1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-09-26; Part 1 of 5

the pain is is colson was quoted once sang i would do anything the president united states asked me to do period now i would subscribe to that statement for this reason says the united states would not ask me to do anything unethical or improper this in the senate of the united states a resolution to establish a select committee of the senate to conduct an investigation of the extent of many illegal or unethical activities were engaged in by enablers acting individually or in combination with others in the presidential election of nineteen seventy

two campaign and there's a lot of activity related to since june the senate watergate hearings got a strong shot of liveliness today as white house special assistant patrick j buchanan a direct outspoken man a bigger and humor defended himself in a wide variety of political shortly before on the apple president nixon the thirty four year old buchanan talked about and explains why he recommended counter actions against the ford foundation and the brookings institution appointing a southern conservative or an italian american to the supreme court setting up a political prankster operation and bring the musty nomination got all a top of my garden writing letters to the editor and many many other things with the assistance of republican senators mary ann baker and minority counsel fred thompson you can also sprinkled his answers with

citations of democratic party precedents for much of what he did or suggestive most of them you cant testimony about from political strategy memos the author of just a few sections of the many documents were actually render in the chorus the proceedings today your carry on capitol hill look them all over and selected three for special scrutiny pat buchanan has been painted as a conservative ideologues out of touch with reality and the mood of the country but in his appearance before the committee today buchanan comes off of a very skilled practical politician through memos that he wrote and the pre election year of nineteen seventy one support that contention on march twenty fourth buchanan said if mr musk is not have been bleeding before he enters the new hampshire primary we very likely will be massively well they're building appears as double momentum for the nomination this scenario is not in our interest well mr majeski was contemplating in the new hampshire primary some say with white house helped his presidential momentum was the score on mr buchanan on april nineteenth

buchanan expressed rage and regard for hubert he said unlike six months ago the man is a serious contender mccain and suggested that hubert humphrey be established as the democratic front runner so the democratic left and starts chopping him up advantageous for us in the long run out precisely this is what happened fourteen months later in the california primary score to for buchanan finally on june ninth buchanan said the senator edward kennedy strategy is to avoid early primaries in which the left handers governed by hughes and so forth would i be knocked out of the box freeing up the kennedy writes for the switch to teddy i obviously mcgovern was not knocked on color in and richard nixon scott won against buchanan but he still betting two out of three not that in any league and i drew a white house correspondent for newsweek magazine is our sitting next for tonight and will be back at the end of the ice broadcaster talk about the candidates of a wedding before and so henry one quick point four

prospective purposes how important man is pat buchanan and what else is that it was a spectacular day in gym he's going to be almost a household word up until the watergate hearings and the watergate affair began two two draw down the white house that that was primarily an idea man as peter seventy below with a guy who was probably one of the most perceptive if i asked critics of the american press but above all an idea man not a member of the inner policymaking circle certainly respected for his ideas in the conservatives are in the white house but i think what he's going to be coming to the surface market if only because some of the former members of the inner circle have disappeared i think we can expect more prominent future of sudan describe today's testimony is viable instructions on the practicalities of american politics as found in both parties is an hour by our rundown of how that lesson in politics unfolds and

the first are buchanan opens the session with an attack on what he calls the character assassins on the urban comedies that he said then maligned him with advanced stories about his role as a dirty tricks architect also an hour buchanan unveiled memos on democratic candidates that formed an assault strategy he said that was a euphemism that was a collection of quotes from candidates compiled and an attack will and the second hour buchanan explains why he felt the tax exemption office at the internal revenue service was biased against conservatives and buchanan explains why he thought the election of edmund muskie would be an event little short of catastrophe for america and our three you can incite an example of president nixon's fairness helen how you ordered everyone on the campaign trail not to comment on the problems thomas eagleton was that also an hour republicans read some chapter and verse from the democratic campaign manual written by larry o'brien it includes the suggestion that happened five years alone the candidate these credit cards in the fourth and final hour you can and admits taking credit for putting mcgovern thirty four points behind in the polls not pushing nixon political

