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

chairman beginning of this meeting let the evening with chairman invited me to make an introductory remarks following in her diaper earmarks made by him and an order that it might not appear the violent crime in to speeches so closely and are all understood that i would not be recognized for an astounding begun would waive my seniority and be recognized at the end of the roster the others have my eloquent than distinguished colleagues have expressed a wide range of views on impeachment process that would leave many hours of awkward speeches i would be more specific at all are the risks trespassing on endurance of all those who listened to this committee's of the reasons we're not for the finance gravity of the subject matter i have great respect for any man who occupies the

office of president but my respect for the constitution is even greater all americans should be grateful for a splendid constitution and for the foresight of our founding fathers in providing through impeachment bombings for removing a president during his term of office when circumstances necessitate so doing the constitution places the responsibility for initiating proceedings for the removal of president in the house of representatives in this case the house have demanded of this committee to report with the recommendations concerning whether the hour for the exercises impeachment our records i listened attentively for those of my colleagues learned men and women all oral argument great intellect in favor of the impeachment of the president i remained unconvinced by their argument i believe their case is weak

and i'm unconvinced as well i regret to say by their view of the impeachment process itself as the trust is based in congress to safeguard the liberties of the people through the awesome an extraordinary power to remove a president so musto congress is vigilance be fierce and saying that they trust is not a view the proper use of impeachment power depends upon our understanding with the current focus on the cost of the constitution provides that the president may be impeached tried convicted and removal office for the commission of treason bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors the meaning of the words treated and bribery are seldom their crimes i try and directed against the state to me the meaning of the words another high crimes and

misdemeanors is equally obvious it means what it says that affirms them ambien before the commission of crimes and misdemeanors with like other crimes with bailing them about the proven treason and bribery are not in the sense that they are crimes directed against writing great impact upon the system of government itself boston lyceum the constitution imposes two separate conditions or removal of a president one criminality and two serious impact of the kremlin of that criminality upon the government going might never in judgment as to the impact on government of specific act i'll that we would all very imperious me if that's a significant impact on government is required but some of my colleagues feel that for prime time at all any roundup which they think are feel as a

significant impact on your mouth i suggest that they are equal with other very effectively abandoning all together the only specific standard set forth in the constitution for a presidential impeachment in doing so they left with no government guideline at all except their own judgment of impact they were only alarming risk of abusing the very trucks with the founding fathers so far away and i would like to believe prudently place in their name let me give an example where the danger line last night two articles of impeachment or interviewed for adoption by this committee the second of those articles have been referred to in the debate to earth as an abusive far it is in fact a grab bag of allegations ranging from matters of national security the subpoenas served on the president by this committee on the president's administration administrative oversight of the executive department of

government republican veterans of the nation the concepts underlying this report radical seemed to me that if you can make anything or any single charge that many of them succeed in removing the president of all the charges where this reported while any indictment so broadly drawn with the fuss about poor but were asked to treat the president by a lower standard than would be accorded any part of the law the loneliest family friend that brings in enough to another point of standard approved what is applicable to an impeachable an impeachment proceeding in the entire history of our nation no man has ever been lawfully then beyond reasonable bell yet some of my colleagues on the committee over the application of the lesser standard here i

need not even say i suppose that i loved him lay upon most of it i believe it is again being heard of the most basic notions of american justice for the sacrifice much has been said on the evidence in the case and i doubt whether any explanations of my views without love once you've heard let me just say that not only do i believe that we're about what i do not think of cruelty of an approach to the lesser standards of proof with some of my colleagues have either weekend edition from its investigation the law and i'm not really that we can strike man who are stacking inferences one upon a mother are we're making repeated demands for information from the frozen which we know we will we'll now and which he believes in principle we cannot supply them but trying to draw inferences from a refusal which we fully anticipated before the demands were even made i believe it

was perfectly proper for this committee to undertake this indoor one serious charges of president for misconduct i have been made as it is the purpose of impeachment as much honorably to exonerate as to if you and by mr i really this inquiry has been conducted with fairness at the table but i would urge my colleagues to avoid now and the moment of the losing side of the normal principles with our embodied in our great constitution and with riot their conscience thank you mr black and mr hutchinson see our ids john and we now approach that time when after their eyes been flowing for a debate

