http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnTlbU8UuCo

In July of 1974, the White House released subpoenaed tapes of White House conversations. One of these tapes became known as the “smoking gun”, a tape recorded on June 23, 1972, just six days after the Watergate break-in. On the tape, Nixon can be heard agreeing that the Director and Deputy Director of the CIA should be approached about asking the Acting Director of the FBI to halt the FBI’s investigation into the Watergate break-in, citing matters of national security. In this video, Trent Lott recalls first hearing about and reading the transcript of the Smoking Gun tape. While on vacation with his family, Lott received a call from a fellow Mississippi native who worked at the White House. Lott recalls that the man told him: “‘I think there’s something you need to read.’ And I think he maybe even described it as a ‘smoking gun.’ And so I got on a plane and flew back in.”

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Trent Lott On the Watergate Smoking Gun Transcript appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy-GMcgymKk

Edward Brooke, former Massachusetts senator during Richard Nixon’s administration, discusses how he became the first republican to openly ask President Nixon to resign on November 4, 1973, shortly after the Watergate Scandal. According to Brooke, Nixon had lost the confidence of the American people, and because of that he should “spare the country from impeachment proceedings.” He also describes Nixon’s response, recalling that the former president said that this would be “taking the cowardly way out.”

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Asking President Nixon to Resign appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5ob-WOniDw

Ben Bradlee the iconic editor of the Washington Post from 1968 to 1991 discusses how the young reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward came to cover the story for Watergate.  Turns out, they had a bad shift and were working on the Saturday when the story came in.   Bradlee became a national figure during the when he challenged the federal government over the right to publish the Pentagon Papers and then oversaw the publication of Woodward and Bernstein’s stories documenting the Watergate scandal and coverup. At his death he held the title of vice president at-large of the Washington Post.

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Ben Bradlee on Woodward and Bernstein appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJAqVXBZ0YI

Pulitzer Prize winner and journalist Bob Woodward remembers the Watergate scandal, his role in reporting on it and how it changed how we perceived the presidency. Specifically, Woodward highlights the “dirty tricks” used by the Nixon administration. Tricks such as the Watergate break-in and the leaking of then vice-presidential candidate Edmund Muskie’s medical records so that he would get dropped from the Democratic ticket. Woodward is left with the impression that President Nixon’s influence went so far that he could be sensed “in the ballot booth, with every voter, tampering with his or her vote.”

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Bob Woodward on Nixon’s ‘Dirty Tricks’ During Watergate appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEOGJJ7UKFM

In the wake of the Watergate scandal, U.S. President Richard Nixon announced his resignation from the presidency on August 9, 1974, in a televised speech to the nation. Following accusations of crimes committed by his administration including bugging the offices of political opponents–Nixon’s impeachment was inevitable. However, his resignation speech, broadcast from the Oval Office, was surprisingly well-received considering the embarrassing circumstances surrounding it. Nixon used the address as an opportunity both to offer his support for his successor, Gerald Ford, and to defend his own presidential career. While he briefly acknowledges his failures in office, Nixon devotes most of the speech to enumerating his successes.

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Nixon Announces Resignation In Speech to America appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWV6V4JYEUw

From the Nixon tapes, then California Governor Ronald Reagan calls President Nixon to give his support during the height of the Watergate Scandal. Nixon had just given a televised address to the nation announcing that Haldeman and Erlichman had been let go, and that John Dean had been fired. It was the most gut-wrenching decision of the Nixon presidency–save Nixon’s own resignation the following year. Nixon allegedly got drunk after the speech and proceeded to make a series of emotional phone calls. On this call, it sounds as though Nixon has calmed down a bit, but is still out of it. “This too shall pass,” says Reagan.

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Reagan Gives Call of Support to Nixon During Watergate appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm5FIs9V0VA

President Richard Nixon, distraught, slurring his words, and likely drunk, talks with Bob Haldeman. Earlier that night, Nixon had announced the resignations of his closest aides, his Chief of Staff H. R. (Bob) Haldeman and his Chief Domestic Advisor John Ehrlichman, for their involvement in the brewing Watergate scandal.

Nixon is disapointed that he hasn’t heard from anyone on his staff other than Caspar Weinberger.

Nixon tells Haldeman to keep the faith and that he loves him like his brother. Watergate is clearly weighing heavily on Nixon by this point, although it will be over another year before it causes him to resign too.

Nixon later likened the firings to cutting off his right arm and his left arm. In a conversation soon after this one, Nixon told his Secretary of State Bill Rogers that he “broke down” after the broadcast even though he’s “not that kind of man.”

(Photo: President Richard Nixon and Bob Haldeman walking together.)

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Watergate: Nixon on Phone Distraught appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh163n1lJ4M

Richard Nixon’s November 17, 1973 press conference where he states, “I am not a crook” in response to the Watergate scandal.

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Nixon’s ‘I Am Not a Crook’ Speech appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na69ov-0ELM

Watergate prosecutor Earl Silbert discusses the mystery behind the true motive for the Watergate scandal that eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

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Earl Silbert: ‘The Motive of the Break-in is Uncertain to This Day’ appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ldV8pOWj30

Bob Woodward and editor Ben Bradley discuss the Watergate break-in and how it happened.  G. Gordon Liddy, chief operative in the White House Plumbers under President Richard Nixon, recalls how the Watergate burglars were caught during their break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office complex. “The Plumbers” was a Special Investigations Unit tasked with finding and preventing leaks to the media on classified government information. Liddy also oversaw the Committee to Re-elect the President, the committee involved in the Watergate Scandal.

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Woodward and Bradley discuss Watergate appeared first on Witnify.