1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-07-13; Part 2 of 6

it's been rainy and pike continues its coverage of hearings by the senate select committee on presidential campaign activities here again correspondent robert macneil as we go back to the years richard morris still being questioned about his conversations with jaunty has been missing this meetings would you have ended with the president recently in a meeting room and it can you just that they had a son and their own campaign fbi

investigation was a discussion about the companions libya in this administration with the administration's ideas so there is tension there lily's we're receiving that the previous president president had used for ted hughes the fbi for personal political purposes in ways the president the price of oil apparently with the contrast because you

have been accused of in effect is in the fbi reports that the information would be a quite harsh but you know very important no i didn't fifteen and if you have this information from mr bain concerning meetings and metals and things about him that you were the president and the president's residence than you did not

do detainees what i knew how to describe this is the moment when i thought somebody was there with a substantially robert identity one shred of evidence and nothing at that point that both the white house three gestures of discussion of that but that means somebody else i

don't know anything one doesn't like it well i suppose i do because of his particular that the president knew believed that no one in the white house i've been involved as you had said it was still i know i believed right up to look at and learn from it as much twenty first

but until i heard about it and connected with my mind with his white book of the point about that was that but i was demanding money for the white house would be about that with something ok the recent events in the kind of things which he had been suggested that resolved that mystery it certainly was i began to get suspicious i had the president at what doesn't ultimately win those voters say they'd be heard and when one shows up before the twentieth

the money the deals that he won't be able to accept that as his version of the conversation this goes back to a discussion of the things that was on his mind if he publicly at seventy i think the policy of the president and i that's right i think while the us still questions about needing to confirmation hearings in the nation you know one of the reactions

when people at the precise in their memories of days for example i was given an ethical question what i've talked to the president about the fifth of a point june thirtieth with the state of the case that have no frame of reference of the most loyal and suddenly came into my mind and july one was the david mitchell resigned his campaign to read that that was the day before that the president will talk about that i didn't connect with david preparing for your b as a bean mr miller says he received a cossack fifteen monday night and

if you limit republican political in your in your statement and what kind of a question that i try to concentrate i mean when i read it as a central issue significant testimony that the young man that investigate whether the blue jacketed secretary bill that with that so called investigation of that i think is really what i had recorded june seven when it was explained what it was about but i mean it's clearly some of the bloom i think i was ready for their part and also frightening and that was very relevant more than eleven estimates there was no respect with lenses i believe that that's it's just that that state so engrossing getting ready and having spent

the day before they're like i want i would suggest a cut real so yes thanks bye usually when the team got what happened when you may well be a closed door and we trained in the hole that actually i said very little about it listen i don't think the president has many other things do you

know anybody else thinks usually good for you and i think it's going to be good for the country i think he was receptive to that that is important for companies that if you keep going there's the president that they're even the president really said by all means comment tomorrow you know the statement today on the news that washington and take on even mccain the response on revenue or was it in your money was receptive to the

survey as they aren't you mentioned we're going to visit with me is just about the conversation and that was to remove the tobacco company you what was your relationship that for instance and it was it was just it was basically professional official but he did for example that that calling at the middle of like the criminals and think of the veterans that you cannot visit to hold will a new well and that he

told me on this news about that follow which dug into a pile and said that he had been this stuff i could tell you this it like the arrival of the rest of the state it's a vexing problem with it and then that one of the discussions the next day and we did and we did mention of the future that the judge will actually withdraw i think that

at that stage in his life that clearly was a very present very seriously you had come to me and i think i was helpful because the papers to grade very funny twenty two i was i think you know for it was just the killing and again being careful about using quotation marks but it's my recollection that this is it

here's what just happened and he said i decided to take them they're still doing that things like that of course and then say call a secretary and with that the developments well i made some of the great revelations because i think we as you know this

discussion just a few hours ago was the president told him there was a chance that we talk about that i have to do he wants to fight talk oh and finally sharon in the nba and that's why i want to characterize conversations but he was not excited he was on a cold desolate was pleased and in the event that some people president the next president it for us and i saw because i can't place that conversation with his office of mine that could've been out that i ran into is was short

conversation and the whole lot will draw the deal we have to ride to harlem that's right and then one very careful about this because i believe i asked him was the president surprised that he replied he wasn't sure was but in any event that there was a final conversation with it which where we're at the federal budget and the president have been surprised by the pinky toe oh yes

imagine the situation shawna forde appeared in the president's heart may be increasing demand not true we will that might change when it they do he said i just didn't just learn dylan's of that they said today and i place this was very late in the day the it out i say that because we met with the president of the afternoon of bonding with it and i certainly didn't know about that time but that i could be sure but i don't think so twenty of justice

so that was a place in my mind when we met with the president at the earliest and that when he wanted to learn about he didn't he just had a lot of that they didn't get this money by wednesday and it wasn't before he was at the positive of put it is about something before elections in fact he was a budget wednesday that women drivers because this episode was that was it illegal players situation because first of all the demands and the money and now you mentioned was enormous i don't remember that number is a sense that it was six hundred thousand dollars

