American Presidents: Totalus Rankium - 37.3 Richard Nixon

Episode Date: October 1, 2022

In Nixon's final part we mostly cover the watergate scandal and then we judge him. I wonder if one will affect the other? 

Welcome to Totalus Rankium. This week, Richard Nixon Part 3. Hello and welcome to American Presidents Totalus Rankium. I am Jamie. And I'm ranking all of the presidents from Washington to Biden. And this is episode 37.3. It's our final part on the one and only Tricky Dicky. You said Dicky. I did. That's what I said.

Yeah. Here we go It's the final part I think this is the episode people were probably waiting for Because this is where the big stuff happens Oh, is he Stop the war in Vietnam? Yes, that big thing, Vietnam War, exactly

So okay, shall we Just jump straight into this then Let's do an intro Oh an intro, an intro okay somebody walking down the street with dollar bills pouring out their pocket but they haven't realized oh a softball okay well in which case just start with a hippo rooting them from behind there we go okay start on a hippo and he's just munching something and then uh the camera keeps panning along with the hippo because it's bomb bomb bomb bomb down the street munching is there someone

behind with like drums like yes the steps are this this looks full-on like the yellow submarine uh cartoon yeah that's what's going on um it's it's just imagine all of this very much in the Beatles-style cartoons. There's a big hippo eating dollar bills, and then the camera just keeps panning faster and faster, so the hippo goes out of shot, and it is just dollar bills, one after another on the street. And it starts zooming in, or panning in, as it's officially called, into the dollars, so you can see them really clearly.

And each dollar has sequential serial numbers. Yeah. As notes do. As notes do. The first bill says one, and the second one says two, and the third one says three. And it keeps going all the way up until like 21,973 or something. It's quite a lot.

Yeah. And then finally it goes up, and then you see it's fluttering from the sky. They're just falling now. They're no longer just on the pavement. And you realize the pavement's gone. It is just sort of this field, and burning wreckage is all around as all these sequential notes just keep falling. And you realize that you're in the

midst of a plane crash oh yeah and they're lying strewn around again still all in uh yellow submarine style cartoons which creeped me out as a kid are just dead bodies jamie dead bodies this is dark oh it gets dark we had a lovely happy hippo with a drummer well that's gone now it's dead bodies in a plane crash and it goes over until eventually you just see this sort of half burnt bag and this is where all the notes have come from and it just stays on this half burnt bag as it's sort of it's burning a little bit still but it's not fully on fire and you just hear the sirens in the distance. But then the hippo catches up with the camera and just starts munching on the bag.

He turns to the camera and says, Nixon part three. Nice. Yeah. That's wonderfully surreal. I loved it. Yeah. But also, it really is something that happens

apart from the hippo. Maybe you'll find out. I was so happy until you said apart from the hippo oh yeah sorry about that now i say it really happened i genuinely can't remember if i included that part of my notes so i'm gonna have to try and remember there was a plane crash but at one point and it involves money anyway so let's figure out what all this is about then shall we because last Because last week we left Nixon riding a high. This is the week after the week that changed the world. We know he's gone off to China.

He's brought them into the fold, sort of. They're closer. They're not enemies. That will do. Yeah. Russia are now a little bit more hesitant about swinging their weight around. Yeah. Yeah.

And also, because of all this it seems more likely they're going to be able to get out of vietnam remember these were the big three things that nixon wanted to do and it would appear he's achieved them yeah i think straight away let's not bother with it let's rate him i think successful he's he's done what he said he would do yeah the world's an arguably safer place as soon as the people are out of it of course um i think this this is what he'll be known for i think so but also don't forget we actually left the episode not with nixon on air force one looking smug but uh back in washington with the campaign to re-elect the president underway and the plumbers were looking to implement operation gemstone oh yeah those idiots yes those idiots and lionel was just peering in from the top of

cupboard looking very worried yeah so we're gonna start we're gonna just carry on straight away with them because liddy the chief plumber's thinking uh along with hunt hunt uh i didn't mention my name last time he's another chief plumber uh they were going to go into the next phase of operation gemstone because unfortunately so far it hadn't gone too well no no they've been given a budget of a quarter of a million in the end remember it got argued down to half a million well it's been argued back down again to a quarter of a million uh so but still quarter of a million especially back then that's certainly worth a bob or two yeah i wouldn't say no to a quarter of a million nope i mean i wouldn't guarantee

being able to re-elect someone with quarter of a million but i i heard i heard something like now modern president spends about two billion oh. Oh, it's just outrageous. Which is shocking for a few posters. One of the best things this country has ever done in terms of politics is to actually write down in law that we have a set time to have an election. Yeah, it's a couple of weeks before, isn't it? About a month, if I'm correct. Yeah, but that's it.

It's over with. Whereas elections in America, they start pretty much straight away as soon as the last one's gone. Yeah, it's only by the midterms, which are in a couple of months. Oh, yes. Anyway, so, as I'm trying to say, they've got a quarter of a million dollars

and they'd had several months so far, but they had very little to show for anything. They hadn't really achieved anything. They all had new cars. Yeah, that was nice. Brand new, like, coats and stuff but well currently the main focus was on the front runner for the democratic primary this was a man named george mcgovern mcgovern was most likely going to win that primary so he was the one who was going to be going against nixon in the next election now

they decided what we need to do is we need to go to the McGovern headquarters and we need to place a bug, maybe break in and take some photos of some of their documents. Shall we do a cockroach? Not that kind of bug. Go on, Hickory. No. Hickory, go away, Hickory. Well, they decided that the headquarters is a bright lit up place.

It's lots of street lamps around the headquarters. Secret headquarters on the front. Well, they wanted a bit more security. They didn't want to just break into this headquarters with lots of street lamps blazing around. So what did they do? Turn the street lamps off. Well, yes.

How best do you turn street lights off? Think you're James Bond bond you're you're tom cruise of michelin possible he probably hasn't well a couple ways you could find the electrical circuit somewhere else and just press a switch or you go to the streetlight take the cover off and snip the cables and kill yourself from the shock no liddy took this one himself don't worry guys i've got this he said and he stomed out that room. Lionel probably looking confused. Then cut to later that night where Liddy is walking down the street, takes out a pistol and starts shooting the streetlights.

I mean, it's not a terrible idea because it would work in that sense. It works. But in another sense, it is a terrible idea. In a very real sense, it's a terrible idea. I mean, I suppose it's how you imagine it. If you are imagining James Bond just casually walking down the street with a silenced pistol under his arm and he just slightly moves and just... And then it just goes off, maybe.

Or you've just got a guy, legs apart, standing in the middle of the street. Just a six-shooter in his hand. A Tommy gun. A Tommy gun, yes. Screaming, come on, you mothers. Yeah, a stream of cars behind him trying to get past. He's blocking the road.

