First time he's late.
Mr. President!
Morning.
Mr. President.
Mr. Frost.
Thirty seconds to tape roll!
Thirty seconds. Settling. Settle.
Well, if today's session is anything like our phone call, it should be explosive.
What phone call?
The phone call to my hotel room.
David, starting on camera three in four, three, two and...
Now, looking back on your final year in office,
do you feel you ever obstructed justice
or were part of a conspiracy to cover up or obstruct justice?
No.
And I'm interested that you used the term "obstruction of justice. "
Now, you perhaps have not read the statute
with regard to the obstruction of justice.
As it happens, I have.
You have, you say? Well, then, you'll know it doesn't just require an act.
It requires a specific corrupt motive.
And in this case, I didn't have a corrupt motive.
What I was doing was in the interests of political containment.
Be that as it may, the direct consequences
of your actions would have been
that two of the convicted burglars
would have escaped criminal prosecution.
Now, how can that not be a cover-up or obstruction of justice?
Well, I think the record shows, Mr. Frost,
that far from obstructing justice,
I was actively facilitating it.
When Pat Gray of the FBI telephoned me, this was July 6,
I said, "Pat, you go right ahead with your investigation. "
That's hardly what you'd call obstructing justice.
Well, that may be, but for two weeks prior to July 6,
we now know that you were desperately
trying to contain or block the investigation.
No, no. Hang on a minute there. I wasn't...
No, no. Obstruction of justice is obstruction of justice,
whether it's for a minute or five minutes,
and it's no defense to say that your plan failed.
I mean, if I try to rob a bank and fail, that's no defense.
I still tried to rob the bank.
Will you just wait one minute there, Mr. Frost?
There is no evidence of any kind that I was...
Well, the reason there is no evidence
is because 18 and a half minutes
of the conversation with Bob Haldeman from this June period
have mysteriously been erased.
That was an unfortunate oversight.
And Bob Haldeman is a rigorous
and a conscientious note taker.
His notes are there for all to see.
Well, we found something rather better than his notes,
a conversation with Charles Colson,
which I don't think has ever been published.
Okay, here we go.
It hasn't been published, you say?
No, but one of my researchers found it in Washington
where it's available to anyone who consults the records.
Well, I just wondered, you know, if we'd seen it.
More than seen it, Mr. President.
You spoke the actual words.
Now, you've always claimed you first learned of the break-in on June 23.
Yeah.
But this transcript of a tape made three days earlier
clearly shows that to be a falsehood.
Now, in it you say to Colson, "This whole investigation rests
"unless one of the seven begins to talk.
"That's the problem. "
Well, what do we mean when we say
"one of the seven beginning to talk"?
Then moving on to a conversation you had with John Dean
on March 21, the following year.
In one transcript alone, there in black and white,
I picked out, and these are your words,
one, "You could get $1 million, and you could get it in cash.
"I know where it could be gotten. "
Two, "Your major guy to keep under control is Hunt. "
Three, "Don't we have to handle the Hunt situation?"
Four, "Get the million bucks.
"It would seem to me that would be worthwhile. "
Five, "Don't you agree that you'd better get the Hunt thing going?"
Six, "First you've got the Hunt problem.
"That ought to be handled. " Seven, "The money can be provided.
"Ehrlichman could provide the way to deliver it. "
Eight, "We've no choice with Hunt
"but the $120,000 or whatever it is, right?"
Nine, "Christ, turn over any cash we've got. "
And I could go on. Now, it seems to me
that someone running a cover-up
couldn't have expressed it more clearly than that, could they?
Look, let me just stop you now right there,
because you're doing something here
which I am not doing, and I will not do
throughout these entire broadcasts.
You're quoting me out of context,
out of order. And I might add,
I have participated in all these interviews
without a single note in front of me.
Well, it is your life, Mr. President.
Now, you've always maintained
that you knew nothing about any of this until March 21.
But in February, your personal lawyer came to Washington
to start the raising of $219,000
of hush money to be paid to the burglars.
Now, do you seriously expect us to believe
that you had no knowledge of that?
None. I believed the money was for humanitarian purposes.
To help disadvantaged people with their defenses.
Well, it was being delivered on the tops of phone booths with aliases,
and at airports by people with gloves on.
That's not normally the way lawyers' fees are delivered, is it?
Look, I have made statements to this effect before.