points ahead finally began admits he goes that anti abortion reform letters into michigan newspapers us and telegrams attacking newsmagazines now to the caucus room the senator evan gattis the committee don't come wow wow so called partial illness you're welcome what's that second statement a statement about that no more than fifteen minutes and loans given to

the notion that it's the canadian band twenty minutes ago for zero x men making them incentives for senators and members of the staff stayed interview and wait for the cop with a german name of the committee for a variety of reasons i appreciate the opportunity to appear before your select committee but in candor i cannot speak with the same enthusiasm for the manner in which the invitation was delivered at the president's personal directed his white house staff has been calling on has cooperated fully with the committee specifically this witness has certainly done so nevertheless the

surprise announcement that i was to be called public witness before these hearings was made over national television for even the elementary courtesy of a telephone call of notification have been extended of greater concern to me however has been an apparent campaign orchestrated from within the committee staff to malign my reputation in the public press prior to my appearance in the hours immediately following my well publicized invocation there appeared in the washington post the new york times the baltimore sun chicago tribune and the national networks separate stories called tribute to committee sources alleging that i was an architect of campaign political ads and i've ordered interests courting the host committee sources were in possession of my miranda recommending quote infiltrating the opposition the committee oversees again in court political espionage and

sabotage a confidence must remain and other candidates for the presidential nomination one wire service david it began to question about quote blueprints implants concerning the scandal in the chicago tribune the headline read nixon speechwriter blamed for muscle car story read an idaho senate investigators have evidence of patrick j buchanan one of the president nixon's favorite speechwriters was a secret author of political sabotage me the baltimore sun under major front page headline reading it can wait to seventy two dirty trickster and us patrick j buchanan a presidential consultant may emerge is yet another architect of the nineteen seventy two white house dirty trick strategy according to congressional sources mr chapman is covert campaign of vilification carried on by staff members of your

committee is in direct violation of rule forty of the rules of procedure for the select committee that will strictly prohibits staff members from leaking sensitive materials repeatedly i have asperger's to dash <unk> information that they might have to justify such allegations repeatedly denied to me that they have such thousands massed <unk> committee staffers responsible he responded with the cannon you ought to know that you can't believe everything you read the newspapers so it seems for me to ask how can a select committee set itself up as the ultimate arbiter of american political ethics if it cannot even control the character assassination for the record i do not recommend any ongoing campaign of political sabotage and senator muskie or any other democratic candidate i did record not recommend other verbal your and memoranda at the

reelection committee infiltrate the campaigns of our opposition i have never met or spoken with york and i don't recall ever having heard the names mazur's can't medical corps last words reagan barker there's ready until those names appear in the public trust nor have i ever heard until the terms were made public the code names of movie one really to crystal sedan chair won incidentally or two or that jack even today i cannot justify will serve to confirm now let me move quickly to the heart of public allegations against me but more generally against our presidential campaign it has been argued that if it was a republican strategy and tactics were responsible for the defeat of the strongest democratic candidate for president and for the nomination of the weakest it has been contending publicly but the democrats were denied campaign and our strategy a legitimate choice of your own convention

is being alleged campaign of nineteen seventy two was not only a great campaign but in other fraud quote political coup for president united states these contingencies general together and true republicans were not responsible for the downfall of center mosque and republicans were not responsible for the nomination senator government to suggest that mr walter reed isn't just as both senator mcgovern and his campaign organization senator mcgovern was nominated because his man wrote the rule book is men are in the field earliest worked hardest his campaign is precisely targeted in the primaries they could win and because he was possessed of the best political organization the democratic party has seen at least a dozen years was not ready and put together the organization that character senator mcgovern crucial wisconsin time it was not anti aging of the committee to re elect the president was outlining the gunman delegates in states like georgia louisiana and florida

