NBC Nightly News open - 1977-05-12

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:05] This is NBC Nightly News with John

[0:07] Chancellor and David Brinkley. Tonight,

[0:10] Thursday, May 12th, reported from the

[0:12] NBC News Center in New York.

[0:16] Good evening. President Carter says he

[0:18] believes Richard Nixon was guilty of an

[0:21] impeachable offense and did violate the

[0:24] law. But he thinks Nixon now has it all

[0:26] rationalized in his own mind and

[0:28] believes himself that he did nothing

[0:30] wrong. Here's Judy Woodruff in

[0:33] Washington.

[0:36] >> The president's comments on Nixon came

[0:38] in an impromptu session with reporters

[0:40] after a formal news conference.

[0:42] Answering a question, Mr. Carter said

[0:44] he'd watched part of the former

[0:45] president's interview on television last

[0:47] week and that it hadn't changed his view

[0:49] that Nixon was guilty.

[0:51] >> I think he was guilty of impeachable

[0:54] offenses, but I I believe that he

[0:58] doesn't think he was. I think he's

[0:59] rationalized in his own mind that he did

[1:01] all these things for the for the benefit

[1:04] of his of his staff members and so forth

[1:06] and that he didn't have any any criminal

[1:09] uh intent. I think he's mistaken.

[1:12] One reporter commented that Nixon was

[1:14] making a lot of money from the

[1:16] interview. The president smiled and

[1:18] said, "I noticed that." He also said

[1:20] that several European leaders had

[1:22] mentioned the interview to him, and he

[1:23] suggested they agreed with him that

[1:25] Nixon was guilty. Mr. Carter repeated he

[1:27] considered his trip to Europe a success,

[1:30] that it showed for the first time in a

[1:31] long time that there is confidence in

[1:33] the United States. Just the fact that

[1:35] the people see that our own country is

[1:37] so strong and so permanent and so able

[1:40] and so deeply committed to European

[1:42] friendship was the cause of the

[1:43] outpouring of expression of uh of

[1:45] support.

[1:46] >> During the news conference proper, the

[1:48] president was asked about a recently

[1:50] published memo written by his pollster

[1:52] Pat Cadell. Mr. Carter said he agreed

[1:55] with Cadell's assertion that he should

[1:56] concentrate on style rather than

[1:58] substance. A major commitment of mine

[2:01] long before this uh Cadell

[2:04] memorandum was written was to try to

[2:06] restore the confidence of the people in

[2:08] me. And obviously one of those uh means

[2:11] is by frequent news conferences. Another

[2:13] one is by access to me in the oval

[2:17] office. Another one is the travel around

[2:20] our country on occasion to meet with uh

[2:23] people. And I think that this is is a

[2:26] style part and the openness with which I

[2:28] hope that I am conducting my

[2:30] administration means that we don't try

[2:31] to cover up mistakes and if we do make

[2:33] mistakes, we want them to be known.

[2:35] >> Mr. Carter seemed generally to be in a

[2:37] good mood today when a reporter asked

[2:39] him about losing support among liberals.

[2:42] He said there's always that danger

[2:44] because liberals are so hard to please.

[2:47] Judy Woodruff, NBC News, the White

[2:49] House.

[2:50] The House of Representatives today voted

[2:52] against American trade