Yeah, I suppose it depends how you imagine it. I'm leaning towards the latter, to be honest. Anyway, despite this sterling attempt at being very sneaky beforehand, four attempts they have at trying to get into the headquarters of McGovern, and they fail every single time. They just can't get in. Did they try the door? Well, let's not go into details. It's embarrassing all round.

It's one of those doors that said pull oh no it said push but it had a handle on so you think you should yeah and it just confused them we've all been there we've all been there we have but four times no the security is too tight uh just by getting rid of the street light lamps they realize that it's too risky so they don't go for it but But they've got different targets. The Democratic National Convention's chairman, for example, he had rooms in the upcoming convention that was going to happen. And that would be useful to know what he's saying.

Trouble was that convention was several weeks away and they needed to result quickly because they weren't getting anywhere. How about this, someone suggests. What about this someone suggests what about the dmc headquarters at the watergate hotel i've got rooms there that should be fairly easy it's a hotel we could book our own rooms we could get rooms in the hotel then we're in the same building this should be easy makes a lot of sense yeah yeah just just say this at the start there's a lot going on with watergate as you can imagine, and I'm not going to be able to cover everything in this episode. If you want to know more, you can't move for

information about Watergate, but if you like podcasts, which I assume you do if you're listening, the first season of Slow Burn is all about Watergate, and it's very good, so you could check that out, or tonight, just go and get one of the many many books or watch one of the many many films so there's lots of stuff so but just know this is me uh truncating things slightly i'd love to watch a watergate film let's do it i didn't know what i mean obviously it does exist but i've never heard of one well let's watch all the president's men and then we'll do a review for it yeah yeah that sounds good excellent sounds good. Excellent. Okay then. So back to the story then.

Right, so several attempts to install books and photograph sensitive material in the Watergate headquarters absolutely fail. Yeah, I mean, you can't strap a 1970s camera to a cockroach. No, but they tried. One night Hunt almost got caught and had to spend the entire night in a closet hiding. He had to pee into his liquor bottle that he had with him, apparently. Why does he have a liquor bottle?

It's a good question, yes. Dutch courage. Check all the things I've got for my top secret mission, breaking into the opponent's headquarters. I've got my little camera. My sledgehammer. My sledgehammer. Have I got my bottle of whiskey need that and it's like a 70 cl big bottle as well oh yeah yeah it's not a hip it is

yeah it's a full-on bottle of whiskey but it's unopened when he was in the cupboard so he had to drink it first yes but then he needed the toilet so he he went into it, and then it just became a big loop. It wasn't good. Anyway, at last, the team that Liddy put together broke into the Watergate complex and installed two bugs and took photos. And then they left, and no one caught them. Brilliant. Yeah.

That's why no one's heard of the Watergate and any problems that occurred in Nixon's time. Well, that's why very few people have heard of the first break-in problems that occurred in nixon well that's why very few people have heard of the first break him into the water gate oh no yeah i didn't know this yeah no i thought it was sure the first time they go in it works sort of there's a problem the first bug on the phone was actually their secondary target i mean it worked but it wasn't useful it was just staffers it crawled away. No, no, they had real books, honestly.

Like, not real books, but real, not real books. Sound recording equipment. Yes, yes, that's what they had. Yeah, and it just didn't work. They were just getting gossip from staff. Nothing useful whatsoever. They knew exactly what Sharon was doing with Ted from accounts. But that's not useful, is it? Unless Ted's going to run for president one day.

So Liddy was chastised. Like, what the hell is this? You've spent a fortune, you've risked a lot, and we've got one bug and all we've got is staff gossip. What about the other bug? Ah, slight problem with that one. The other bug was actually on the chairman's phone and would have genuinely been very useful,

but it wasn't working. Oh, I'll change the battery in your cockroaches. It is very hard to change the battery in your cockroaches. They don't like it. They don't like it at all. And they become very forgetful when they're writing down everything that's been said. They make mistakes. Yeah, anyway, Liddy calls his men together again.

Okay, go and break into the water gate repair or replace that broken bug and then also in the same night we are going to hit the mcgovern headquarters as well and we are going to install devices there all in one night we'll just solve everything we've been messing around for far too long here and they weren't going to be stupid oh no no no Not only did the people breaking in hire rooms in the Watergate, they also hired rooms across the street from the Watergate.

Yes, they had a room where a lookout could watch the entrance and see exactly what was going on. Yeah, and keep in communication. It's clever. Yeah. Yeah, but you can only see the room window, though. Well, actually, apparently the spotter in the room opposite

had a perfect view. So, yeah, apparently it was a good spot to have. Anyway, so. As long as the bird didn't sit on the branch. Well, the spotter's in his room. Everyone else starts the breaking. One of those pneumatic hammers. Well, the plan did not go smoothly as last time

because the complex security guard was doing his rounds, or one of them were. And as he was doing his rounds, he noticed some tape that had been stuck over the locks of some of the doors, meaning those doors could be closed, but the locks would not engage. That's clever. Yeah, put them on during the day so they're not locked at night so you can get in and out we now have unlocked doors instead of locked doors that's uh break-in 101 stuff so this

security guard did what any security guard worth his salt would do what do you think he did see the sensible thing to do would be to go in and check and see if everything was okay but i imagine that's not what he did no he removed the tape and carried on with his rounds awesome yeah not for the not for the plumbers though well no there was a slight problem there but um actually it wasn't too bad because soon afterwards one of the men breaking in realized the tape had been removed. But I can only assume this was a door that was unlockable from one side and not the other.

So he was able to put the tape back on, which he did. Fair enough. And he then did what any savvy burglar worth his salt would do, go job well done, and carry on with the burglary. Are you suggesting the old... Well, I'm just absolutely amazed that both the security guard and the burglar are just removing and replacing tape without actually stopping to think what's the bigger picture here i like to think this reoccurred

about eight to ten times in that evening i'd like to think it was a back and forth back and forth yes of just the tape going on the tape coming off again well eventually the security card uh did another round and oh that's odd the tape's been put back on could have sworn i removed that now according to the official story this is when he calls it in but i think we can safely say this happened at these date times so yeah he calls it in and a small argument takes place between the nearby police officers uh who's going to go and deal with this because this sounds boring and uh we can't be bothered to do this apparently there's a big debate but eventually a cruiser heads on to the water gate good yes now that spotter remember opposite has the perfect view

yeah hickory yeah hickory he's there from his window he could see where the police car rolled up where the police officers got out and went into the watergate entrance unfortunately for everyone involved that might have been the view from the window but hickory was currently watching attack of the puppet people oh hickory what a guy yes you had one job one job hickory attack of the puppet people by the. Oh, Hickory, what a guy. Yes. You had one job. One job, Hickory. Attack of the Puppet People, by the way. I'd looked up the trailer.