so it was not our personnel bears who worked out senator mcgovern victorious campaign in convention strategies people won their own nomination and they lost their own election as theodore h white has written and his latest and best campaign history all the dirty tricks of nineteen seventy two and it together on the ocean and balanced now another suggestion that i recommend that republicans in the spring and summer of nineteen seventy one concentrate their political resources upon senator must be rather than dissipate than a dozen dozen other potential aspirants nomination that statement is essentially true senator must he was targeting his political attacks on the president as with every single every other potential nominees no requirement existing ethics or logic or law we provide equal time and political response to each of our potential opponents reasons recommending focus on

senator must be more basic he was the front runner again in a democratic president in the national polls he appeared to me to be both strongest candidate and the candidate with the greatest opportunity of uniting warnings of the democratic party candidly it was my hope is not my expectation that awkward encounter tax concentrated primarily but not exclusively on the democratic frontrunner mike contribute to opening up the democratic primaries and preventing a close convention there was nothing is nothing in my judgment illicit or unethical or improper or unprecedented and recommending are adopting such a political strategy and resources which we recommended for employment in the summer and fall all their legitimate basically these national committee speakers in publications including one republican chairman of the organizations and state senator mosque leaders of the committee to reelect its media resources and it's devolving state organizations surrogate speakers from the national administration including the vice president and the cabinet

congressmen and senators from republican party would use the form of a white house on capitol hill either to defend the president against senator must these allegations or to put senator must himself on the defensive also use of the medium through readings and conversation like a political operatives to carry the message there's no republican individual or organization was determined to credit or blame for the decline in the candidacy of senator must have analysis victory in the new hampshire primary was a reflection of the declining standing in national polls enormous margin of his defeat in florida was a consequence of the unanticipated if you can see george wells his defeat in wisconsin came at the hands of one man governor wallace who have been there every single day and another man senator mcgovern who organize the state for eighteen months as the general election was chairman of president united states did not achieve the greatest landslide of a minority party candidate in history because of watergate

and dirty tricks but in spite of the watergate was the most don't carry his issues on a national campaign and our own estimation of political analyst the watergate tragedy cost republican party millions those reasons the landslide of nineteen seventy two a chronicle elsewhere they need not be repeated here basically i believe they are these president read the mood of the nation better than his opponent president had conducted an administration for four years that had won the confidence or support millions of democrats president stand on issues of defense and welfare on taxes and government and careers of integration and busing are closer to what the american people wanted the nose of his opponents everyone is well mr chairman because of the quality of the character of our candidate if one looks back over the political history of this country is only one other man other than richard nixon who has been his party's nominee for president or vice president five times that's franklin roosevelt and no other individual in our

political history has served in both of the same hothouses for so long a period of time as has the incumbent president is not the leader of the majority party and it has been since nineteen forty six a member of the minority party in american politics and the us this political career i believe is all the more impressive that political records germany is no accident because no fluke and that election of nineteen seventy two was not still in the mandate of the american people get to this president and his administration genital and will not be frustrated repealed or overthrown as a consequence of the incumbent as these stories in the eighties

i have members of the team this is the problem that is like very ingrained in this area not only with this committee of the party of justice and the white house itself it's not even on whether or not these sources they come from the sentiment of the other new stories that reflect on his tact to reflect on his activities i can assure the committee you were in that respect with your counsel and pouring the allegations of mr buchanan lucy

and i commend him for taking a position on top nation on a number of occasions not related to this matter but two other allegedly committee and i went there and i made it back into its effort to locate certainly and fortunately unfortunately we live in a pretty leaky atmosphere and i'm not i'm not defending against the allegations that you might get an answer saying the sense of fairness to the day doing it it doesn't mandate of this committee witness tampering

let me go resources mentioned the nation about news he pursues that doesn't really get anything in the moment in the prison walls comedian christian around the

nation i don't know and i'm melissa block as the rest of the people who work on the victims of these leagues can appreciate the statehouse somewhere you're in the british courts that's right when

