WAterGate

2001-2023 | 22 years

In this episode, the senior staffers are being told about the president’s MS, and trying to devise a plan for how to announce it to the public. They are also working with White House Counsel to determine what they are going to do when Congress starts having hearings and subpoenaing staffers. In The West Wing, this is the President’s biggest scandal, and it continues to pop up throughout the rest of the series. Many Democrats recommend that the President doesn’t run for reelection and he is even censured by Congress for concealing his illness.

The biggest Presidential scandal in American history is arguably the Watergate Scandal, which ended in President Richard Nixon’s resignation, the first presidential resignation in American history. The Watergate Scandal started to come to light after DNC headquarters were broken into by a group tied to the Committee to Re-Elect the President, and grew as the White House tried and cover it up. Like President Bartlet in The West Wing, for President Nixon, the cover-up was the most devastating part of the scandal. The American people could reconcile their President doing something wrong, but could not accept their president using his powers to keep his wrongdoings from the public.

Around this time 50 years ago, everything was starting to fall apart for the Nixon Administration in regard to the Watergate Scandal. October 20th, 1973 was the Saturday Night Massacre, when Nixon ordered his Attorney General to fire the special prosecutor investigating Watergate. After the AG refused to do this and resigned, Nixon ordered the Deputy AG to fire the special prosecutor, but the Deputy AG also refused and resigned. Finally, Nixon ordered the Solicitor General, the third most senior official in the Justice Department, to fire the Special Prosecutor, and he did so. But this caused the public to turn against Nixon, who had notably been very popular before the scandal, winning the 1972 election with 49 states and over 60% of the popular votes.

On October 30th, the House Judiciary Committee started the impeachment process, authorizing the committee’s Chairman to issue subpoenas. Half a year later the committee subpoenaed tapes that had audio of conversations in the White House, one of which ended up being the “smoking gun” tape, which contained a conversation between President Nixon and his Chief of Staff that proved Nixon was guilty of obstruction of justice. On August 8, 1974, three days after the transcripts from the “Smoking Gun” Tape were released, President Nixon resigned.

Normally, this website talks more about how our government functions or current events rather than historical events, but it is also important that we are knowledgeable about our country’s past. We need to remember that people in power, no matter how popular they are, have ample opportunity to abuse their power if we are not paying attention. This is why it is important that we continue to be inquisitive and demand answers from our leaders. It is also important that we continue to encourage journalistic rigor, the type which allowed the American people to get the truth about what was happening in the Nixon Administration.

If you want to learn more about the Watergate Scandal, I recommend one of my favorite books: All the President’s Men.