few daysago he made a judgment a judgmentbased on the facts as you saw them intherapy and as a matter

of conscience getting a professional opinion iapplaud you for the courage that you brought to this kind of convictionand i think everyone will point i also want to express mygratitude to the general counsel of our committing this diseasewho has done a remarkable job with hisgrasp of the total notion of these greatproceeding but beyond themi want to applaud the members of this committee and mycomedy they havedemonstrated a capacity to work behind closeddoors if you will for a period of timesearching out the truth laboring and

toiling i'm wrestling with a fiatwithout seeking acclamationour laws of any sort because there is noneat the end of the trail accepted sure knowledgean issuer warn that right will be doneand i believe in each of you as deserving of thehighest accolade because you reflect upon this byand especially the judiciary committee the highestand carry on in the great tradition of this bodyand notwithstanding those who would criticizethe work of this committeeyou have left no stain

upon your efforts and i'm sure that history will recordthat what you have done you have donethat as a matter of conscience and convictionworthy of a great responsibility thatis you that is our bringing as istated in my opening remarks the collective wisdom ofmen and women total dedicationand recognizing the terrible andtremendous burden of having tomake a decision which will be lastingand for all time which will crawl to the americanpeople as i said in februarysixth for the house of representatives

considering authorization for this committee toour show explain thatwhatever the result whatever we've come closewe proceed with careand foreigners with decency and without ourshow that allamericans and that though iswe'll come out and we'll be able to say therewas only one wayand that was the way we did it and i applaud eachand every one of you and i know that on tomorrowwhen we consider the articles

i will lay before usthat we will search and try tofind those articles that willtruly tellwhat the impeachable offenses are what this bodyhas found that based on the evidence and thefact so that and recommendation haven'tbeen made by this committee and a reportyou presented to the house of representatives wecan justify what we have doneamong those bases and there's no letme say that i'm proud to be a part ofyou be among you to be under

this system even and shoutingone of the greatest experiencesof my life and asi said i revere the presidencyof the united states of america and reveredall press is much searchwithin my heart and my conscienceand searched out the factsand when i pass the facti find that the president of the united statesin accordance with the task that ifeel that we must confront i find that

a president must be found oneand so tomorrow i shall partalong with others the adoptionof articles of impeachmenti shall do so with a heavy heartbecause no man seeks toimprove his job for defying why beinga chief executiveof this great countrywe've had our responsibility to meet as many of us arecertainly only echo the sentiments of each of usthis is not the name responsibility that we

saw in one imposed upon usand i hope and trust and prywhat we don'tknow for all the damage has beenright so that our countryto surviveas for all timewith his i declare it ms mimisays until eleven o'clock tomorrow morningtosupporthis position

you and fellowdemocrat recommending articles of impeachment against presidentpeter rodino banging the gavel to assess the proceedingsuntil tomorrow morning when the committee will begina debate on specific articles of impeachmentall thirty eight members of the judiciary committee have now spokenand it is plain from what we heard last night this morning thisafternoon and today at a clear majority on the committee is nowready to vote articles of impeachment against mr nixon by ourcount twenty one members have now made clear that they are ready to vote forimpeachment seven members seven additional members have indicated theymay vote for why more articles but in any event are attending areleaning in that direction than other members all republicans indicate

that they will vote against impeachment of the presidentso there was not much about before that mr nixonwould be impeached by the judiciary committee that a resolution of impeachmentwould be approved it now seems obvious that this will takeplace the big remaining question is just how the articles aredrafted the form in which they take it is also play in thatsaid there will be enough republican votes supporting the articles of impeachmentto make for a respectable bipartisan majorityand this certainly is not good news for the president because it will make itmore likely that an impeachment resolution will be approved with sufficientbipartisan support on the house floor and send the impeachment resolution onto the senate so in many ways this has been a dramatic day