president nixon in nineteen fifty four but formally and that was to nixon's nineteen sixty five in december when he spoke at a political meeting filling in for senator dirksen and southern illinois house democrat and i went over and indicated to him that if he were not alone in nineteen sixty and i want to give the world mason inquiries we had some long standing conversation i joined his death and gender in nineteen sixty six i served with in nineteen sixty six political campaign traveled route some thirty five days in one or two occasions in tennessee and senator baker and i was my first association with a mermaid on his death all through nineteen sixty seven sixty eight campaign and join the white house as a special assistant general nineteen sixty nine i mean you

can really get essentially a pathologist correspondent general assignment reporter for a newspaper i only have three definitely an online assignments they would be as the speechwriter for president major speeches oversight of the president's daily news summary which is prepared by more now on and third preparation the briefing books and reading materials to president obamas press conferences which has been a function on for almost two years mm hmm maybe our communication with the president would be a future of online presence achieved

stacked with exclusive channel presenter contact me an occasion directly but don't let the primary season well mark are being a writer yes i give mine that's the format it and we used their communication white house was a memorandum i have written numerous scores of not hundreds of memoranda to the president i'm sure mr paul buskirk now that you remember there's an

intuitive of the president's counselor he is in cork i read because of the gravity of the time i was given a character does not have an option to read all the political strategy memos sent between nineteen seventy one and seventy two that i read a number of them it doesn't count hughes says my man from nineteen seventy one nineteen seventy two are down in the basement of the executive office building have had the opportunity to xerox seventies my sector and asked that's a limited number just because of the sheer volume and while i am allowed to xerox and read these memoranda i could not without authorization from the president's counsel movement you're

right many are needed my direction and i think i thought it was only temper otto it was indicating individual working in a campaign in nineteen seventy two came back and he said they're gone is the pinot noir finals as well as and so we went down the counsel's office and the council indicated that it would be best of all are also placed under taken astor's vision seventy one sentence of that war i do have the right to us i couldn't be certain which individuals mr simmons to his art and mr parker and it is the season now so the white house

these are not available i think you have to as counselor position is but i think that's not unreasonable but the fact that many of the memoranda to the president and states many va memorandum deal with recommendations for presidential action committee memorandum prepared that direction because i think you have to talk to those innovations to ascertain what the legal grounds which is in the golden state is going to do the measure the constitution i think both

that was not acceptable that it is a non presence in china have kept secret confidential information confidential communications made him now a communications among his aides mm hmm senses and so

i don't think that that's right this is jay it would be a mistake to make campaign in nineteen seventy two and they do with my analysis of there are individuals which will also have an impact on the presidential strategy with a rubber legislation and there's a judge judges defense issues because we've been criticized in those courts there

are there's no question that the character my rhetoric in some of these memoranda the near term and haven't been writing these memoranda to the president for eight years now that's right and i don't think you mentioned before the committee it was

my and that was visiting that's it any table well yeah i ask you candidly that time for a memorandum your possession which i could look at this study in preparation for discussion before this committee in this wednesday showed me something like somewhere between four and six memory and there's a good deal more of them for six memoir and here there are dozens of commandos line and if you're a japanese men and that the video that appeared to testify fully that their contents will

the cinematic and editing that sixty nine too and sixty nine nineteen seventy nine and i hadn't fallen on humans are lots of nineteen sixty nine to nineteen seventy i was unaware that was within the purview the committee i'm david greene i think it is i mean discussions today asked repeatedly listen sid i did not recommend any

dirty tricks if you have any strategy memo that could be misconstrued i like to see you get any moment you take up with me in committee session the nacional be happy discuss it and i wish he'd made my own honor and they're just so because in my files there are there are thousands of memorandum which i could not possibly have read in the twenty four hours i was given their kids tested and prepared to discuss any these memoranda can give an opportunity to look them over gentle as a general proposition i think that we should honestly as witnesses in a global future where we have veterans especially veterans of the witnesses themselves are essentially don't work i don't think and in two years for the right to operate a witness specially requested an

incident and a promise to review its own memorandum of ways to find the tale about a certain sense of my visit remember and they'll have a chance to submit an essay the meetings it's really going to be a question him on the plane to take a committed if you're dealing with isis that election i mean as witness

