37th President: (1969-1974)
| Impeachment of:
37th President: (1969-1974) |
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When the word Impeachment comes to mind many people remember the Watergate scandal with President Nixon. Until recently only two of our United States Presidents have ever been tried for Impeachment, meaning the House of Representatives had charged the President with Impeachment, but have not removed them from office. The Senate sits as the jury listening to the accusations(accounts for why the president is being impeached), as the prosecutor or the House explains, why they had originally convicted the president for impeachment, to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Senate. Anyway, the Watergate scandal was big during the 1970s and people still talk about it today, here and there. Many young people these days probably don't know what Watergate was all about. As a matter of fact I'll tell you that it has nothing to do with water or gates! Weird name, huh?
Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, the second to ever be convicted of impeachment and the first to ever resign from office. He was elected in 1968, this was his second term. His first term seemed to had run quite well. Nixon supported the U.S. troops that were being sent into Vietnam during the Vietnam War. However it was during Nixon's second term after reelection when things started sliding and were no longer under his control. Nixon won re-election very easily compared to his first term. His opponent was George S. McGovern, a Democratic Senator of South Dakota. Nixon obtained 47,169,911 popular votes and 520 electoral votes while McGovern had received only 29,170,383 popular votes and 17 electoral votes. Now you may wonder what electoral votes are, well without going too far off subject, they are votes casted by special people that have completed a course at an electoral college, there is one in every state. They vote a week or two after all the popular votes(casted by citizens) are accounted for and most of the time there votes reflect the majority of votes casted by the public, like in Nixon's case. Well the Watergate scandal all started to be revealed to the public during the re-election process. During this time five men were arrested for breaking into the Watergate apartment complex in Washington D.C., this complex was the known headquarters of the Democratic party, the same as Nixon's opponent. The men had attempted to tap all of the phones in the complex and steal other precious documents. These men were found to link to Nixon's re-election committee.
WATERGATE APARTMENT COMPLEX
By March of 1973, the popularity of the reelected president began to fade as the conspiracies from the Watergate scandal pressured Nixon into giving the public answers that were strongly desired. The trial of the five burglars stirred the nation as they sat back and watched the scandal slowly reveal itself. Investigators like Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein gave they reports on the story. Soon enough the entire media was questioning the subject, everyone wanted to know why the burglars broke into the Watergate apartment complex. Persistent questioning by the media and U.S. Court Judge John J. Sirica showed that Nixon's party used a cover up to conceal the activities the burglars were doing in the complex. It is ironic that the Watergate scandal was one of many scandals done by Nixon's party. Some of the biggest were political espionage and sabotage. Due to humiliation, embarrassment, for their own safety, three of Nixon's aides resigned in April of 1973. They were H.R. Haldeman (White House Chief of Staff), John Ehrlichman (White House Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs), and Richard Kleindienst (U.S. Attorney General).
WHITE HOUSE TAPES
More questions were being asked about Nixon's participation and knowledge in the cover-ups. Soon enough in July of 1973, White House aide Alexander Butterfield disclosed the existence of a secret taping system installed in the White House under Nixon's order. These tapes had been designed to record all conversations in the White House, with these tapes the investigators could determine if in fact Nixon was involved in the burglary and/or cover-up. Of course Nixon wasn't very dumb and didn't hand the tapes to the investigators when they asked, he claimed that the president was the only one with executive privilege to see the tapes and documents. However this only brought more belief that Nixon was indeed involved in the scandal. Trying to be sly Nixon ordered the Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, to fire investigator Cox and prevent him from gaining access to the precious tapes on October 20, 1973. Nixon's plan failed when Richardson resigned in protest. Richardson's Deputy Attorney General also resigned in protest. However, Cox was fired by Solicitor General Robert Bork. All of these sudden firing and resignations came to be known as the Saturday Night Massacre. The House Judiciary Committee was ordered to look into the impeachment of Richard Nixon on October 22, 1973. The House looked for other inquiries linked to the Watergate scandal that could be used against Nixon in his impeachment. They found one regarding possible income tax evasion used to improve his homes in Key Biscayne, Florida, and San Clemente, California. In 1974 the IRS revealed that Nixon owed $432,787 in back taxes for the years of 1969-1972.
During the trial period, Nixon released the tapes to the public, they watched them only to find that parts and pieces had been edited out from the original version. On July 24,1974, the court ruled an 8-0 decision, United States vs. Nixon against the false statement about executive privilege. The Judiciary Committee introduced the three articles of impeachment that were to be used, in July. They were: obstructing justice, abusing presidential power, and refusing to obey subpoenas by the House. A subpoena is, a written document requiring someone to appear in court to give their testimony to the grand jury. On August 8, 1973, Nixon released the final tapes that had proved that he was involved in the Watergate scandal as early as June 23, 1972, this made his supporters feel ashamed and Nixon knew that impeachment was in favor. On August 8, 1974, Nixon resigned from office and left the next day, when Vice-President Gerald Ford was sworn in as the next president. Unexpectedly, on September 8, 1974, President Ford issued a pardon for Nixon's federal crimes preventing him from having to be charged in court. Odd how it seems that the resignation and pardon of Nixon was an original plan after all.