Congresswoman Barbara Jordan Reflects on Watergate (1975)

[music] Barbara Jordan, Democratic Representative from Texas. Tonight, on Washington Straight Talk Congresswoman Barbara Jordan is interviewed by NPACT correspondent Paul Duke. Miss Jordan, you first came to national prominence as a member of the House Judiciary Committee which voted to impeach Richard Nixon last year. As you reflect back, have we learned anything from that traumatic experience and from the long ordeal of Watergate? - Paul, it's very difficult to say what we did learn. We forget quickly in this country. It so happens that people have not yet forgot the proceedings of the House Judiciary Committee because as I travel around the country from time to time inevitably, someone will say,

"I remember you from the impeachment proceedings." But what did we learn? One lesson of Watergate was that too much cash in a campaign may be bad. So the Congress passed a campaign reform act. We learned that some of the agencies of the government, the CIA, the FBI, the IRS, sometimes will exceed their legislative charter and engage in activities which are not a part of the function of those agencies. So the House has a select committee to investigate the CIA and the Senate has a similar committee. Hearings are held before a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee into these agencies. The bottom line of Watergate is integrity and morality in government. And there's no way the Congress can enact legislation which is going to deal with that issue. And I think that the public as a result of Watergate now views politicians and public officials

with some skepticism and our probing and cast their vote in line with what they feel will be their definition of integrity and morality in government. - There is a fundamental question here because you speak of the abuses by the FBI and other agencies. Has Congress now learned the lesson as your colleague on the House Committee, Congressman James Mann of South Carolina said, has Congress now learned that it must be the watchmen in the night to protect our civil liberties and our constitutional freedoms? - I think Congress has really learned that lesson. Now, it sounds so old-fashioned for a representative to say, "I am going to protect the rights and secure the liberties of the American people." But that's what we're going to have to become. Old-fashioned watchdogs of the civil liberties of American citizens. - And you feel that Congress will now do a better job in overseeing the FBI and the CIA,

that it will not permit those agencies to get away with the kind of indiscretions which they did in the past? I could quickly say, yes, we're going to do a better job, but I don't know where we will. We're trying to get... - But is the mood there to do the better job? The mood is there, the mood is there, but it is difficult to get the handles on these agencies. - Even though Watergate is now largely behind us,