testimony the fees wings question we know that

i'm steve inskeep this was in the delivery so the only question this is bad i'm steve inskeep

the question of the best of the canneries in saying revelations in the presence of the committee is possible so there are the emphasis is to try to work together for the full committee witness yesterday was the first time we can actually invest in that these things together the committee says a separatist agenda sufficient that's

right i think our say that when you say that it really isn't that what has to decide whether what cities or not and i would recommend as chairman that we leave the station the irs says the memos you had xerox who are not sure that they were in your position said that these were the most are in the archives i did not know what you had in we ask what have the other night i was not informed up as german culture and let me just mention i am altogether unfamiliar this point in time with the first ten memorandum that deal with go through nineteen seventy i don't think they have anything to do with the nineteen seventies two

campaign but my first i am aware of the first women to march twenty four nineteen seventy one which have to do with the strategy the seventy two campaign a knife i do not know but rather looked over all these memos i didn't recognize the number and i'm fully prepared to go ahead and testify to these teenagers on the year that i have not seen him over the last couple weeks and we can take a few minutes mike mcconnell it wouldn't be fair if it's up to number ten on one of what i would have to have to sit back and redesign the scenes the reason i will say this ok will

oh i'm excited that i would prefer to go ahead as i say these memorandum first can deal with prior to the nineteen seventy eight congressional elections i don't think i'm going to no they have anything to do with nineteen seventy two it all carefully to testify now that we're going into a memorandum that they called from that i have not read or seen in four years and maybe i can sit back and then my question is the last sixty seventy years and banks no no reason that we can call six or seven years visitors seven years in

advance that would take us back to nineteen sixty we'll take the dow mm hmm the primary communication political memory and it was to the president goes through mr haldeman other than that the principles that the memorandum would go to mr haldeman and copied to the attorney general sometime during the summer of nineteen seventy one with us to correct an investigation that is correct in only in july saxophonist like the data correctly i was called to a meeting mr erlichman mr colson

haldeman were present in various times and i was asked to do too not so much conduct investigation of believers to oversee the investigation and to serve as white house liaison for the sinai rejected i mean i felt that from the investigation of daniel ellsberg was a waste of my time and now my abilities i did the author and subsequent to that i believe only eight of july i didn't dare memorandum mr erlichman indicating my reasons why i'm not only did not want to take myself out did not see the value of doing so i do not have a copy of the memorandums dash i talked to me into the grand jury tomorrow about the particular a memorandum and i would have to go back to the

white house and sit down and study of wikipedia the details i missed it it is this week these people are going to come the power to pre k that is another question saddam hussein is not

i just didn't know that or with six the area is that this phenomenon for a change listen to this it is with the president

laughter in this generation many of the situation right it would have to be because i've gone through all of minor crime poverty level memorandum through july august and september and that that's the only album random makes reference to mr ellsberg well there's a couple points i like to make is i trust and not leave the impression that would be a sign that i was being offered was something or illicit or unethical or wrong it was not i did not understand it that way from astronomer nicholson iran and

secondly in the memorandum i would not like to be held in the exact verbiage of my memorandum right now not having looked at it but i did suggest my frankly my personal view is that a national investigative it would be the new york times' decision washington post decision and address a speech which was not delivered on with the speech had no mention obama's developer in and it was my feeling that not having done that the situation with regard to the public opinion which had decided and frankly in favor of the newspapers are decision to publish these documents which we disagree with on the documents not being articulated a disadvantageous nixon administration since they were from the early kennedy johnson years of missing out on principle on the front pages in a major address dealing with me new york times and washington post and

not try to in effect speak to columnist tend to agree with us and to argue this issue on the back pages that would be an efficacious nice i think that the data and i would like to see you know

that is not the first time newsweek investigation conducted inside the engine i went with julie when he worked in the kitchen things and so it is with biscayne bay reason that cause

