In just a few moments now, president nixon will be appearing before the people, perhaps for the last time as president of the United States. Hail to the chief. Hail to the chief. Good evening. I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. [ applause ] im turning over direction of the government to vicepresident ford. I know that the leadership of america will be in good hands. In those first few days and weeks when gerald ford ascended to the presidency, you could say, if you were casting someone to play the role of a president to heal a nation, that gerald ford would be that person. Ladies and gentlemen, the vicepresident of the United States and mrs. [ applause ] gerald ford was one of the most popular people in congress, conservative, and republican to the core, but always willing to talk, always willing to compromise. My fellow americans, our Long National nightmare is over. Part of what gerald ford wanted to do was move beyond watergate. And so to say our Long National nightmare is over was to try to tell the nation, my main job as president will be to heal this country. May our former president , who brought peace to millions, find it for himself. [ applause ] david, what do you think . I would guess that in his term, we may see a little of what we had promised in the preamble of the constitution and so seldom see, and that is domestic tranquility. When gerald ford became president , he understood the public needed something completely different. He seemed to be the right man for those times. Change from nixon to ford is likely to give the nations economy a psychological lift. But its going to take more than eye new president to cure the economy. It was an extremely difficult time. Ford inherited the deepest recession since the 1930s, but he was spending 25 of his time on leftover nixon matters. Fords in a brandnew job and faces a really consequential choice. Pardon nixon and put watergate behind the country or let the investigation run its course. This year, especially the past few months and weeks, have been filled with extraordinary days. Today is another one historians will be writing about and thinking about for years to come. I gerald r. Ford, president of the United States, do grant a full, free and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States. Do you think president s ford action is wrong . Its wrong, absolutely wrong. Ford did the generous thing, and i think the American People must forget about nixon. It raises a political issue equal justice under law except for president s who seem to get special treatment. Good morning. We are about to see something, which as far as we know, may never have been seen before in american history. A sitting president of the United States testifying before a congressional committee. Subcommittee will be in order. I had just been out of law school a few years. I was the last person on the subcommittee to ask a question. And i thought for sure somebody on the subcommittee would ask president ford the tough questions about the pardon. Nobody asked the questions. I would like to point out, mr. President , that the circumstances of the pardon which you issued, the secrecy with which it was issued, made people question whether or not, in fact, it was a deal. Mrs. Holtzman, i repeat with emphasis, that if we had had an indictment, a trial, a conviction, that the attention of the president , the congress and the American People would have been diverted from the problems that we have to solve. Ford now looks very smart in history for issuing the pardon. It did not look that great at the time. He took a beating for it. If we had a trial of nixon, the country would have been stopped. You have to remember, president s are there to govern, and we hadnt had much governing. Wherever you look across the United States, plants are closing, industries are slowing down, businesses are failing. At least 6 Million People are out of work and unemployment in the United States is at its highest level in 13 years. Economically, the country began to pay a very heavy price for the long vietnam war for which tax increases had not been passed to pay for it. We have stagflation. Its a new disease. Its stagnation with inflation. The steaks have gone up. Theyre usually 68 ar pound. Theyre 94 this week. Its ridiculous and i cant afford it. For many pensioners, its a struggle to find enough to eat, in the garbage if necessary. Inflation was going through my roof. People would come into my office and crying. People were becoming poorer and poorer. The cost of milk and cheese, something was wrong with the system. There was only one point in which all advisors have agreed. We must whip inflation right now. Unless every able american pitches in, congress and i cannot do the job. Gerald ford is a conservative republican, so hes trying to figure out how do you deal with economic problems without strong government . So he puts together this program which relies on voluntary action by americans. There was no program. Basically the president was saying, buy less. The win buttons were part of the propaganda. There were also pamphlets and posters. I object to distracting peoples attention away from the principal goals, the principal methods of coping with inflation. Are you suggesting, sir, that buttons and flags are trivial . Yes. Abc news presents live coverage of the president s state of the Union Message to congress. The president of the United States. [ applause ] when he goes to give the state of the union address, he is under tremendous pressure. I remember being there, and it was palpable, clearly. A lot hangs on this, this is his very first state of the union. 26 years ago, a freshman congressman who was out to change the world, stood at the back of this great chamber. As president truman said, i am happy to report to the 81st congress that the state of the union is good. Today, millions of americans are out of work. Recession and inflation are eroding the money of millions more. Prices are too high and sales are too slow. And i must say to you that the state of the union is not good. [ holiday music playing ] you know what they say, the more test drives, the merrier. The volkswagen drive to decide event. Get a volkswagen with americas best sixyear, 72,000mile limited warranty. Opportunity is everywhere. Like here. Where nothing stands between you and your best friends. Something important. Its not going to be easy. Quicksilver earns you unlimited 1. 5 cash back on every purchase, everywhere. Actually, thats super easy. My bad. So shark invented duo clean. 