1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,600
Speaker 1: There are echoes of Watergate and the smoking gun that

2
00:00:02,640 --> 00:00:05,720
Speaker 1: took President Richard Nixon down. In the latest crisis of

3
00:00:05,800 --> 00:00:09,760
Speaker 1: President Trump from the revelation that fired FBI director James

4
00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:12,840
Speaker 1: Comey kept notes of a conversation in which he says

5
00:00:12,920 --> 00:00:16,720
Speaker 1: Trump asked him to drop an investigation of former National

6
00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:20,440
Speaker 1: Security advisor Michael Flynn, to Trump's tweets, hinting he may

7
00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:24,040
Speaker 1: have tapes of conversations in the White House. Richard Nixon

8
00:00:24,120 --> 00:00:27,360
Speaker 1: was undone by the voice activated tape recordings throughout the

9
00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:31,720
Speaker 1: White House, recording conversations like this tape of a conversation

10
00:00:31,800 --> 00:00:36,080
Speaker 1: with Henry Kissinger in April of ninety three over whether

11
00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:40,000
Speaker 1: to fire White House Chief of Staff hr Holdeman. I

12
00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:45,000
Speaker 1: would make him to villain well, and in the end

13
00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:52,920
Speaker 1: he would probably have to go Henry Bloomberg News reporter

14
00:00:53,040 --> 00:00:55,960
Speaker 1: Andrew Martin has written about the smoking gun that took

15
00:00:56,080 --> 00:01:00,760
Speaker 1: Nixon down. Welcome Andrew, tell us about tell us about

16
00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:04,920
Speaker 1: the call that youth call the most famous example of

17
00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:11,240
Speaker 1: presidential meddling. Well, um, it's by the way, so it's

18
00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:13,240
Speaker 1: really fun to go back and listen to these days,

19
00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:16,920
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, they're really interesting hearing them now.

20
00:01:16,959 --> 00:01:19,880
Speaker 1: Thirty five years later, and UM, you know what this

21
00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:23,720
Speaker 1: was was a conversation that Nixon had in the Oval

22
00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:26,080
Speaker 1: office was HR Haldoman, who was his chief of staff

23
00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:31,080
Speaker 1: at the time. The date was June, it was six

24
00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:35,959
Speaker 1: days after the Watergate break in, and UM, uh, you know,

25
00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:40,560
Speaker 1: they're they're trying to figure out, um, what the FBI

26
00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:44,480
Speaker 1: is doing, and they have this conversation about um, the

27
00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:49,160
Speaker 1: FBI UM successfully tracing some of the money back, which

28
00:01:49,280 --> 00:01:51,440
Speaker 1: you know, eventually we know that when that you know,

29
00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:55,680
Speaker 1: it went from Nixon's people to these burglars, but they

30
00:01:55,720 --> 00:02:00,280
Speaker 1: were beginning that process, and Haldeman um suggests that at

31
00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:03,120
Speaker 1: you know, maybe they get the C A c I

32
00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:07,560
Speaker 1: A to lean on the FBI to to quash this investigation,

33
00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:11,000
Speaker 1: to to stop the investigation of the break in. And

34
00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:14,320
Speaker 1: you know, finally at the end of this conversation, uh,

35
00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:19,639
Speaker 1: Nixon appears to agree and says, uh, they should call

36
00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:21,640
Speaker 1: the FBI and then say that we wish for the

37
00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:25,440
Speaker 1: country don't go any further into this case period. And

38
00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:29,919
Speaker 1: so this tape came out two years later in nineteen

39
00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:33,280
Speaker 1: seventy four, and obviously, UM, by that time, all kinds

40
00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:35,200
Speaker 1: of revelations that came out of the Washington Post and

41
00:02:35,320 --> 00:02:38,920
Speaker 1: York Times and elsewhere. Um. And it was called the

42
00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:42,200
Speaker 1: smoking gun tape because it was sort of the you know,

43
00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:46,720
Speaker 1: the last uh straw, and this this cover up and

