Watergate scandal

== Final investigations and resignation ==
{{main|Impeachment process against Richard Nixon}}
{{Listen
| filename    = Nixon resignation audio with buzz removed.ogg
| title       = Richard Nixon's resignation speech
| description = Resignation speech of President [[Richard Nixon]], delivered August 8, 1974.
| format      = [[Ogg]]
}}

Nixon's position was becoming increasingly precarious. On February 6, 1974, the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] approved {{USBill|93|H. Res.|803}} giving the Judiciary Committee authority to investigate impeachment of the President.<ref name="USCongRec|1974|H2349">{{USCongRec|1974|H2349}}-50</ref><ref name="USCongRec|1974|H2362">{{USCongRec|1974|H2362}}-63</ref> On July 27, 1974, the [[House Judiciary Committee]] voted 27-to-11 to recommend the first article of impeachment against the president: [[obstruction of justice]]. The Committee recommended the second article, [[abuse of power]], on July 29, 1974. The next day, on July 30, 1974, the Committee recommended the third article: [[contempt of Congress]]. On August 20, 1974, the House authorized the printing of the Committee report H. Rep. 93–1305, which included the text of the resolution impeaching Nixon and set forth articles of impeachment against him.<ref>{{USCongRec|1974|H29219}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Bazan |first=Elizabeth B |title=Impeachment: An Overview of Constitutional Provisions, Procedure, and Practice |date=December 9, 2010 |work=[[Congressional Research Service reports]]}}</ref>

=== "Smoking Gun" tape ===
[[File:Nixon Oval Office meeting with H.R. Haldeman "Smoking Gun" Conversation June 23, 1972.wav|thumb|"Smoking Gun" tape of Nixon and H.R. Haldeman's conversation in Oval Office on June 23, 1972]]

On August 5, 1974, the White House released a previously unknown audio tape from June 23, 1972. Recorded only a few days after the break-in, it documented the initial stages of the cover-up: it revealed Nixon and Haldeman had a meeting in the Oval Office during which they discussed how to stop the FBI from continuing its investigation of the break-in, as they recognized that there was a high risk that their position in the scandal might be revealed.

Haldeman introduced the topic as follows:

<blockquote>...{{nbsp}}the Democratic break-in thing, we're back to the—in the, the problem area because the FBI is not under control, because [[L. Patrick Gray|Gray]] doesn't exactly know how to control them, and they have&nbsp;... their investigation is now leading into some productive areas&nbsp;... and it goes in some directions we don't want it to go.<ref name="haldeman6.23.72" /></blockquote>

[[File:Members and staff of House Judiciary Committee 1974.png|thumb|left|upright=1.35|House Judiciary Committee members and staff, 1974]]

After explaining how the money from CRP was traced to the burglars, Haldeman explained to Nixon the cover-up plan: "the way to handle this now is for us to have Walters [CIA] call Pat Gray [FBI] and just say, 'Stay the hell out of this&nbsp;... this is ah, business here we don't want you to go any further on it.'"<ref name="haldeman6.23.72" />

Nixon approved the plan, and after he was given more information about the involvement of his campaign in the break-in, he told Haldeman: "All right, fine, I understand it all. We won't second-guess Mitchell and the rest." Returning to the use of the CIA to obstruct the FBI, he instructed Haldeman: "You call them in. Good. Good deal. Play it tough. That's the way they play it and that's the way we are going to play it."<ref name="haldeman6.23.72">{{Cite web |url=http://www.nixonlibrary.gov/forresearchers/find/tapes/watergate/wspf/741-002.pdf |title="Transcript of a Recording of a Meeting Between the President and H.R. Haldeman in the Oval Office on June 23, 1972 from 10:04 to 11:39&nbsp;am" Watergate Special Prosecution Force |access-date=June 17, 2010 |archive-date=May 28, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528003941/http://www.nixonlibrary.gov/forresearchers/find/tapes/watergate/wspf/741-002.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oe3OgU8W0s |title="Audio: Recording of a Meeting Between the President and H.R. Haldeman in the Oval Office on June 23, 1972 from 10:04 to 11:39&nbsp;am" Watergate Special Prosecution Force |via=YouTube |access-date=November 26, 2015 |archive-date=January 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114215125/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oe3OgU8W0s |url-status=live }}</ref>

Nixon denied that this constituted an obstruction of justice, as his instructions ultimately resulted in the CIA truthfully reporting to the FBI that there were no national security issues. Nixon urged the FBI to press forward with the investigation when they expressed concern about interference.<ref>[http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=4320&st=&st1= Statement Announcing Availability of Additional Transcripts of Presidential Tape Recordings] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304205848/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=4320&st=&st1= |date=March 4, 2016 }} August 5, 1974</ref>

Before the release of this tape, Nixon had denied any involvement in the scandal. He claimed that there were no political motivations in his instructions to the CIA, and claimed he had no knowledge before March 21, 1973, of involvement by senior campaign officials such as [[John N. Mitchell|John Mitchell]]. The contents of this tape persuaded Nixon's own lawyers, [[Fred Buzhardt]] and [[James D. St. Clair|James St. Clair]], that "the President had lied to the nation, to his closest aides, and to his own lawyers—for more than two years".<ref>Bernstein and Woodward (1976): ''The Final Days'', p. 309</ref> The tape, which [[Barber Conable]] referred to as a "[[smoking gun]]", proved that Nixon had been involved in the cover-up from the beginning.