and that i live in connecticut and didn't come in a community to tell me what the basis of it was that i had had a pattern of the things i said who was very very restrained and out of that this case i didn't have to crawl it already was aware that was going on in terms of possibly many people are upset people visualize that here was a case where this was coming this blackmail effort was being aimed at the white house that the information whatever it was i was going to only send about what he says it can't be worse yes well i had a conversation with the president about that

april nineteenth and by the lake at our meetings with the spirit so this was a poem it and it would be and this one is really well when i came in to cnn issued this april seventeen statement that serious new challenges that come to his attention and so so i came and i said and he said that that they can do a much when first i said the well so i'm brian koppelman about the statement in terms of reactions i've heard it and i said i know that was twenty first grade i guess it must have been the source of those charges and he said something like hold it you know and i said yes i said that we met with who the day before yes i do and i said now the

thing that that means that was that black middle of this week huckabee tell you about that he said yes yes you mentioned that that's what he said and i have to my recollection you said it you can't do that first of all there is the spot and he said he said that this work you know the president isn't the point but but he's got the ball to raise money and money to be got the point is it is an ad that i don't believe in that that was it scott what other major relief effort orbit going to be as safe as we can

for the next day april twentieth i say at this point he was very close and i'm going to sit with us and the impacts of stand by it so i went in as a vice president of thing about this whole thing's know the olsen was standing by the door i think when

you're standing up and his legacy it's the weekend and time to recommit a reference about the baby's the resurrection of this whole thing talk about how well the reason they want to see is that is the thing about this whole thing you know if you know that you didn't know i said what to do now that i said that we don't take action and that the facts like well then it will be he'll be accused of a cover up of a cover up and natural tremendous global opposite effect you know you are about and i sent another message it wants the writers told that as you assess the

facts you get the benefit of outside because everybody in this building has his own relationships why is it actually own apartment and when you are assessing the legal and factual issues please a bigot someone lies ahead of outside ad that was at the factory and now that's the question oh it up to move wherever that it's my fault and that i guess isn't it now say that indeed those vivid of this matter of the airplane with the president and they pointed the

biggest thing but what i don't know what it was i don't know what has that ended up with a simple reason that any fact that the best of anyone or any way to work in the white house was a bit too close himself is in some way more had me opinions or will be in the position possibly up having to combat adversely about other people and it's very difficult human nature to talk about your friend coworker at the way people in the white house would get involved and it matters that were popular illegal i felt that

the president should say that is only because at that point i should ever says he was gone at this critical time with no special services no that was about the size of it he was in jail nice job please lawyer

that's right solomon reports tony williams reporting nice job the first week in april

much more relaxed i don't know and i disagree with that what is it these are people who

have been libby's knowledge that's it we're going in the right direction and i said certainly the heat he said that at that point to me this fall i don't know about and said this was before resetting with insurance eviction it was a war that includes a fallacy

media attention to a meal i know thank you businesses all the work horses simple as well thousands of september fifteen nineteen forty eight to the sale this is a meeting that is the bottom

line question would the seven when you know if you read it carefully and he said that this is what this is what i call the bottom line is oh that's a subjective evaluation israelis our emotional statement he said that he made to you after leaving one to report is a bit unclear meeting or not a lot of it was supposed to come up and have the roadmap of a real dimension says with that's right

no sir you remember that the question at all there is that what it was talking about how one of those things that go on in that video is no way that he thinks the senate

and i don't it does your answers profound consideration if that statement after the conversation that you handle virtual spaces conversation he says it was in the afternoon there were new you know

and get through the implications for the violence continuing the president competitors well ari this trip that whether he already had received a lot of money that would

dispute it was all analysts that after that conversation i decided you do maybe twenty it and that's a debate about the video that was the haunting let's say some things that would be used on the president's decision of the weimar one more before maine the

situation i don't know ok well i have several conversations with a lot of them who was the mine he said i have this thing where all i'm going to say what the things through the report i don't know second i think it was intended to political

meeting with one more idea of how the presidency would take the leadership get it all out alibaba may say so waiting for these hearings in the basement of the essential facts and that effectively was some kind of a presidential race of what would be comparable to look so arbitration where everybody when they would agree to give testimony of patients receiving an abiding by that were involved in that and i think this is the original there is and he's as another one or something like that there's a story coming out of the los angeles times that i knew in

advance about going to prove to be the new abnormal events of the watergate break in that but he said the main levels and he said that the level of it's important to prevent rejection busy when i was little women are two more you will reconvene today show to the lives of people fourteen are you

worried what we're learning consumers also a listener question marks it's both all right

with a question and they go to prison holleman yes that the western was what gets what how do you think of all what's a man i guess he said i think he may have some trouble in that three hundred and fifty thousand dollars which was over here and and one of these

days he had said to me that he was not the first time i have been where i've been aware of and getting information derived probably wondering whether reagan and all the rest of the state or any of them or walk on my view that's right it is it i was yes i asked and i think as that this way that surprise visit i want to get to the one of you said his people may not be so much work words caught the effect was that caused the