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Im running because i have grown increasingly concerned about the course of events in the United States and in the world. Reagan was the great twoterm governor of california, and he goes after gerald ford as being weak. I am quite critical of our Foreign Policy right now. Matter of fact, i think that it is almost anchorless and almost aimless. Hes a good actor, but he also is a formidable challenger. Ronald reagan was challenging a sitting president in his own party . A relatively conservative president , and he was basically calling him a liberal sellout. In the texas primary, reagan wiped out the president in a stunning victory. In august of 1974, this country hit some very difficult and formidable obstacles ahead of us. We blew it in the right direction, young man. [ applause ] this was a period of time right in the wake of watergate. Americans were very, very suspicious about government, and about people who had spent too much time in washington, d. C. Jimmy carter could run, someone who called himself an outsider is a guy who wasnt tainted by washington, d. C. And its corruption and its culture. I remember when i announced for president , it was a major headline in the editorial page of the atlanta constitution. Jimmy carter is running for [ laughter ] [ cheers and applause ] im running for president. [ cheers and applause ] jimmy carter. Jimmy who . I dont know who he is. Youre like one of us. Jimmy carter grew up in a very small town in the south, plains, georgia. He had grown into a family of farmers. Became a peanut farmer himself. And from georgia he basically started his political assent. The idea that somebody from that region could aspire to that kind of national office, people didnt even try. Yesterday, about 50,000 democrats in iowa met in caucuses to choose delegates for their state party convention. Former georgia governor jimmy carter did extremely well. The iowa caucus was something no one ever paid attention to, but carter and his team said, hey, if we go and which win, the media is going to treat us like a serious political front runner. Mr. Carter is also deeply religious. He praise in publprays in publi speaks openly about his beliefs. He would lead some kind of spiritual redemption which at the time we really needed. Nothing has happened tonight to change the feeling jimmy carter is on his way to a kind of correspond nation in Madison Square garden. The battle for the republican nomination turned out to be really close. It was close enough to make the ford peoples finger nails sweat. By a whisker, gerald ford got the nomination. When ford was nominated, reagans supporters staged a demonstration on the convention floor, and it went on and on and on and on. By the end of that convention, its clear that although gerald ford may be the nominee, Ronald Reagan has won the hearts and minds of conservatives. Reagan did great damage to ford. Look at the poll numbers. Youll see that jimmy carter starts surging over 30 points ahead of gerald ford. Ford had a weak position in the national race, so he challenged jimmy carter to a debate. Mr. President and i would like to explore a little more deeply our relationship with the russians. Max frankel asked whether the United States was accepting of soviet domination of Eastern Europe. There is no soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a ford administration. Im sorry, could i just did i understand you to say, sir, that the russians are not using Eastern Europe as their own sphere of influence . Everybodys jaw just dropped. Are you alive . Are you aware . What he meant to say was, i will not accept any soviet domination of Eastern Europe. Governor carter, can we have your response . Charitably it was a momentary slip. Maybe we do need to replace the president. Ford had never lost an election in his life. Won 15 straight terms in the house, and here all of a sudden hes beaten by this oneterm governor of georgia, and he was crushed. My voice isnt up to par. I may call on the real spokesman for the family. Patty . Its been the greatest honor of my husbands life to have served his fellow americans during two of the most difficult years in our history. I think the real test comes now. Will these people who have taken apart the old system, can somehow translate politics into power and make a government work . Thats their relevant test, and were on the threshold, possibly of the greatest change since the new deal in 1932. Not long ago, ronda started here. And then, more jobs began to appear. These techs in a lab. This builder in a hardhat. The welders and electricians who do all of that. The diner staffed up cause they all needed lunch. Teachers. Doctors. Jobs grew a bunch. What started with one job spread all around. Because each job in energy creates many more in this town. 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Most president s in our time have wanted to do this, but in recent years after our various tragedies, it has been discouraged and there has not been very much of it. Jimmy carter and his wife roselyn get out of the car. It was game changing. People looked at that and said, this is what we need, a real person as president. Carter was a man of the people. Glamor was not what we were in the market for. We were looking for a redeemer. Let me take a look around. I know ive seen it. Well have a meeting with some of the cabinet officers in a few minutes. Have you gone upstairs and taken a look at the quarters . For the first time. He had to do a few things that were important. Fix the economy, fix peace in the middle east, fix energy and some other things. With will have available for public scrutiny and for congressional action by april the 20th, a comprehensive longrange energy policy. The winter of 1977 is one of the worst that the country had experienced, and this comes at a time the economy is still doing poorly. The Severe Weather has already led to a serious shortage of natural gas. Federal Power Commission estimates at least 200,000 layoffs due to Industrial Gas curtailments so far. In the day tton area the president is about to speak to the country on energy. Tonight i want to have an unpleasant talk with you. The Energy Crisis has not overwhelmed us, but it will if we dont act quickly. We need to shift to plentiful coal while taking care of the environment, and to apply stricter Safety Standards to nuclear energy. This difficult effort will be the moral equivalent of war. The policies that he rolls out around the speech really dont go anywhere. One of the key reasons for this is that jimmy carter really had poor relations with congress. For the producing states, i think it would be a catastrophic, cataclysmic calamity. What hes trying do is prepare the public mind to accept the carter proposal and nothing else. Carter alienated the powers that be in congress, so when jimmy carter began to falter, he didnt have friends coming out and speaking for him. In fact, i was getting calls from democrats criticizing him. Ive always heard about the advise and consent role of the congress. So far theyve been a little strong on the advice than they have the consent. Carter inherits a financial miss. He needs a big feather in his cab. The president is in trouble at home. His counselors advise a trip abroad. The president is on the road, his first long trip to the middle east and western europe. The president met with not only anwar sa dat of egypt, but king hussein of jordan, and the shaw of iran. United states had always backed the shah of iran. That goes back to 1953 when america essentially put him in power. In one of the more troubled areas of the world. Even though the western governments loved the shah, they werent paying attention to the facts on the ground and there were many people who were discontented with the shah, in part because of his extremely oppressive policies. Iran was seen as important for its oil resources, but also because the shah was an ally when it came to regional goals. This was a Natural Alliance for the United States. The president and the shah of iran spent a long time talking about the middle east, and it was brought up by other leaders in other countries. Jimmy carter saw the middle east and the settlement of the conflict between israelis and arabs as central to any kind of stability for the next generation. Hopes for middle east peace settlement were mefr higher than they were last november when sadat met began. The enthusiasm began to fall off. They went to bickering and negotiations broke down. Jimmy carter took advantage of the situation to talk to the israelis. I think he thought he could do something