Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 13, 1973 (1/2)
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, June 13, 1973 (1/2)
[00.02.00--NPACT letters on black screen--image of page bearing Senate Resolution 60--title screen 'SENATE HEARINGS ON CAMPAIGN ACTIVITIES" over capitol dome image] ***SEE RESTRICTIONS FIELD IN RIGHTS AREA*** [00.02.52--Robert MacNEILL in studio] MacNEILL comments that partisanship erupted for the first time at the senate hearings today, indicative of how tempers are likely to rise as the witness list grows in stature and notoriety States that Maurice STANS, former finance chairman of the campaign, was subject to some of the toughest questioning yet. [Jim LEHRER] LEHRER states that those viewers who want to see the President's economic speech don't have to tune out, because the broadcast of the Senate hearings will be interrupted in a half hour to show the speech by NIXON. States that the incidence of tempers in the hearings grew out of Sen. ERVIN's rigorous questioning of STANS about points including a telephone conversation with NIXON in August of 1972. [00.03.53--STANS testifying] ERVIN asks why STANS, as a political and personal friend of the President, who wished him well, did not inform NIXON of the activities of CRP and advise him to fully enforce the laws. STANS states that he thought the President was aware of the problems, and that the President's resources to investigate were greater than his, that he did not feel he had any new information to give NIXON. ERVIN asks whether STANS' knowledge engendered suspicion in his mind that the entire CRP was corrupt STANS says he had no reason to suspect so, beyond the level of McCORD and LIDDY. [00.05.11--LEHRER] LEHRER states that it is great to have the full hearings broadcast so that individuals can make their own decisions about the judgment and intentions of the witnesses. States that Sen. GURNEY was very upset about the questions asked by Sen. ERVIN, calling it "harrassment", and that the battle between GURNEY and ERVIN was an "electrifying" moment of the hearings. LERHER introduces an interview of Sen. BAKER by reporter Peter KAYE discussing the GURNEY/ERVIN fight. [00.05.51] KAYE asks if BAKER considerted the questioning by ERVIN to be harrassment BAKER declines to comment, and states that the situation is tense, both in its impact on the witnesses and the committee, and it is important to keep on the track of investigating fairly and evenhandedly, alluding to a committee decision that alleged improprieties by any candidate of any party were fair game for the committee to investigate, not just the NIXON campaign. [00.06.58--MacNEILL in studio]