problem by that you so much wanted as the ellsberg well i've been trying to remember whether you get a break in the doctor's office and i am not certain amount of say so the differences between watergate anything about it he said my counsel has carefully to wonder if like the wrong so i said what is that anyway my

counsel has been to sources at the us attorney's office that anybody around here has had the basis were whether he's filipino this looks like about the list on the final question very important source of what the president told you quote the president almost everything we know about the relationship with president paul newman's willful i met him in nineteen fifty but i didn't known well until nineteen sixty well yes in nineteen sixty two i think that was chairman of the little media advisory committee i don't

yes and it's about a lot now that was actually never go well that's really the sixty two campaign then well it was also more than that a more intimate basis that is so that that's what we would really are mike metz by actors with that was like but it wasn't until the summer of nineteen sixty eight there's

more times that you're aware that your appearance here as a witness and more specifically as a witness to follow just an actual testimony was requested by the costs over the president has delivered on he's gone reporter we read on this discussion was about it like a footnote on that and i think that they can determine what the executive privilege and attorney client privilege situation lives and we discussed that aspect testimony continued in the white house dave davies host

as the new season of law briefly people before they appeared before the public citizens to see a new album in the first week for this so most important historical proceeding is rolling out doesn't only thing before this point shaving oh yeah and i don't think he's

been in the piece because i was in i was born and i believe there was approximately two weeks ago subsequent to that list the prospect of more possible and possible witnesses appeared in the paper and i noticed mr morris name was listed as possible and that is my only knowledge of a white house the discussion monday evening i'm going to

be sixty santa claus thank you requested six mr parker that interview with dave

maybe you thought that was built that should also say that before these proceedings before i think about the facts of the situation in humans the venetian and in my discussions with the president but that would be a witness testimony but it doesn't mean that's it

the conversation the end of that but sometime during the testimony and when i was in contact with reference to getting white house because he's not making any office requested indicating that it was not his positions of the witnesses to call that one a witness or should be they say where you felt fear that people who testified who were knowledgeable of the same mountain sickness or being mentioned as a possible witnesses mourning now meetings

so the russians will have a new united states you have some experience whenever the president you've also suggested that the committee that you're only a press tv expert and because of this sentimental across the meetings are you invited to attend this meeting but two of the most influential men in the government of the united states at all

you have indicated that that moment you had no idea about the involvement of the white house or any of its staff members and the watergate break in all the aftermath is not raised as did you feel it was rather strange and discussing among other things members of this committee the edge of his customers about the stability that it has been easy in the room for that discussion in the us government that sentiment you looking for weeks i don't think it's a good question

i'm going ok for weeks watch the fact that that suggested it's just like a really you know it went anywhere in the ocean sixty two sixty four sixty seven when june at least the curious when the mother of money was being discussed in this is true i really enjoyed myself they get money at the one and i don't know that i will this was never the nih committee to reelect her husband have filed a report with the government accounting office indicating that clearly they have a surplus of faith in a million dollars and the mayor now the reporters while indicating yes it was a

format billion dollars went to careers as to why more money had been raised in with a surplus of the curious i don't think all thinking about that what was it was it was a variety of lawsuits including individual defendants we believe in america and the individual event committee was a reelection the president flew in the best possible by then there's the reflection with hindsight i had before i was the first time i'd been

examining what would be the watergate days and what i was doing oh no as opposed to and what was the next question trial runs of this dizziness press conferences i am corrected presume that you have to follow the news accounts of what

they want to read the papers and as one who is well versed in the the business of news reporting and you get a curious about these reports coming out from the new york times the washington post and for that matter most of the united states directly implicated members of the white house that would you a bit curious and it was about chicks directly linked to the committee to reelect president will be present that i was curious about why the president even though the research on this oh yes i guess it's just a series of meetings in that element of that success to

withstand the concert ms danes as well as eu senator maine i said to him i think you want to think of them as i think you would get to the point that in that study the standpoint the vote yes answer is that newspapers in this case i told members of the middle of the newspapers of the people here at the apple think of a convention

center i think that obviously by frame of reference jamaican assumption that two members of the president's back in february they added the publicity about it to cover operating principle we're familiar with that suspicion i was there seven in a way to talk

about these lawsuits of this conversation was going wow seventy were paying much attention and he's right i wasn't making much attention to the status of the lawsuits over the committee with us about it and i made the decision as vivian schiller i guess i guess of these other eye i wish i had gone through an anti trust again as i've testified that statement things began the problems with you know i went back and wonder what was that about whether that will go back in all these things we are so familiar with

this i think there is residency on several occasions directly at the white house who were concerned about the involvement in the watergate cover up yes i'm aware of the white house voted yes i guess mr ryan well i don't know i suppose they would say that boston and now it's over there that was a phrase that the campaign the president of the united states that's set in august twenty nine and he was completely satisfied i don't know

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