Do you want to see the trailer for this film? Oh, I really do. Okay. Well, search on YouTube. Attack of the Puppet People, 1958 official trailer. John Agar is the nice looking young man introduced by John White to pretty June Kenny and with Boy Meets Girl

they do what comes naturally but the loss of love has made this mild mannered man What a fanatic. It's great isn't it? I don't get this anymore. Oh no. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Why I'm your friend How would you like to be a living doll This madman can do with as he pleases A monster, his own woman, had reason to flee Oh, no See, the world that the child in each of us knows own woman had reason to flee. Oh, no.

See, the world that the child in each of us knows. See, a baby doll take a bubble bath in a coffee can. What are you talking about? Yep. Sally. Tell her. He said that tonight, he said tonight he was going to kill us all. It only takes one of us to go for help. I kind of want to see this now.

It looks fantastic. Oh, we'll watch it when we also watch Home Press at the time. Yeah. Giant rat. Feel the fantastic fear of living in a normal world. But being dwarfed by people many times

your size. Oh, I really want to see that film. So there you go. Just know then, if it want to see that film. So there you go. Just know then, if it wasn't for that film looking so amazing, none of Watergate would have happened. So obviously Hickory the Sparta saw that trailer and was like, coming on next and went, you know what?

I've got to watch that. It's like there was a big whole thing with like really small people in peril. I remember it from the 80s when I was a child. Oh, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Yeah, that, but also there was another TV program. Anyway, it's all good stuff. Borrowers. Yes, the borrowers.

And there was one where they were trapped on land of the giants. Yeah, something like that. Anyway, this sounds amazing. There's a reason why the spotter was not doing his job this brilliant film was on i think a very good reason very very good reason i think we can let hickory off for that yeah so um yeah the police uh go in and just find find these uh men with their torches and their cameras and their recording equipment. Crowbars. All of them had a bag with swag written on it and like a little mask. And they were all doing a comical tiptoe with creepy arm movements.

Yeah. And they were arrested. Five men were arrested for attempted burglary and attempted interception of telephone and other communications. Exciting charges there. Yeah. The cockro charges there. Yeah. I bet the cockroaches dipped them in. Always working for somebody else.

The cockroaches got off. Yay. Yeah. Apart from one that hadn't had his battery changed recently. I'm feeling very slow. Jerry, Jerry. Yeah, Jerry did time. It was awful.

Anyway, on top of this, they also found $2,300 in cash in $100 bills, and all of them had sequential serial numbers on them. That links to something you said earlier. Yes, this is a very dodgy thing to have on you, isn't it? Not only have you got lots of cash in $100 bills, they've clearly come from somewhere official, because they were all printed at the same time.

Yeah. Hmm. Anyway, those men are arrested. Many of Nixon's top aides and advisors were out of town for various reasons at this point, so by the time they were told about the mess, it was too late to nip it in the bud. The police had already got warrants for the rooms that the burglars had rented,

because remember they did that. And in these rooms, they found an address book. With H. Hunt, W.H. written in it, with a White House number right next to it. Oh. Yeah. These were not very bright men. No. No.

Meanwhile, Liddy, hearing about what had happened to his burglars, had rushed to the Attorney General. Now, the Attorney General was not the one from last episode, Mitchell. Mitchell had stepped down to go and do something else. This was a new Attorney General, and told him that those high up want you to squash the case just step in just exert some pressure make this all go away please yeah now the new attorney general pointed out no i can't it's gone too far like there have been warrants issued as

official searches happened like maybe if you caught me immediately i would have been able to do this but this will raise far more questions than it will solve if I step in and try and squash it now. Not good. Not the answer that Liddy wanted. So instead, he rushes to meet with John Dean. I've not mentioned John Dean before. John Dean used to work as the Assistant Attorney General and was now an advisor to Nixon. And very soon, he would be put in charge of making the whole

watergate thing go away that's why i don't want to remember that yeah well done dean dean told liddy i need to get on top of this so the first thing you need to do is give me a list of everything you and the plumbers have been getting up to can i have all of your incriminating evidence please yeah yes please because i do not want anything to suddenly jump out and surprise me what have you actually been doing with this quarter of a million dollars we gave you they'll take off their coats i can only assume there was a very embarrassing meeting that followed when it's like um and that was the time i walked down the street and started shooting the streetlights with a gun.

It is a Tommy gun. So it was quick, sort of. Yeah. Yeah. May have nicked a few people, but... Yeah, we also did that break-in into the psychiatrist department. Oh, yeah, we did give the negatives to the CIA, so they probably still got those. Yeah, it was a list that was just not good.

You can imagine John Dean just watching. Head in hands. Yeah. Really? Yeah, this is a mess. This has got this administration all over it. This is not discreet. If they get you, they'll be able to come for us.

Not great. But anyway, Dean's going to go to work. He and the others ran around literally burning and shredding anything that linked Nixon to Watergate. So anything that the plumber's been up to, track it down, burn it, get rid of it. He then started just paying off anyone who was involved to keep quiet. These were huge sums of money that started to be exchanged here. Obviously, the men who had been arrested, they were paid off,

as were their families. Think full-on spy film at this point. Think envelopes with cash just left in airport lockers and things like that. So all of that starts happening up. We need to protect the president.

We need to get everyone to just shut up about Operation Gemstone, because my God, that was a stupid idea, wasn't it? It was. Now, obviously, nowadays, there's a very big deal about what the president knew and when he knew it. In fact, this, during the inquiry, is a phrase that... Is it true, is it thinking that?

Yes, this is a phrase that is repeated over and over again during the Watergate inquiry. What did the president know, and when did he know it? So what did he know, and when did he know it? Well, it is still sort of debatable, but it would appear, and most historians agree, that he didn't know about the break-in before it happened. But don't get me wrong, he was fully on board with this kind of operation. He knew that kind of stuff was going to happen. The only reason why he wasn't told is because he didn't need to know, but he wanted it to happen. So we just won't tell him the details. We do have one quote from him at this time when

he found out exactly what Operation Gemstone was going after, including bugging the convention. And apparently he said, my God, the convention isn't even worth bugging, in my opinion, which really does sum up the idea that he was annoyed that they got caught and he was annoyed that they were bugging stupid things, but he had no problem with the idea of bugging. So what did he know? He knew enough. And when did he know it? Technically slightly after, but he knew about the operations in principle he there's no way he wouldn't have known about the ideas of kidnapping that had already been brought up for example i forgot about that yeah oh yeah yeah don't forget the kidnapping

yeah so nixon wasn't too upset by the news apparently thinking as did most at the time this would blow over this isn't a huge story he was reassured by his aides that they had it under control there's no proof linking him to the illegal activities yep the story is some republicans broke into a democratic headquarters to try and bug a phone the public are just going to go yeah surely that's what all politicians do it's a rogue entity yeah it's fine we'll brush on the carpet that's okay so here's what we should do said his aides to nixon our main concern here is the money we have paid the plumbers to do some touchy stuff and that payment comes from us it comes very obviously from us we need to get get the FBI to not look into the money.