All that was Haldeman and Ehrlichman's business.
I knew nothing. Okay, fine. Fine!
You made a conclusion there.
I stated my view, now let's move on.
Let's get on to the rest of it.
No, hold on. No, hold on.
No, I don't want to talk...
If Haldeman and Ehrlichman were the ones really responsible,
when you subsequently found out about it,
why didn't you call the police and have them arrested?
Isn't that just a cover-up of another kind?
Yeah, maybe I should have done that. Maybe I should have.
Just called the feds into my office
and said, "Hey, there's the two men.
"Haul them down to the dock,
"fingerprint them and then throw them in the can. "
I'm not made that way.
These men, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, I knew their families.
I knew them since they were just kids.
Yeah, but you know, politically,
the pressure on me to let them go, that became overwhelming!
So I did it. I cut off one arm,
then I cut off the other, and I'm not a good butcher!
And I have always maintained what they were doing,
what we were all doing, was not criminal.
Look, when you're in office,
you gotta do a lot of things sometimes that are not always,
in the strictest sense of the law, legal, but you do them
because they're in the greater interests of the nation!
Right. Wait, just so I understand correctly,
are you really saying that in certain situations,
the President can decide whether it's in the best interests of the nation
and then do something illegal?
I'm saying that when the President does it, that means it's not illegal.
I'm sorry?
That's what I believe.
Oh, my God.
But I realize no one else shares that view.
So, in that case, will you accept, then,
to clear the air once and for all,
that you were part of a cover-up
and that you did break the law?
- Oh, my God, we got him. - I...
Shit!
Okay, let's take a break there.
What the fuck is going on?
Cut it. Cut it.
Excuse me? Shut it down.
Shut it down now.
That's not my call. You're gonna have to talk to the director.
- He's in that truck out there. - Get him in here.
Listen, we have an issue in here.
Jack, what are you doing? A break?
Change the tapes.
David, can I talk to you for a minute, please?
What the hell is going on, Jack?
He was about to blow and you know it.
Fellas, this is a critical moment in his life.
You realize we could sue you for this?
You have deliberately sabotaged the interview, Jack.
Look, we're all in this together.
I'm sure we can find a solution.
A solution? What the hell are you talking about? It's an interview!
Bob, may I remind you...
This is a breach of contract. We could sue.
For heaven's sake, Jim. Why don't you give him a week off?
Give him a year off!
Give him a fucking massage!
Watch your language, for crying out loud.
What'd you do? Throw in the towel, Jack?
Did you take pity on me?
Sir, I just felt that
if you were going to make some kind of emotional disclosure,
that we should just take a moment
to think it through, sketch it out.
I just want to impress upon you
how crucially important this moment is
and how many potentially devastating consequences
unplanned emotional disclosures could have.
I know.
But to go on and carry on denying it all...
I appreciate the gesture.
We ought to call it a snafu.
Jack, are we on?
We're on. Okay, he's had plenty of time to cook up
some sort of slippery new bullshit, so stay on your toes.
Listen, it's gonna be fine. Pick up where you left off.
Thirty seconds, everyone.
Ten seconds.
David? Four, three, two, and...
Mr. President, we were talking about
the period March 21 to April 30,
and the mistakes you made, and so on, and I was wondering
would you go further than "mistakes"?
The word that seems not enough for people to understand.
Well, what word would you express?
My goodness.
All right.
Since you've asked me, I think there are three things
that people would like to hear you say.
One, that there was probably more than mistakes.
There was wrongdoing.
And, yes, it might have been a crime, too.
Secondly, that "I did abuse the power I had as President. "
And thirdly, "I put the American people
"through two years of needless agony,
"and I apologize for that. " And I know how difficult it is
for anyone, especially you,
but I think the people need to hear it.
And I think that unless you say it,
you're going to be haunted for the rest of your life.
Well, it's true. I made mistakes, horrendous ones,
ones that were not worthy of a president,
ones that did not meet the standards of excellence
that I always dreamed of as a young boy.
But, if you remember, it was a difficult time.
I was caught up in a five-front war
against a partisan media, a partisan House of Congress,
a partisan Ervin Committee.
But, yes, I will admit there were times
I did not fully meet that responsibility
and I was involved in a cover-up, as you call it.
And for all those mistakes I have a very deep regret.
No one can know what it's like to resign the presidency.
Now,
if you want me to get down on the floor and grovel...