this evening and winding up the gentle that they've cleared three speeches for the presidentand seven speeches against the president and gmthe workforce did you have about that's why thatnothing that can stamp on the significance of the day is a year the question thequestion remains now is what our world will be and what specificarticles of impeachment will will contain it will be worked out beginning tomorrowi would add one additional one of this circus time on that the verycrucial flag know i'm just thinking about as you were talking to these twodays having that on television primetime at night and allday we've heard from all thirty eight members of this committee and all that if you now have declaredthemselves is going to be interesting this ain't gonna be interesting to sayhow the american public perceives this committee's action based on i hadn't

seen these people they keep in mind that with the possible exception of rodinowho became as a result of this of his chairmanship of a godmother theseother thirty eight member of july as you examined yourself very fewof these people were known there was there were known on less as well as winningand as the piano against impeachment she is leaving for et ceterabut now they have now been saying and they have to explain themselves when we go into specifics tomorrowlet's go now to our colleague of officebuildings are all verygood and i guess the thing that strikes me here at the end of this second day of the session is theintensity of feeling that we've heard the passions that have been aroused and havebeen exhibited hereby least thirty members there's also been a sort oflove or tenderness for the constitution a great respect for the system and i think thatmessage got out to the people that probably is a very major part of the education process

of this entire proceeding there has been a great deal of agonizing among all the membersof the committee i think everybody no matter which studies on the impeachment issueeverybody has expressed just this feeling that you really didn't want to be in this position he really didn't want to have tomake a decision and it has been a very painful personal one for him i think maybe ahighlight was when caldwell butler is a very impassioned speech in andcame out or impeachment of the president and made it quite clear that he expects that he probably willnot get reelected he's going to have a tough time down in roanoke virginia because he has come outagainst its president the president of his own party so i see this day interms of a personal vision on the part of the thirty eight members thirty eightpeople saying that they love their country to love the system they love the constitution i want to do what isright and now of course they have to get down to the nitty gritty business ofdrying up the actual articles of impeachment and it is a moment when i wondered

just how the public in general will feel when they measure up each ofthese thirty eight men and what they were trying to say here in these long hours that you canbuy john kramer of georgetown university law schooland bilbao stein of the duke university law school and staying with us all day andall night joanna very simple question from your perspective where are wenow i think we are now throwing away most of these side issuesinvolved in the possible is in peak of what we heard tonight speeches on bombing in cambodia onpresidential pack for parents i think it's clear the majority in the committees like they looked at those andreally focusing on this concept of the abuse of power the abuse of office analyst cowensaid somebody waved the constitution tonight but almost every speech and thought ofdestroying of suburbia the constitution that seemed to be the central core thing they're reallyoff the high crime misdemeanor think i'm back on this abuse act

allows for a great deal i can't get everything you want because thereare couple of the summer of an author i think it would have takenwell i think there's a great deal more agreement on the committee than i had everanticipated when i first came to sit with you and i think this majority agrees that there is apresumption of innocence and that there's a majority that has applied for at least attemptedto apply a fan of clear and convincing evidence and while i don't think they all agree that youhave to show the technical elements of crime i do find a consistent pattern in themajority of the members of the list they're mostly the flavor or take a criminal of theblack death i think also that they've decided that the offensiveness be relativelygreat version i threw all of that in court within the committee i think it's a it'sa well made of our partners there and i think we've learnedfrom other things to a lot of corporate fast to recapitulate as jon

i think there have been at least five issue previously advertised in the press have possiblysupporting articles of impeachment that will not make it these include tax fraud these includethe itt and nokia was alive solicitation of bribery theseinclude the bombing of cambodia the alleged solicitation of bribery to judgeburton and the contempt of a congressional process itself in fact remarkably good onany articles of impeachment our murdered my view of that which will command a majority of thecommittee the first of those is is when you have no doubt that theimpeachment proceedings are going to move along in that articles will be will be a prude i wannafight both of you for coming and joining our debate and we like to tell our audience that the housejudiciary committee will resume its deliberations tomorrow moving into thecrucial phase where it will be debating specific articles we'll bevideotaping be played tomorrow evening and with live coverage on