the nixon administration accepted certain norms. violated them but it accepted them. it violated the constitution but did not destroy it. with the donald trump, the constitution is just another piece of paper standing in his way. preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the united states. congratulations, mr. president. if you elect someone who does not care about anything but himself, then, that person is in a position to exploit the fragility of democracy and i think that is on display for the last number of years. nearly 200 dead, 14,000 who are sick. millions, as you witness, who are scared right now. what do you say to americans watching you right now, who are scared? are said that you are a terrible reporter. it s not just that trump did one bad thing. i just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. trump s actions are premised on a lie that erodes the
president and the congress tonight are fwal actually on a collision course. the issue is executive privilege. which invoked saying he would not give them white house recordings. cox requested nine tapes. nixon didn t want him to get any of them. he wouldn t release them for the following reasons. they wouldn t settle what the committee wants to know. and that the tapes are consistent with what he has said is the truth. we had made a request for production of the tapes. the white house sat on that and then finally we decided we need to subpoena them. nixon tried to invoke executive privilege to prevent the release of the tapes which had been requested by subpoena. executive privilege is intended to allow the president to engage in candid and confidential
exposed to the new tapes and the peechl hearings the republican senators finally decided this was enough. there were signs of continued erosion of the president s position. mr. nixon learned this firsthand this afternoon. when he invited the republican leaders of the house and senate along with senator gold water down to the white house. nixon is kind of joking around, i know i m going to be impeached in the house. so what s going to happen in the senate? gold water, one of the great moments in presidential history. he said mr. president, you have five votes. one of them is not mine. the next night, nixon announced on television that he was resigning. good evening, this is the 37th time i have spoken to you from this office. throughout the long and
i was surprised when he gave me one to four years. for john dean, the anticipation ended. his prison sentence began. in the custody of u.s. marshalls. the facility that they placed me in was at fort. they wanted to keep me near washington. it s while i m serving my sentence, being brought into the court regularly, on the stand for two weeks in the trial of mitchell. right after nixon had been pardoned by ford. mr. nixons chief of staff was indicted for a conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury. the chief domestic aid indicted on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and lying. john mitchell the former attorney general indicted on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, perjury and highing. lying.
abuses are purged from our political processes. in the years to come. long after i have left this office. i looked at my own calendar this morning as i was working on this speech. it showed exactly 1,361 days remaining in my term. i want these to be the best days in america s history. god bless america. god bless each and every one of you. central to the problems faced by president nixon is the water gate tapes and tangled history. fred graham traces that story. it all began suddenly when an obscure former white house official appeared as a surprise witness before the senate watergate committee. are you aware of the