In the week before Nixon's resignation, Ehrlichman and Haldeman tried unsuccessfully to get Nixon to grant them pardons—which he had promised them before their April 1973 resignations.<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,908732-8,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521074323/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,908732-8,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 21, 2013 |title=The Administration: The Fallout from Ford's Rush to Pardon |date=September 23, 1974 |magazine=Time |access-date=July 24, 2011}}</ref>

=== Resignation ===
{{further|Richard Nixon's resignation speech|Inauguration of Gerald Ford}}
[[File:Letter of Resignation of Richard M. Nixon, 1974.jpg|thumb|Nixon's resignation letter, August 9, 1974. Pursuant to federal law, the letter was addressed to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. When Kissinger initialed the letter at 11:35&nbsp;am, Ford officially became president.]]
[[File:Nixon leaving whitehouse.jpg|thumb|[[Oliver F. Atkins]]' photo of Nixon leaving the [[White House]] shortly before his resignation became effective, August 9, 1974]]

The release of the [[smoking gun tape]] destroyed Nixon politically. The ten congressmen who had voted against all three articles of impeachment in the House Judiciary Committee announced they would support the impeachment article accusing Nixon of obstructing justice when the articles came up before the full House.<ref name="graham">Katharine Graham, ''Personal History'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), p. 495.</ref> Additionally, [[John Jacob Rhodes]], the House leader of Nixon's party, announced that he would vote to impeach, stating that "coverup of criminal activity and misuse of federal agencies can neither be condoned nor tolerated".<ref name="RhodesObit">{{Cite news |last=Bart Barnes |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/john-j-rhodes-dies-led-gop-in-house-during-watergate/2012/06/05/gJQA84nSGV_story.html |title=John J. Rhodes Dies; Led GOP In House During Watergate |date=August 26, 2003 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=March 3, 2019 |archive-date=March 6, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306045011/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/john-j-rhodes-dies-led-gop-in-house-during-watergate/2012/06/05/gJQA84nSGV_story.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

On the night of August 7, 1974, Senators [[Barry Goldwater]] and [[Hugh Scott]] and Congressman Rhodes met with Nixon in the Oval Office. Scott and Rhodes were the Republican leaders in the Senate and House, respectively; Goldwater was brought along as an elder statesman. The three lawmakers told Nixon that his support in Congress had all but disappeared. Rhodes told Nixon that he would face certain impeachment when the articles came up for vote in the full House; indeed, by one estimate, no more than 75 representatives were willing to vote against impeaching Nixon for obstructing justice.<ref name=RhodesObit/> Goldwater and Scott told the president that there were enough votes in the Senate to convict him, and that no more than 15 Senators were willing to vote for acquittal–not even half of the 34 votes he needed to stay in office.

Faced with the inevitability of his impeachment and removal from office and with public opinion having turned decisively against him, Nixon decided to resign.<ref name="schmidt">{{Citation |last=Schmidt |first=Steffen W. |title=American Government and Politics Today, 2013–2014 Edition |page=181 |year=2013 |publisher=Wadsworth Publishing |isbn=978-1133602132 |quote=In 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned in the wake of a scandal when it was obvious that public opinion no longer supported him. |author-link=Steffen Schmidt}}</ref> In a [[s:Richard Nixon's resignation speech|nationally televised address]] from the Oval Office on the evening of August 8, 1974, the president said, in part:

{{blockquote|In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the Nation. Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me. In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort. As long as there was such a base, I felt strongly that it was necessary to see the constitutional process through to its conclusion, that to do otherwise would be unfaithful to the spirit of that deliberately difficult process and a dangerously destabilizing precedent for the future.

...&nbsp;I would have preferred to carry through to the finish whatever the personal agony it would have involved, and my family unanimously urged me to do so. But the interest of the Nation must always come before any personal considerations. From the discussions I have had with Congressional and other leaders, I have concluded that because of the Watergate matter I might not have the support of the Congress that I would consider necessary to back the very difficult decisions and carry out the duties of this office in the way the interests of the Nation would require.

...&nbsp;''I have never been a quitter''. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President, I must put the interest of America first. America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad. To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the President and the Congress in a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home. Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/character/links/nixon_speech.html |title=President Nixon's Resignation Speech |access-date=August 29, 2009 |publisher=PBS |archive-date=July 18, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718133421/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/character/links/nixon_speech.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Resignation video 1974">{{cite web |title=August 8, 1974: Address to the Nation Announcing Decision To Resign the Office of President |url=https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/august-8-1974-address-nation-announcing-decision-resign-office |website=Presidential Speeches – Richard M. Nixon Presidency |date=October 20, 2016 |publisher=University of Virginia Miller Center |access-date=August 9, 2023 |archive-date=August 10, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230810230601/https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/august-8-1974-address-nation-announcing-decision-resign-office |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

The morning that his resignation took effect, the President, with Mrs. Nixon and their family, said farewell to the White House staff in the [[East Room]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Brokaw, Tom |url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/5593631 |title=Politicians come and go, but rule of law endures |date=August 6, 2004 |publisher=NBC News |access-date=August 29, 2009 |archive-date=January 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114215245/https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna5593631 |url-status=live }}</ref> A helicopter carried them from the White House to [[Andrews Air Force Base]] in [[Maryland]]. Nixon later wrote that he thought, "As the helicopter moved on to Andrews, I found myself thinking not of the past, but of the future. What could I do now?" At Andrews, he and his family boarded an Air Force plane to [[El Toro Marine Corps Air Station]] in California, and then were transported to his home [[La Casa Pacifica]] in [[San Clemente, California|San Clemente]].