No! Never!
I still insist they were mistakes of the heart.
They were not mistakes of the head.
But they were my mistakes. I don't blame anybody.
I brought myself down.
I gave them a sword, and they stuck it in,
and they twisted it with relish.
And I guess if I'd been in their place, I'd have done the same thing.
And the American people?
I let them down.
I let down my friends.
I let down the country.
And worst of all,
I let down our system of government.
And the dreams of all those young people
that ought to get into government,
but now they think, "It's all too corrupt," and the rest.
Yeah.
I let the American people down,
and I'm gonna have to carry that burden with me
for the rest of my life.
My political life is over.
You know, the first and greatest sin or deception of television
is that it simplifies, it diminishes,
great, complex ideas, tranches of time.
Whole careers become reduced to a single snapshot.
At first, I couldn't understand why
Bob Zelnick was quite as euphoric
as he was after the interviews,
or why John Birt felt moved to strip naked
and rush into the ocean to celebrate.
But that was before I really understood
the reductive power of the close-up.
Because David had succeeded on that final day
in getting, for a fleeting moment,
what no investigative journalist,
no state prosecutor, no judiciary committee
or political enemy had managed to get.
Richard Nixon's face,
swollen and ravaged by loneliness, self-loathing and defeat.
The rest of the project and its failings would not only be forgotten,
they would totally cease to exist.
Who came out on top, Mr. President?
Is this what you call a dachshund?
Mmm-hmm.
Very sweet.
The NixonlFrost interviews were wildly successful.
I think they attracted the largest audience for a news program
in the history of American television.
David was on the cover of Time magazine and Newsweek magazine.
And even the political press corps,
the hard-bitten political press corps,
called David up with messages of contrition and congratulation.
David, I want to say congratulations.
The interviews?
No, I didn't watch them. I couldn't.
Hey.
Hello.
I believe David saw the former President just one more time.
Before he left California for London again,
he drove down to San Clemente to say goodbye.
Hey, Mr. Frost. It's nice to see you.
Miss Cushing. Hello.
Please excuse my golf outfit.
It's the official uniform of the retired.
Are you on your way home?
Yes.
Into a bright new dawn of fresh enterprises and challenges, eh?
Well, let's hope so.
Good for you.
I didn't catch the interviews as they went out,
but they tell me that they were a great success.
I gather the journalists that were so positive
about you weren't so kind to me.
Yes, I was sorry to see that.
There's no condolences necessary.
I've grown to expect nothing else from those sons of whores.
Yeah.
Jeez, please forgive me, Miss Cushing.
You know, I would've said "sons of bitches,"
but Manolo here is a lover of dogs,
and he hates me to defame animals.
Can I get something for somebody?
Yes. Would you like some tea or champagne?
Hey, you know, we got that caviar the Shah of Iran sent me.
No, thank you. You sure?
Come on. It'll be no trouble at all.
No, really, we must be...
Okay, fine, fine. Thanks for coming by.
You were a worthy opponent.
Goodbye, Mr. President.
Bye-bye.
Goodbye, Mr. President.
Goodbye.
Oh, God! I almost forgot. I...
I brought you a present, those shoes you admired.
I brought you a pair.
Well, jeez. Thank you.
I'm touched. Safe trip, now.
Oh! Say, David, you think I could speak to you, privately, just for a minute?
Do you know those parties of yours?
The ones that I read about in all the papers?
Do you actually enjoy those?
Of course.
You got no idea how fortunate that makes you.
You know? Liking people, and being liked.
Having that facility, that lightness, that charm.
I don't have it. I never did.
It kind of makes you wonder why I chose a life
that hinged on being liked.
I'm better suited to a life of thought,
debate, intellectual discipline.
Maybe we got it wrong.
Maybe you should have been a politician
and I the rigorous interviewer.
Maybe.
David.
Did I really call you that night?
Yes.
Did we discuss anything important?
Cheeseburgers.
Cheeseburgers?
Goodbye, sir.
Well, New York, London and Sydney
welcomed David back with open arms,
as did his friends and investors,
who've made a fortune from these interviews.
He got back all of his shows.
He even got back his table at Sardi's.
As for Richard Nixon,
well, he certainly never achieved
the rehabilitation he so desperately craved.
His most lasting legacy
is that today any political wrongdoing
is immediately given the suffix "gate. "