that we can share the unending only on opposing a proposed for the impeachment of the president of the united states however before proceeding to that phase which will take place on tomorrow i would like to make a few common few comments of appreciation first of all for the able to staff there as very objectively professionally and with arrow dedication under the leadership of this the door for so that the ordeal only trying work that was necessary in order to find the facts and present the facts this committee i think the most the door is the be saluted

for his great feel for only desire that the truth presented to us in a professional and objective way it is a great american who has contributed a great deal of the work of this committee and along with him a man who has stated that before this body that he loves the constitution about any party stage and actually improve contribution or those who work with them right now has been designated the minority council lot of those who worked under your direction who are the unsung and then came with total dedication riley going i first sought

to select a staff and talk with is the hutchinson i i laid down a condition taken preceding that the hiring any member of that stat and that was that they were to come to this in hiring with no preconceived notion advocating no position but advocating only the search for the truth and the pre invasion of the fat and this you have done and i applaud you for the nonpartisan approach and if a few days ago he made a judgment a judgment based on the facts as you saw them in therapy and as a matter

of conscience getting a professional opinion i applaud you for the courage that you brought to this kind of conviction and i think everyone will point i also want to express my gratitude to the general counsel of our committing this disease who has done a remarkable job with his grasp of the total notion of these great proceeding but beyond them i want to applaud the members of this committee and my comedy they have demonstrated a capacity to work behind closed doors if you will for a period of time searching out the truth laboring and

toiling i'm wrestling with a fiat without seeking acclamation our laws of any sort because there is none at the end of the trail accepted sure knowledge an issuer warn that right will be done and i believe in each of you as deserving of the highest accolade because you reflect upon this by and especially the judiciary committee the highest and carry on in the great tradition of this body and notwithstanding those who would criticize the work of this committee you have left no stain

upon your efforts and i'm sure that history will record that what you have done you have done that as a matter of conscience and conviction worthy of a great responsibility that is you that is our bringing as i stated in my opening remarks the collective wisdom of men and women total dedication and recognizing the terrible and tremendous burden of having to make a decision which will be lasting and for all time which will crawl to the american people as i said in february sixth for the house of representatives

considering authorization for this committee to our show explain that whatever the result whatever we've come close we proceed with care and foreigners with decency and without our show that all americans and that though is we'll come out and we'll be able to say there was only one way and that was the way we did it and i applaud each and every one of you and i know that on tomorrow when we consider the articles

i will lay before us that we will search and try to find those articles that will truly tell what the impeachable offenses are what this body has found that based on the evidence and the fact so that and recommendation haven't been made by this committee and a report you presented to the house of representatives we can justify what we have done among those bases and there's no let me say that i'm proud to be a part of you be among you to be under

this system even and shouting one of the greatest experiences of my life and as i said i revere the presidency of the united states of america and revered all press is much search within my heart and my conscience and searched out the facts and when i pass the fact i find that the president of the united states in accordance with the task that i feel that we must confront i find that

a president must be found one and so tomorrow i shall part along with others the adoption of articles of impeachment i shall do so with a heavy heart because no man seeks to improve his job for defying why being a chief executive of this great country we've had our responsibility to meet as many of us are certainly only echo the sentiments of each of us this is not the name responsibility that we

saw in one imposed upon us and i hope and trust and pry what we don't know for all the damage has been right so that our country to survive as for all time with his i declare it ms mimi says until eleven o'clock tomorrow morning to support his position

you and fellow democrat recommending articles of impeachment against president peter rodino banging the gavel to assess the proceedings until tomorrow morning when the committee will begin a debate on specific articles of impeachment all thirty eight members of the judiciary committee have now spoken and it is plain from what we heard last night this morning this afternoon and today at a clear majority on the committee is now ready to vote articles of impeachment against mr nixon by our count twenty one members have now made clear that they are ready to vote for impeachment seven members seven additional members have indicated they may vote for why more articles but in any event are attending are leaning in that direction than other members all republicans indicate