Yeah, we really shouldn't have signed those banknotes. Yeah, exactly. And put them in, like, cards with pictures of our faces on. Yeah. Saying thank you for the bugging. Stuff like that. So the burglars can go down for their crimes. That's fine.

We will reward them. Meanwhile, just cut away from that conversation just sort of pan down through the floor yeah rats yeah yeah get past the rats get into a dingy basement under the stairs somewhere because there is a technician who is in charge of storing all the recordings of all the conversations in the oval office. Yeah, do you remember those? Yeah. Yes. That technician was probably listening in and nodding his head in agreement.

Yeah, that's probably what you should do. You should probably just pay them off and put pressure on the FBI. Sounds good. Everything is being recorded. Remember last episode when Nixon decided to put the recording stuff back in? Because he had removed it.

He put it back in because he wanted history to remember what a damn good guy he was. Well, they're remembering some things. Yes, exactly. Why on earth was Nixon and his aides recording this conversation? I'm guessing it's like, you know, those like singing fish on walls. It reacts to the conversation and starts singing. Is it like that?

Is it just a talking fish that like faces you and records with glowing red eyes? Oh, well, yes. Let's say it's that, but you've essentially got it right. I'm guessing remembered from last episode is this recording device is not switched on and off. It is operated by sound. as soon as there's sound it automatically records yes i remember that from last time definitely yes that's not just you wishing it was a sound activated fish well it is it is definitely yeah um the reason why they were

recording this conversation is because most even his closest aides did not know about the recordings oh yeah most of them did not know that there was recording equipment in the oval office nixon did but it probably stopped thinking about them by this point why you do because they're just there all the time yeah and he's not turning them on and off so it's just they were installed and then he doesn't have to think about them again and when he did think about them well they were covered by executive privilege they were his tapes the president's no one's going to be able to take them off him no one could ever use them against him except in lee's office no no because it's it will be official documentation and he'd be able to keep

that classified no problem no one's going to be able to keep that classified, no problem. No one's going to be able to use it against him. So anyway, focus back on the current tape that technicians got going. Just imagine him just taking the tape out, putting a new one in, pressing record again, and then in neat writing, just writing the word smoking gun on that tape, and he puts it in its place. Yeah. gun on that tape and he puts it in its place uh yeah so anyway come back up through the the floor back to the oval office rat okay yeah we're back there so they carry on talking about their plan here and again remember all of this is recorded so step one here's what we're going to do we're

calling the director of the cia We'll tell him that we have information very damaging to the CIA, because after all the crap they've been up to since the end of the war, of course we have damaging information about the CIA. They have been doing all sorts of awful stuff, all of it very illegal. So we'll just mention that to the CIA, and then we'll get the deputy director of the CIA, who is one of our men, because we put him in there, to go to the CIA, and then we'll get the deputy director of the CIA, who is one of our men, because we put him in there, to go to the director of the FBI and tell the FBI, do not look into the money for national security reasons and the like. Heavily hinting that this is actually a CIA operation.

Yeah, that should work. That will work. Yes, it does work the fbi director told his men you can investigate the break-in but um ignore all those dodgy bills that we found because uh just taps his nose and mentions something about the cia mom's the word no one gets very excited when people mention the cia don't they because it's cool so it's like oh yeah okay so there we go however wheels were in motion, so the case couldn't be stopped completely. Liddy was going to have to take the fall for this, it was decided.

Do you think they told him beforehand? It's his birthday. He's got a family gathered around, about to blow out the candles on his cake. Phone call. Hello? Oh, yeah. Liddy.

You're taking the fall for this one. Why me? Because you're an idiot. That's why he... Yeah. Nixon told one of his aides that they would take care of Liddy and then they would pardon him after a discreet interval. So the idea was we'll make him take the fall,

but then we'll just pull him out of prison and give him a pardon. So let him know that we're giving some cash to tide him over and his family over, and we'll definitely pardon you after a while. Cool. Again, all being recorded. Hunt and the burglars also, they need to be paid off. Hunt as a head plumber considerably more than anyone else. And because I'm fairly sure I didn't put it in my notes in the end,

because it wasn't actually hugely linked, but just know that at some point Hunt's wife gets on a plane with lots of bong money. Oh no. Yeah. She has lots of money that is part of this bribe to keep quiet. And the plane crashes and she dies, as does most people on the plane but what do they find in the wreckage all these dodgy bills with sequential numbers on why does the plane crash planes crash sometimes but as you can imagine conspiracy theories yeah oh yes that's what i'm

thinking conspiracy theory loves a plane crash don't they but yeah hunt was being paid off hunt's family were being paid off a lot of money we're talking into its millions at this point wow yeah anyway around this time nixon gets a call from the director of the fbi hello sir i hope you're in good spirits yes um well the fbi director essentially says this track you're on by the way it's very dangerous. I'm agreeing with it because, you know, and he taps his nose and says, mom's the word CIA. But we could all end up in prison for this. And your aides, by the way, they're looking out for themselves because they're obviously wrapped up in something.

And I'm not sure you should be trusting them so much. By the way, Mr. President. Nixon discounts this. No, he trusts his aides far more than he trusts the head of the FBI, so he just discounts it. They love me. They love me. I'm amazing. Yeah, exactly. Instead, he goes... What are you doing? This is another competition I honored, you son of a mother!

Apart from that. We'll get to the rants in a bit. Instead of being cautious around his aides, instead he goes to his aides and they discuss the possibility of replacing the FBI director with the current deputy director of the FBI. He seemed like a good, solid man, this deputy director. Ronald Reagan? Not Ronald Reagan.

No, no. It was a guy with a really deep voice. It was... Hello. His throat seemed like really deep. What's his name? Mark Fout, that's it. Deep Throat Mark, they call him.

