“I am not a crook.” As President Nixon claimed after the Watergate scandal. That caused his downfall. The Watergate scandal on June 17, 1972, after burglars were arrested trying to break into the DNC. Due to his reckless responses to Watergate, President Nixon should have been impeached by Congress. He used his position of power to obstruct justice and break his presidential oath. For the sake of maintaining that power, Nixon's misuse of authority permitted him to commit crimes with little scrutiny. While breaking his presidential oath to be truthful to the American people, Nixon insisted he didn’t get involved. Finally, when requested to follow Congress' orders, he refused and instead tried to hide his involvement, thereby committing obstruction of justice. A president should know when elected, he or she agrees to all of these …show more content…
However some would argue that Nixon acted appropriately as president to "protect" the nation, but no president is above the law. Overall giving Congress a solid clear reason for Nixon being impeached. President Nixon abused his position of authority by paying several people to breach the DNC in an effort to get information for his benefit. Which one can achieve with the authority of the U.S. president. Being proved when Barabra Jordan states “The evidence reflects the payment to defendants of money. The president had knowledge that these funds were being paid and there were funds collected for the 1972 presidential campaign” (Barbara Jordan speech to the House of Judicial) Thus proving Nixon was responsible for a crime by linking him to the DNC break-in. Nixon, however, had not
Being the thirty-seventh president of the United States in 1974, President Richard Nixon was involved in a scandal known as the “Watergate Scandal”, that eventually led to the replacement of presidency from vice president at the time, Gerald Ford. Both Nixon and Ford believed Ford taking over the position of the president was the best decision as Nixon was never charged with the crimes from the “The Watergate Scandal”. Emotional responses from the people were also a key factor to accept as Ford took over the president position, and overall Nixon and Ford had to work together to figure out the prime decision regarding the nation. President Nixon was always attempting to do what is best for the nation. However, after the entire “Watergate Scandal”,
23 May 2017. . “Is the President allowed to safeguard information using his ‘executive privilege’ politically correct”? A jury prosecuted Nixon and several others. The defendant had tapes and documents that Nixon planned the burglary to get ahead in his re-election as president.
Conclusion Sixty-nine political aides from President Nixon’s administration were charged with federal crimes such as obstruction of justice and abuse of power, just to name a few. Forty-eight of these individuals were found guilty. It was not until Gerald Ford was sworn in as the 38th President of the United States that Richard Nixon was granted a “full, free and absolute pardon” (The Washington Post) for any and all of his crimes that violated the Constitution of America. This granted pardon was the most controversial component of the Watergate scandal.
One of them wrote a letter to the judge saying that high white house officials had knowledge of the break in and paid the burglars to keep quiet and lie during trial. Investigators found that Nixon had tried to cover up thousands of dollars that was being sent to the aides that broke into the Watergate Hotel. Also, documents linking Nixon to the cover up of the break in had been destroyed, and it had been known that the republican administration had illegally wiretapped the phones of journalists that had been critical of Nixon. Nixon also hatched a plan with his aides to instruct the CIA to interfere with the FBI’s investigation of the crime. This was an abuse of his presidential
However, both of these presidents careers would be destroyed by similar cases and similar felonies. Nixon’s case was a matter of political coverup and corruptness known as Watergate. “On June 17, 1972, the watergate complex attracted attention as the site of a failed burglary. At around two o’clock in the morning five men dressed in business suits and wearing surgical gloves were arrested during an attempt to break into the Democrat national committee headquarters” (Fienberg 15). This is what started the entire Watergate scandal that ruined Nixon’s entire reputation and career.
Everyone knew it was best in several ways. Even Nixon himself knew and some say he fulfilled his duties to his country by resigning. On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested while breaking into and wiretapping the Watergate Complex in Washington, D.C., which was illegal. Back in May, the burglars had broken in to bug the office’s phones and steal copies of top-secret documents (Watergate Scandal, History).
The Watergate scandal was one of the most infamous political controversies in American history during the early 1970s. It uncovered a web of lies created by former president Richard Nixon. The Watergate Scandal affected the trust of US citizens to the government by spreading false information, obstruction of justice, and deceiving politicians to cover up his tracks. President Nixon has instilled a distrust between the people and the government that will leave its mark for years. During the 1968 election, President Nixon had won by a landslide vote against the democrats.
During this time of the scandal, “... President Richard Nixon would be forced to resign, many of his principal aides and advisers would be convicted of unlawful activities, and many of the heretofore secret workings of the government would be exposed for public inspection”. The arrest of the five men as well as their guilty pleas revealed a series of wiretaps, slush funds, political sabotage, and unjustified firings. Through this recovery, the American people felt heavily betrayed due to President Nixon being the one to say how he would take charge and investigate when he was the one who planned the break-in. President Nixon had strong speeches and made the people of America feel good about their President. In 1972, President Nixon stated “So, I’m the first four-year president who hasn’t missed a day in office providing I make it to January 20…
When these tapes were subpoenaed by Congress, Nixon refused to comply with the request and cited his executive privilege. The Supreme Court ruled that Nixon’s executive privilege did not apply in this specific case and ordered the tapes to be turned over to authorities. Facing possible impeachment and removal from office, Nixon resigned from his presidency on August 8, 1974. Several of his close associates were convicted as well. Chelsea Spenser writes that “as details about the Watergate break-in came to light over the course of 1973, reports and
Nixon was accused of sending five men from his presidential campaign to break into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in order to avoid impeachment. Once the Watergate incident was resolved, it had significant long-term and short-term consequences that altered American history. President Nixon's actions altered voters' perceptions of American authorities, which harmed succeeding presidents and undermined public trust in the government. The Watergate incident demonstrates how corrupt the American government was and how far politicians were ready to go to avoid accountability. Since the Watergate crisis weakened the American political system, many Americans thought that certain reforms were required to avoid another scandal.
In his speech he uses devices such as parallelism and repetition. After the Watergate Scandal, the House Judiciary Committee approved Nixon's impeachment for obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of congress, it was very evident that Nixon would be removed from office. With all his political support completely gone, and his reputation depleting at a rapid rate, Nixon decided to resign publicly in
These provided more than enough evidence of his complicity in the Watergate scandal. Richard Nixon knew that he didn’t have much time left in office before he would get removed by force, so he found it best to resign. He walked out of office on August 8, and left the following day. Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as president six weeks later, and pardoned Nixon for any crimes he had committed while in office. Although former president Nixon got off easy, some of his aides were not as lucky.
Nixon was satisfied with tampering with the election, so he could live knowing he had one more success in his political career. Nixon did not care about others and the lasting impression he left on them. Whether that was doing dirty
All of this deceit only made Nixon viewed as dishonest and shady to the American people, making his impeachment seem almost predictable. But something that was not predicted was Richard Nixon’s
Richard Nixon was the 37th president of the United States; he resigned as president after his involvement in the Watergate Scandal. People broke into the Watergate building to wiretap phones and steal secret documents. Nixon knew about the break in before hand and tried to cover it up. When people found out about him trying to cover it up, he decided to resign as president. He gave his speech on August 8th 1974 and resigned on the 9th.