that they will vote against impeachment of the president so there was not much about before that mr nixon would be impeached by the judiciary committee that a resolution of impeachment would be approved it now seems obvious that this will take place the big remaining question is just how the articles are drafted the form in which they take it is also play in that said there will be enough republican votes supporting the articles of impeachment to make for a respectable bipartisan majority and this certainly is not good news for the president because it will make it more likely that an impeachment resolution will be approved with sufficient bipartisan support on the house floor and send the impeachment resolution on to 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 president and seven speeches against the president and gm the workforce did you have about that's why that nothing that can stamp on the significance of the day is a year the question the question remains now is what our world will be and what specific articles of impeachment will will contain it will be worked out beginning tomorrow i would add one additional one of this circus time on that the very crucial flag know i'm just thinking about as you were talking to these two days having that on television primetime at night and all day we've heard from all thirty eight members of this committee and all that if you now have declared themselves is going to be interesting this ain't gonna be interesting to say how 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 rodino who became as a result of this of his chairmanship of a godmother these other thirty eight member of july as you examined yourself very few of these people were known there was there were known on less as well as winning and as the piano against impeachment she is leaving for et cetera but now they have now been saying and they have to explain themselves when we go into specifics tomorrow let's go now to our colleague of office buildings are all very good and i guess the thing that strikes me here at the end of this second day of the session is the intensity of feeling that we've heard the passions that have been aroused and have been exhibited hereby least thirty members there's also been a sort of love or tenderness for the constitution a great respect for the system and i think that message 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 members of the committee i think everybody no matter which studies on the impeachment issue everybody has expressed just this feeling that you really didn't want to be in this position he really didn't want to have to make a decision and it has been a very painful personal one for him i think maybe a highlight was when caldwell butler is a very impassioned speech in and came out or impeachment of the president and made it quite clear that he expects that he probably will not get reelected he's going to have a tough time down in roanoke virginia because he has come out against its president the president of his own party so i see this day in terms of a personal vision on the part of the thirty eight members thirty eight people saying that they love their country to love the system they love the constitution i want to do what is right and now of course they have to get down to the nitty gritty business of drying 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 of these thirty eight men and what they were trying to say here in these long hours that you can buy john kramer of georgetown university law school and bilbao stein of the duke university law school and staying with us all day and all night joanna very simple question from your perspective where are we now i think we are now throwing away most of these side issues involved in the possible is in peak of what we heard tonight speeches on bombing in cambodia on presidential pack for parents i think it's clear the majority in the committees like they looked at those and really focusing on this concept of the abuse of power the abuse of office analyst cowen said somebody waved the constitution tonight but almost every speech and thought of destroying of suburbia the constitution that seemed to be the central core thing they're really off 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 there are couple of the summer of an author i think it would have taken well i think there's a great deal more agreement on the committee than i had ever anticipated when i first came to sit with you and i think this majority agrees that there is a presumption of innocence and that there's a majority that has applied for at least attempted to apply a fan of clear and convincing evidence and while i don't think they all agree that you have to show the technical elements of crime i do find a consistent pattern in the majority of the members of the list they're mostly the flavor or take a criminal of the black death i think also that they've decided that the offensiveness be relatively great version i threw all of that in court within the committee i think it's a it's a well made of our partners there and i think we've learned from 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 possibly supporting articles of impeachment that will not make it these include tax fraud these include the itt and nokia was alive solicitation of bribery these include the bombing of cambodia the alleged solicitation of bribery to judge burton and the contempt of a congressional process itself in fact remarkably good on any articles of impeachment our murdered my view of that which will command a majority of the committee the first of those is is when you have no doubt that the impeachment proceedings are going to move along in that articles will be will be a prude i wanna fight both of you for coming and joining our debate and we like to tell our audience that the house judiciary committee will resume its deliberations tomorrow moving into the crucial phase where it will be debating specific articles we'll be videotaping be played tomorrow evening and with live coverage on

many pbs stations stayed tuned the most of these pbs stations for impacts videotape replay of today's proceedings i'm paul de janeiro myself good night from washington you have been watching live gavel the gavel coverage of the house judiciary committee proceedings production funding provided by public television stations the ford foundation and the corporation for public broadcasting visited a production of and by a division of vw eta the pipe