Yeah. Yes. Good old deep throat. We could trust him, can't we? He seems reliable. Everyone loves a deep throat. Well, as we all know now, the deputy FBI director was spending his evenings feeding information about all of this to Bob Woodward,

who was a reporter looking into it. Bob Woodward. Woodward. Woodward what? Very personal. Yes, he worked for the Post, did Bob Woodward, and his secret sauce for getting all of this highly classified information was the source Deep Throat, which is, in case you're not sure,

in case you're not sure, is where the concept of Deep Throat being someone who knows stuff comes from. He is the original Deep Throat. You seem to be finding the name Deep Throat somewhat amusing. No, not at all. No. But sir, how do you get your information by Deep Throat? It is a codename that has amused many for many, many, many years.

I'll be honest, I stopped finding it funny a very long time ago because it's just Deep Throat's name. But I suppose if you've not really come across him before you probably would just be laughing at his name yes no i'm mature you are mature there's no reason to laugh at the name no definitely voice yes throat yes he's got a deep throat deep throat but i'm gonna look up see if i can find out why he called himself deep throat don't search deep throat on google rob fine. Deep Throat will just come up with Deep Throat. Guarantee you, the top

thing. Deep Throat film is a pornographic film. Oh, 1972 pornographic film. Interesting. Editing Rob here. So at this point, we stopped recording for a bit so I could actually go and look up why Deep Throat was called Deep Throat because it just hadn't occurred to me to look this up

because I was so used to his name. I mean, that's why Jamie's here. Anyway, so hit the funk. Okay, right. I've done a bit of mini research. So Deep Throat apparently was the name given to Mark Fout by Bob Woodward during reporting he was doing. So Mark Fout didn't call himself Deep Throat.

It was given to him by Bob Woodward. Apparently, this is one suggestion. You know that film you just found called Deep Throat? Oh, no. Right. Yeah. Wait, you're on Pornhub or Xvideos? I don't know.

But that film had just come out. Bob Woodward needed a codename for this source, and this source was giving deep background. So, like, a really good source that knew a lot, and they were known as having deep background. And him and his colleague, Paul Bernstein, just started calling him Deep Throat because he had deep background. And the film had just come out.

So there you go. That is why the name is so pornographic seeming because it literally came from a pornographic film right okay so there you go this is why you're here jamie it's to ask the questions that the listener is thinking and i hadn't thought to answer beforehand so and it says everyone else typing deep throat into google Alison. Anyway, back to the story. So around this time, the deputy director of the FBI, Deep Throat, is giving information to the papers with no one knowing. The information he was leaking, along with the hard work of many reporters

and many FBI agents and all sorts, lots of people in the background here, this meant that the story that looked like it would die deaf to begin with actually started trickling along. Most people in the country did not care whatsoever. It was a minor story. Yeah. But it was there in the background if you knew where to look. Well, I'm just thankful it's not going to escalate.

Yes. However, the White House were not happy that the Post in particular was still writing stories about it. Oh no, what am I going to do to the writer? Well, Nixon's aides met with Wall Street investment bankers, hitting the business side of the paper with threats until the story ended back inside the paper rather than on the front. So in other words, they went after the big money men.

And they said to the paper, stop reporting on this. Tapped their nose, said mum's the word. CIA. Yeah, exactly. And it worked. In September, it was announced that no higher officials would be put on trial, only Liddy Hunt and the guys involved in the break, and that was it. John Dean and the others met with nixon and they congratulated

themselves dean told nixon that he had been keeping a list of anyone who had been difficult during all of this nixon replied good we have not used the power in the first four years as you know we haven't used the bureau and we haven't used the justice department but things are going to change. And Dean replied, that's an exciting prospect, my liege. Master! I mean, quotes like this just really... I mean, that literally is Nixon there saying, right, who's messes about?

Next administration, we are going after them. But why was Nixon so confident that he would indeed have another four years? Well, things have changed in the country slightly. Because you remember racist Wallace from last time? He had run as an independent and had split the vote. He had taken the South, basically taking a lot of the racist Democrat wing of that party and just siphoning their votes off. Now, if you remember last time, the Republicans decided to start the Southern Strategy, which is to start sounding out, maybe you racist people could come over to us.

Maybe. And look how evangelical we are. Yes, that also came in. It was what will appeal to the South? Let's try and get the South. And at that time, it meant lots of talk about being worried about the economy and about the fact that certain people in society maybe want a leg up when you've worked really hard.

Yeah. We covered this last time anyway. It's a classic. It's a classic. That's in full swing at the moment. So if Wallace isn't going to run this time, that means it's now a two-horse race once more. Nixon was able to win a three-way race.

And now, with all of those extra votes that Wallace had, or at least most of them were coming to him, the Democrats had no chance. And they knew it. They imploded. They fought against themselves. It was a mess. This was going to be an easy victory for Nixon. As long as nothing bad happens in vietnam

how do you find them yeah now nixon knew he was going to lose the war at this point he just was all he had to do was make it look like a draw a decent withdrawal until after the election in his mind if he lost the war he lose the election. So what he needed to do was cling on at all costs until after the election, and then just get out. And then North Vietnam engaged in a massive assault. Oh dear. Where did that come from?

Nixon was furious. Like, how bloody dare they? Don't they know there's an election coming up? This was going to make him look weak. And if he fought back, more soldiers would die. And that won't look good coming up to the election. Not good in the old resume. There's a lot of negative feeling, as you know, about Vietnam at this point. So if it looks like

he's escalating, that will not go down well at all. At this point, he says, for once, we've got to use the maximum power of this country against a s*** country to win this war. I hope that was like headlines on the front page of all the newspapers. No, unfortunately not. But we know he said it now. Nixon ordered a full-on bombing campaign. It's worked in the past, so why not? Well, I quote here, if it slops over, too bad.

Now, slopping over at that time was a terminology meant don't worry too much about civilian casualties. Oh. Yeah, slopping over meant civilians dead. So if it slops over, oh well, never mind. In other words, bomb, bomb, bomb to make them withdraw. It doesn't matter if we're killing innocent people. One aide in fact said, don't worry about killing civilians.

Go ahead and kill them. People think you're doing that now. And Nixon replied, that's right. The aide then said, so go ahead and kill some. There are pictures of bodies all over the place right now. No one knows who the house body they are or who killed them. And Nixon then replied, I'm not going to worry about it. Meanwhile, they're just ignoring the whir of the recorder in the background.