i'm calling you said possibly to alert me as a person that he had discussed the heldrich center for someone that committee and he said i told a senate committee that you had been offered the assignment investigating details burton first and that you turned down and that i have to drill down i spoke by telephone over to dan and you turned it down and i had no recollection that telephone call with mr golson but i'm sure it's a trajectory mm hmm the president's views the

poems a poem this is the known euphemistically as the results i know this is not ideal memorandum of like this but this does not look like my typo this is not the format this is not the year i did do a memorandum of considerable length on the subject it looks like mine but it does not look like a top of the line would be a memorandum save the president from buchanan she again and getting a date to the front pages not the format but i did oh yeah i think the other night because that's what was done

it's consuming now and the health care law were a victim on that issue the center of a national assembly for the vice president i'm sure it is because what you have is and coupled with this if you will the attack strategy was what was known as the quotations are attacked book in that book there's a public statement by senator mcgovern on for paragraphs from

parade magazine where and he himself stated publicly i believe that he encouraged he told daniel ellsberg i believe that i can do this because i'm a senator domenici earlier times in my judgment that was a political error on his part a quotation as a public on the quotation was in the political quotations book and my recommendation was that having researched senator mcgovern thoroughly i think that all of this quotation should hold back and use this to see it as the centerpiece of the speech later in the campaign that's correct and it would be fair to say that one of their recommendations and came up with them to make some scientists matter and sentiment against him and there's no need to make to try and it was rumored the new senator mcgovern so patients that was a matter of public record that in preparation for the campaign the seventies and again in the task force's creative the white house to deal with it

at the white house i think the committee to reelect her some fifteen taskforce time roots which we studied various on various aspects of the campaign i think they were inclusive these groups of white house personnel i think it was around nineteen seventy one it was a major opposition research opposition tracking opposition analysis group which was would be one on one task force within the campaign and that it was all my responsibility as essentially a and our strengths and weaknesses and potential strategies and scenarios of the potential democratic candidates in the presence of somebody and the

man and i did write it before i was given his time i think the one you mentioned a mosque in march twenty fourteen at the sun again and they believe that you can actually get a political system now the question here the president well there has that might've mentioned during the seventy one or seventy two that this is an idea that fought back as far as sixty nine and seventy and it is my view that for example tax exempt farms of the ford foundation is the largest oil foundations which is something like they are speaking percent of all assets of foundations of these by march were being challenged

when they weren't true public policy institutes and public policy institutes and others which were in basic disagreement with our own political philosophy and that these are tax exempt multi millions have the effect of microfilm judgment of announcing the political process so i recommended don and have drafted speeches actually two to lay this out on the table much is being laid at the levels of bias and the networks on the table at the same time too creates some of our own institutions which would be a counterpart to say the brookings institution which would be conservative institutions that's true but that i do not think that was an issue or a matter that was and i may be wrong but it was was under active consideration to campaign a seventy one or seventy two and i recommended to the president after the campaign's seventy two that your stomach your own institutions our own public policy you know those in competitive races

senator nelson so they must've known to drive again is a matter of public record two or three that were sponsored by the ford foundation one in japan i believe in one of the cells where again my view is that we want to make the whole question of tax exempt foundations and they use their funds to two especially giant on what the ford foundation announced a political process not the will to make it a public and political issue and i've recommended speeches dealing with itself is now on the muskie that recommendation i think you would have to before moving on that you have to make that the case nationally are against against the ford foundation and george designations shouldn't this our investigation myself in

nineteen seventy and in the summers and again is that nothing was enough evidence of a warm singing to every article that was written in the books were written on the ford foundation and the ten day vacation period and you did not need our other than the material that i had a hand in the public sector as to where these funds are being channeled is a matter of public record with a ford foundation put you on or a long law twenty four years a memorandum to john mitchell make your home i mean i

was like yes for them to pay the senators are again headed for the senate floor to vote on amendments to the military aid bill so we'll take a short break for the television coverage of the senate watergate hearings will continue after this fall for a station identification on average coverage of the hearings is being broadcast as a public service wherein local public television station this is pbs public broadcasting service it's by the

police by the polls but there's been ms bee has been