44
00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:50,480
Speaker 1: and showed definitively that Nixon had been involved from the

45
00:02:50,560 --> 00:02:55,320
Speaker 1: very start. Um. So UM again, it's if you want

46
00:02:55,320 --> 00:02:57,320
Speaker 1: to listen to the University of Virginia has a great

47
00:02:57,360 --> 00:03:01,919
Speaker 1: website of all presidential tapes that are available, including this one,

48
00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:04,640
Speaker 1: as does the Nixton Library. So you know, it is

49
00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:08,560
Speaker 1: similar in that it's a president UM attempting to meddle

50
00:03:09,400 --> 00:03:12,600
Speaker 1: UM in an FBI investigation, which by the way, was unsuccessful.

51
00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:16,920
Speaker 1: Right Um. But um, and certainly this is the allegation now,

52
00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:23,440
Speaker 1: um from this memo from James Comey. And as far

53
00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:28,120
Speaker 1: as I have heard and researched, no memo since, no memo,

54
00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:33,279
Speaker 1: no president since Nixon has taped in the Oval office.

55
00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:38,080
Speaker 1: But before that, it started with FDR. Yes, there's a

56
00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:42,000
Speaker 1: long history of taping. FDR began UM taping reporters, I

57
00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:46,800
Speaker 1: believe in um because he was this was so familiar.

58
00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:49,240
Speaker 1: He was unhappy with the way he was being quoted

59
00:03:49,280 --> 00:03:53,440
Speaker 1: by the press. So UM he would tape press conferences,

60
00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:57,000
Speaker 1: and sometimes the tape would roll slightly before slightly after

61
00:03:57,040 --> 00:03:59,680
Speaker 1: the press conferences. So they did pick up some personal

62
00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:02,040
Speaker 1: reversations of FDR, which, by the way, you can listen

63
00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:07,320
Speaker 1: to UM at this University of Virginia site. UM. After that, UH,

64
00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:10,840
Speaker 1: the other presidents did as well, on a limited basis. UM.

65
00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:17,080
Speaker 1: Kennedy started taping more UH, and then UM FDR taped

66
00:04:17,080 --> 00:04:21,400
Speaker 1: extensively UM and Johnson President Johnson, I'm sorry, that's what

67
00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:24,920
Speaker 1: I meant to say, UM, LB J UM taped extensively

68
00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:28,680
Speaker 1: UM and UH, and then of course Nixon. So and

69
00:04:28,720 --> 00:04:32,039
Speaker 1: as I understand it, UM, since that time, Reagan did

70
00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:36,560
Speaker 1: tape some calls with foreign leaders, UM because he wanted

71
00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:39,880
Speaker 1: to make sure there were no issues in the translation. UM,

72
00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:43,720
Speaker 1: but not to the extent UM of Nixon, which, as

73
00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:46,520
Speaker 1: as you pointed out, had a voice activated recorder that

74
00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:50,800
Speaker 1: recorded everything. Thirty of tapes, and you know this one

75
00:04:50,920 --> 00:04:53,720
Speaker 1: is is probably the most famous, although you know that

76
00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:56,960
Speaker 1: one from Kissinger played wasn't bad either. I listened to

77
00:04:57,000 --> 00:04:58,839
Speaker 1: some of them, and some of them I couldn't play

78
00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:03,359
Speaker 1: because there were things said that we're not radio friendly.

79
00:05:03,520 --> 00:05:07,240
Speaker 1: It does, it does, but that's why we're running out

80
00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:10,400
Speaker 1: of time. It it uh. It makes me wonder whether

81
00:05:10,880 --> 00:05:14,080
Speaker 1: Trump would have taped these or not, and I guess

82
00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:17,040
Speaker 1: we will not find out for a while. But it's

83
00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:20,680
Speaker 1: it's a very interesting story, and it's on the Bloomberg again.

84
00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:23,760
Speaker 1: You can you can certainly go read it. That's Bloomberg

85
00:05:23,800 --> 00:05:26,279
Speaker 1: News reporter Andrew Martin. Thanks for being here, Andrew,