Yep. So, they're just ignoring the whir of the recorder in the background. Yep. So, yeah. So in order to make sure he didn't go down in the polls, an election he was almost guaranteed to win, he carries on bombing civilians. Later, an annoyed Nixon, angered that this still could damage his election, said, and I'll quote,

I'll destroy the goddamn country. Believe me, I mean destroy it, and let me say even nuclear weapons if necessary. We will bomb the living bejesus out of them. So he's gone slightly off the deep end with Vietnam. I'd say so, yep. Yes. The fighting that took place ensured that the North did not take the South

before the election, so that was what Nixon wanted, but it also proved that the South would last about as long as a paper poker after the United States left. Kissinger optimistically gave the South's chances one in four. I'll quote Nixon here. Well, if they are to collapse, maybe they just have to be collapsed. We cannot keep this child sucking at the tit whilst the child is four years old. So although not formally out yet, this was essentially the last opinion of South Vietnam from an American president. Yeah, you're on your own. Bye. Well, it's good to see that doesn't

happen nowadays. Yeah. Anyway, election. Nixon goes on to win a landslide and my god do i mean a landslide total domination 49 out of 50 states vote for him wow what was the one state that didn't uh massachusetts i bet in the next few years they're gonna have massive bragging like yeah well we knew yeah we read those small news articles yeah we knew something was going on. He got 60% of the popular vote to McGovern's 37, which is a huge victory. Yeah. And then look at the Electoral College, 520 to 17.

Is that the biggest thing we've had? The biggest real one. The only one that beats it is Washington's. That is okay. He wasn't a president. I don't count. No one remembers him. Yeah, he got 100%, but it wasn't a real vote.

So, yes, this is the most popular, decent election. Well, he's been so good, to be fair. He's done all the right things. Well, if you remember, not long ago, he had done the week that changed the world, and people were impressed with that. The economy was doing okay. Okay, people were very angry about the Vietnam War,

but not everyone was angry about that. Lots of people were just angry about these hippies complaining about the Vietnam War. And they didn't vote, so didn't they? Yeah, and generally the country seemed to be doing okay. However, Nixon was not a happy man, because he knew he had won that victory on borrowed time. Vietnam was going to be very nasty when he left, and he couldn't avoid it anymore.

He had kicked various economical issues down the road to make the election easier, which we simply don't have time to go into. But just know there's stuff ticking on in the economy in the background that he'd just been glossing over and hoping would go away. Well, it's time to face the music there and of course the biggest thing this damn watergate story still hasn't gone away now most people still don't know or haven't even heard of it before but it's still there and nixon knows that this could bring him down unless it's it's destroyed i won't

well they'd spent the modern equivalent of two and a half million dollars on hush money so far. Oh, I did include Hunt's wife dying in a crash. That happens here. Yeah, so that's when this happens. Hunt was devastated. Inside job. Inside job. Well, it doesn't really make sense

that it was an inside job. They were paying the hush money. Her suddenly dying didn't really help matters. It was an inside job this the seventh tower collapsed you're right see the explosives it was fine anyway hunt was devastated and demanded more money dean went to nixon roughly at this time to say okay we're in a slight bind here uh we're getting to the point where this stops being hush money and it starts being we're being blackmailed uh well there's only one way you can get rid of a blackmailer things were starting to shake a bit uh and then one of the men who had been arrested

cracked and he linked dean and various nixon aides to the scandal depressed scented blood and went after this dean at this point suggested i think we should fess up this is getting too close to home if we admit our wrongdoing now yeah okay our immediate careers are over but we won't go to prison probably with this could get a lot worse is what dean is saying however the other aides involved just refused nixon gets more and more paranoid probably remembering that phone call from the head of the fbi saying his aides will actually help themselves more than the president. And this whole thing starts to slowly unravel. Nixon wanted Dean to fall on his sword. They've implemented you, Dean, so you fess up. You say it all came from you, you did everything.

Well, it was pretty much Dean's response. He said what, and then he also lawyered up. In fact, I'll quote him here. Nixon thought I should lie for him, that I should fall on the sword. I should go to jail indefinitely so he could continue to be who he wanted to be. But I didn't see it that way. Now, obviously, Dean knows everything. He was the man in charge of hushing up. And he decides, I've had enough of this.

So he goes to the prosecutors in the Watergate burglary case, and he starts talking. Oh. Yes. Nixon starts to panic at this point. He's got to get ahead of this. So, Operation Get Ahead of This. Step one, fire Dean straight away.

Try and discredit him. Your services are no longer required. Thank you for your time. He's just this crazy disgruntled employee. What an arse. Anyway, he's gone now. Then he also met up with several of his other aides and encouraged them

to resign, shall we say. They weren't fired, but they were resigning. Yes, they didn't have a choice, but they were resigning. Around this time, he announced that he had personally been investigating this whole Watergate thing. Don't know if you've heard about it, but it's been in the press a little bit. And yeah, I've sorted it all out, everyone.

Don't worry. But he appeared on TV. The office was chilled to make sure he didn't sweat, because he didn't want to look like a liar. And he said the following, There can be no whitewash at the White House. The easiest course would for me to blame those who I delegated responsibility

to to run the campaign. But that would be cowardly. So he wasn't going to do that. Instead, he just put all the blame on the people he delegated to run the campaign. But he said he wasn't doing that. And that's what's important.

And that's what counts. Yes. And he said there was going to be no White House. No, there was going to be no whitewash in the White House. And that was a bit of a pun and it was catchy. So that's good. You'll be shocked to learn this wasn't enough. No.

No, Congress set up a committee to investigate the Watergate break-in. Oh dear. Yeah. And, I'll quote here, all other illegal, improper or unethical conduct occurring during the controversial 1972 presidential election, including political espionage and campaign finance practices. That's a hell of a breath.

Yeah. That's what this committee was going to investigate. It's just known as the Watergate Committee, though, so that's a bit easier. The man chosen to lead this committee was Archibald Cox. Please tell me he meets Deep Throat. You know what? I've got no idea if Cox and Deep Throat ever meet to talk, but considering Deep Throat was the deputy head of the FBI, it wouldn't surprise me. So anyway, Cox was an ex-advisor to Kennedy.

He was also an ex-solicitor general. He was not liked by Nixon. He was not liked by Nixon's supporters. They saw this appointment as proof that this was a partisan committee and they were gunning for the president. That's what you would say when you're guilty. Yeah. And by this time, Watergate had taken over the country took a very long time for the fire to

build up but it went from bubbling quietly in the background no one really cared to it exploding yes the leaks and the firing and the resignations meant the public started to sense that something was up here. So what actually is going on? Because this sounded like a really boring story two months ago, but is something going on? Now you have my full attention. Tell me more. There was obvious corruption in the White House and people were very excited to see how this was going to play out. The major news channels started covering it extensively. Time magazine eventually had 40 front covers linked to Watergate. This became a cultural phenomenon.

This did. Then the committee started showing the hearings live on TV. Oh, wow. If you can imagine committee hearings investigating a president live on TV, I don't know if you could just try and imagine that happening. I'll try. I just can't picture it. Well, it's unprecedented times, obviously. Yeah.

