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Rhetorical Analysis Of Richard Nixon's Watergate Scandal

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Richard Nixon, our 37th president of the United States, is best remembered for his involvement in the Watergate scandal in the 1970’s. The Watergate scandal is mainly known for the break in at the Watergate building which is where the Democratic National Committee is located at in Washington, D.C. The break in consisted the undertaking of wiretapping of phones and the act of stealing confidential documents. After time had passed by, the FBI started growing suspicious about Nixon’s role in the scandal especially when he tried covering up the issue by providing hush money for the people who were involved in the break in. He also tried stopping the FBI from doing their job by not allowing to investigate the break in and as well as firing any disobedient …show more content…

Aristotle’s research suggested that there were three different appeals for influencing and persuading an audience. The first appeal is ethos and Aristotle stated that the speaker must be able to be relate back with the audience, establish authority, and sustain their reputation. In his speech, Nixon uses these phrases which completely uses the concept of ethos, “I trust that you will use them. And if you don't believe them, I don't mean-what I mean, I am not suggesting that you wouldn't believe them-but if you feel you need more information, write to me and I will give it to you. I want the facts out, because the facts will prove that the President is telling the truth.” Nixon establishes authority by letting the audience know who he is which was being the president at the time. He also persuades the audience by letting them know that they should trust him because he promised them the truth and only the truth. Due to the fact of being the president and making a promise of only the truth made him able to persuade the public. Next off, the second appeal is logos and logos represents using reasoning to persuade the audience. Some ways a speaker can persuade an audience through logos is through coherence, logic,

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