Water Gate scandal brings in a lot of topics we have talked about House decide whether to write up formal charges and go to trial Then it goes to trial in the Senate where it s decided guilty or not guilty Now common is impeachment after Watergate It was not a normal part of political process back in this time period Only 1 impeachment in the last 200 years about 100 years ago Richard Nixon very important President one of the most important in the 20 th century Very capable and strong can get pretty much everything we want Specialty Foreign Policy Made major breakthrough opening China Nixon was Eisenhower s VP 1960 lost very narrowly to JFK 8 years later Nixon nominated again but won by only a half percent Nixon did not start that war he didn t want the war Wanted to be out of Vietnam so he could focus on Russia and China Trying to stop the war pull out Bad Nuclear weapons Bad idea Nixon realizes secret conversations are being leaked out of White House He wanted that stopped for national security reasons Nixon put together group The Plumbers so that they can stop leak Worked in conjunction with people on President s reelection Similar to Pentagon Papers wanted leak to stop and wanted Daniel Ellsburg punished One of his top assistants ordered the Plumbers to break into Daniel s psychiatrist office hoping to find incriminating information on Daniel to leak to the press Did Richard Nixon order that We don t know Top assistant on record saying Go ahead and do the break in As long as you don t get caught and it doesn t get traced back to the White House Nixon s reelection campaign Wanted a guaranteed win in 1972 Very strong democratic nominees about tied with Nixon in the polls One candidate unknown Senator from S Dakota very liberal small state extremist Hired a guy named Donald lawyer job was to do dirty tricks against the leading democrats Some legal and some illegal Go pretend to volunteer for Musky campaign bring us some flyers you find there Wrote bogus letter on Musky stationary Unknown starts moving up As it turns out weakest candidate did get the nomination The Plumbers Howard Hunt White House aide Gordon Liddy James McCord campaign security chief 4 Cuban Americans worked for CIA break in team Al Baldwin James McCord s assistant look out Wiretap Larry O Brien s phone in Watergate conference room Police found them dressed like normal people President was thousands of miles away in Russia Impeachment Based on current information if you were a member of the US House of Representatives do you think that there is enough evidence to impeach formally charge President Nixon which would lead to a trial in the Senate A Yes impeach 37 B No don t impeach 63 Lied to the American People and the press part of their cover up but not illegal Many involved in this break in and the dirty tricks didn t want to get in trouble They found all documents that had to do with this scandal and destroyed them Bad because they destroyed evidence which is a crime Several investigations Democrats media FBI FBI focused on the money each burglars had their pockets stuffed with thousands of dollars Brand new sequentially numbered 100 dollar bills A Yes impeach 38 B No Don t impeach 62