Yeah, it was a blockbuster event. People were either excited to see Nixon fall or they couldn't wait to see the committee to be shown up for the witch hunt that it was. Again, so different to modern talk. So different, yeah. But what is different is obviously fewer channels back then channel one or two there there were there was no netflix

obviously if you couldn't avoid this on tv if you wanted to watch tv you were watching watergate that was pretty much your own option but a lot of people were more than happy with that because as these TV hearings start going on, I mean, yes, many were just routine and not very exciting, but there was enough in them to be exciting during the newsreels. There's almost certainly something happening each day that was exciting. One of the most exciting days was when John Dean comes up to testify. Oh, John Dean. Yeah, John Dean, who obviously was meant to be covering it up. Oh,

he was singing like a bird. Yes, he stated that he personally had talked to Nixon about the cover-up of the Watergate burglary over 30 times. If this was true, then Nixon had been lying through his teeth all of this time, he had broken the law, there's no way

he could be president, surely. However, Nixon's aides, who had retired, remember a bunch of them retired at the same time he fired Dean, well, they came to testify. They all backed Nixon up. Now this Dean, he doesn't know what he's talking about. They're wearing new coats by any chance. Yes.

Lots of fur. Big sunglasses. Yeah, and bulging pockets. Yeah, they played it very cleverly. They admitted to enough wrongdoings to make it believable. Yes, of course, we're not innocent. Yeah, we did some things wrong. Yes, we're very sorry.

But Nixon, he didn't have a clue. He's an angel. He is. Oh, he was shocked. Shocked when he found out. A solitary tear rolled down his cheek. He wept for america in the end it was dean's word against nixon yeah and as with everything the steam behind the

scandal started to run out yeah it looked all good for a while it was all very exciting but it's like this is dean versus nixon and there's no way anyone can actually definitively say what was said. And it started to look like there wasn't going to be a satisfying conclusion to this. And then something happened that changed everything. The committee learned that Nixon had a sound-activated tape machine in the Oval Office that had recorded everything. I imagine it's just like the sound guy at the White House just coming out for a cigarette, just having a smoke, saying, who are you? Oh, I record everything that happens in the

Oval Office. To what? That'd be very helpful to my case. You're not actually too far off. During the course of investigation, some evidence was put forward meant to help Nixon, and it was a transcript it was a very detailed

transcript of a conversation that took place in the oval office and someone went hang on where'd this come from it's like someone got an amazing memory or what what's going on so they looked into it it's like where did this transcript come from they dug and they dug and eventually someone went oh it came from the tapes the what what? There are tapes. There are tapes? Wow. Yeah, there were tapes. And everything Dean said that had happened would be on there. Nixon and his remaining aides heard about this and they panic.

Nixon's got two options here. He can either destroy the tapes and risk obstruction of justice charges, or he can keep the tapes and fight obstruction of justice charges or he can keep the tapes and fight the inevitable subpoena what do you think he should do i i don't know like in my my initial thing like just destroy it set the white house on fire there we go go back to 17 whatever just like the british came we couldn't stop them just burn everything to the ground and they just had torches we didn't think of anything it's the 70s we don't think that kind

of thing they just start incentivized they're wearing red it's very scary that's what he should have done he should have just burned everything to the ground no he decides to go for option two he figures if he destroys these tapes, he could end up in some serious legal problems down the road. That's not going to look good. No. However. He has a, well, he has a future Buddy Rabbit is.

Yeah, exactly. If he destroys the tapes, that means serious legal problems. He's destroying the tapes to avoid serious legal problems, but it will just land him in other deep water. Whereas the other option, fight it legally, means that he could

get away scot-free. So there are many people who have gone, why didn't you just destroy the tapes? Well, if you actually think it through, it is actually a more logical

decision to make. If it works. It's like being thrown, it's like you said, like being thrown into the deep end of a swimming pool without water wings, you can't swim, you are going to make. It's like being thrown into the deep end of a swim pool without water wings. You can't swim. You are going to drown. Give him water wings

and swim against the rapids. Yeah. It'll give him a chance. It'll give him a fighting chance. So that's what he decides to do. Also on top of this, the point should be made that Nixon really wanted these tapes to be kept. Remember, in his mind, these tapes were going to preserve his place in history. showed that he made the tough calls they certainly

do that yeah so anyway cox files a subpoena give me those tapes not all of them it's the way legal things are done there were certain tapes for certain dates that they asked for and nixon obviously starts to fight it and he's got his trick up his sleeve. He figured that the Democrats would not dare to move too strongly against him. We're edgy into modern politics, though, so I don't think that's the case. Ah, he had a secret weapon up his sleeve. The information is classified. Oh, no, no, that's an argument that's going to come up. Well, executive privilege, actually.

But, no, this secret weapon that nixon had which made him think the dems wouldn't push too hard against him tactical nuclear warhead no but it was essentially that in human form it was his vice president his vice president agnew the democrats despised agnew the man was known in some circles as, I quote, the Assassin's Dilemma. Nixon was bad, yes, but if we do enough damage to him, we'll end up with Agnew. And he is even

worse. Was Agnew just rolled out in one of those steel cages with a Hannibal Lecter mask? I could be your president! Essentially, yes. He was currently being investigated on suspicion of criminal conspiracy, bribery, extortion and tax fraud.

All of this, by the way, completely separate to Watergate. This is going on at the same time. Something that not many people are aware of. Oh, yes. Welcome to the Nixon administration. The whole Watergate thing kind of is the frontline news. The vice president was having his own big scandal at the same time. Wow.

Yeah. The reason why this was going on, back in 62, Agnew had started taking bribes when he was the governor of Maryland. We're not talking small bribes here. We're talking big wads of cash to make political decisions. Then in 68, Nixon had approached Agnew as part of his southern strategy that we mentioned last time. Agnew, you're racist. You're bringing the racist vote. They probably dressed it up in slightly subtler words, but I'm summarising. What about these rumours of bribes? Oh, I'm sure it'll be fine.

Vice President. Who cares who the Vice President is as long as you pull in votes. That is the only job of the vice president. Not a real job. I get a desk. I get my office. Yes, exactly. I'm great.

However, Agnew had a taste for taking bribes by this point, and he was still up to his old habits, even as vice president. It wasn't subtle. Apparently people would literally turn up at his vice president office with wads of cash in the envelopes. Bag of swag on the back. Yeah, yeah. With bribe written on the side.

Well, he denied all rumours. He went in front of the TV. He categorically denied, staring straight into the camera, that he had never taken a bribe. No. And ate his liver with some father beans and then they willed him off stage um yeah unfortunately for nixon however one of these charges against agnew finally stick uh and agnew makes a deal fine i'll admit to the tax fraud one

i won't admit to any of the bribes and stuff, but I'll admit to tax fraud. That's the lesser crime. And the deal was he had to step down from vice president, but he wouldn't go to prison. That seemed like a fair deal to Agnew, so he resigns. There you go. Vice president forced out of office. This is all happening. Yeah. And this is happening during the Watergate scandal. Yeah. So Nixon has to choose the Watergate scandal. Yeah. So Nixon has to choose a new vice president. But who? Well, Nixon had a few men in mind. His ex-treasury secretary and ex-Texan governor, John Colony, was his top choice.

But it was decided that Colony had too many skeletons in his closet. We need squeaky clean people right now because, wow, things going well so he considered rockefeller and reagan remember those two had come up recently uh during the nomination period so his names are forgettable don't worry about forgettable no no instead in the end in his weakened state it was the party that pushed for Gerald Ford, the House Minority Leader. Steady pair of hands. Ford was well-liked within the party. And although he didn't offer Nixon any advantages in the Watergate scandal, Nixon actually quite liked the guy, so fair enough.

Ford is now vice president. We'll see if that affects anything in the future. Nixon was then distracted from his internal troubles by the Middle East, because the world's still going on. Syria and Egypt attack Israel, because why not? As ever, during the Cold War, this means the United States and Russia are going to get dragged in, and sure enough, they do. So let's play who sides with who, as per usual. Russia goes in with Syria and Egypt, seeing this as a chance to consolidate some of their oil holdings in the area. For reasons I'm not going to go into. The United States side with Israel.

Again, many political reasons, no time to go into them. It's interesting because you think there's like a moral thing to these invasions and assaults, but there never is. Oh, no, no, no. There never is. It's all about capital. Yes, no. It never is. It's all about capital. Yes, exactly. Nixon said at this point, and I quote, the Israelis must not be allowed to lose.

So he orders planes and arms be sent to the area for use by Israel. Perhaps hoping that this international event would distract people, thinking this is the best chance I've got here, Nixon chose this time to finally put the Watergate scandal to bed. Cut a long legal battle short, Nixon was forced to hand over some of those tapes that had been subpoenaed by Cox. So how is he now going to turn all this around? Cox has the tapes that are very damning against him. You're Nixon. What do you do? I would get someone to edit them, like get a tape, you know, what do you do i would get someone to edit them like get a tape you know like uh like a music studio just cut the bits out splice them together hopefully it works well i mean that sort of

already happened um i was cutting out for time but since you mentioned that at this point uh nixon suggests that what they should do is get a respected Senate member to go and listen to the tapes and then report back. And they suggested a really old guy who was deaf in one ear. That was shot down. No, give us the tapes. So the tapes have gone over, unedited. The tapes are there with Cox. So what do you do?

Say it's all a joke. I was jesting. So I didn't mean it. I mean, of course I put it in all a joke. I was jesting. So I didn't mean it. I mean, I knew, of course, I put it in there. I knew I was being recorded. I was being ironic. It's ironic humour. He was just doing it to own the libs.

Exactly. Yeah. He decides to fire Cox. Oh, okay. Yeah. The leader of the committee investigating him was going to be fired. I mean, that's not a good look, I'll be honest. It's not a good look, is it?

No. It's really not a good look. Nixon told those around him that Cox was conducting a partisan political vendetta and therefore was unfit for the job. He called his attorney general and said, you need to fire Cox. Obviously, there are some protections in place here. The president can't just fire Cox. No, the attorney general can.

And the attorney general works for America, not the president. Everyone knows this. Yeah, well, of course. Of course, of course, of course. So the attorney general, his name's Richardson, by the way, he was stopped. You want me to do what? You want me to fire the guy who's investigating? You do know how that will look? Oh, you do want me to do what you want me to fire the guy who's investigating you do you do know how that will oh you do want me to do that right okay you do also know that i

have gone in front of the committee and the public in general and sworn an oath that i would not interfere with this investigation and you want me to what go back on that oh you do great um i quit oh another one so the attorney general quits fine that says nixon i'll go to your deputy so he contacts the deputy attorney general fire cox the deputy attorney general his name was ruckelshaus which is a brilliant name it's a good name yeah he says sorry you want you want to fire Cox, the guy investigating? Oh, you do want to do that. Okay. You do know that I also made that promise not to interfere with this.

Yes, you do know that as well. I quit. Oh. Oh. Fine, says Nixon. Who's next? A man named Robert Bork was third in line, probably just for a joke because he had a hilarious name. Bork didn't like the idea.

This sounds a really bad idea. But after discussing it with his immediate boss and his, well, now ex-immediate boss, the outgoing attorney general, they decide, actually, maybe you should do this because we can't all quit in disgust. The government will fall apart. So, yeah. And Robert Bork, because he was so low down, had not made a promise not to interfere with the investigation.

So technically he wasn't going back on any promises. I can fiddle with whatever you want, Mr. President. Yes. So fine. Place it in front of me. I will fiddle with it. He agrees. He's going to fire Cox.

The White House then announced that the office of the special prosecutor, i.e. Cox and his immediate people who work for him, has been abolished. FBI agents were sent to go round and collect the files obtained by Cox, including certain tapes. I will quote NBC News here, the country tonight is in the midst of what may be the most serious constitutional crisis in its history. I mean, this was just flagrant abuse of power. Just very, very obvious. The president was refusing to hand over proof of his innocence, or at least he had, but then had seized it immediately afterwards, and then fired the man

investigating him. This is full-on dictator stuff. The event became known as the Saturday Night Massacre. It was not a good look. And as you can probably imagine, it massively backfires on Nixon. Nixon was certain that most people believed him. I mean, after all, he had just won an historic election. He was, by all accounts, the most popular president that had ever existed, bar Washington. Yes, definitely. Surely, surely this is just bluster from the Democrats and those horrible reporters who have always been out for my blood. If I just make this investigation, this committee, go away, then the public would stop caring, because they don't really care, do they?

No. Thinks Nixon. They don't. Oh, he was very, very wrong, because Sunday morning, the events of the previous evening start to come out, and there was widespread disbelief and anger at what had happened. People started talking of impeachment.

Oh, you can't do that that's happened since jackson johnson and johnson long time ago over 100 years ago uh nixon realized maybe he'd gone too far so he quickly came out and said don't worry everyone i'm on it this isn't me shutting down the investigation the committee's still fine. I'm going to appoint a new prosecutor, just one who's not partisan, and it can continue. And you know what? I'll release those tapes.

I'll definitely release those tapes. They can still have the tapes. Tapes are fine. I didn't take the tapes, honest. I think you promised. Definitely not. Yeah. This did very little to convince the public.

It did less to convince Congress, and an impeachment inquiry was set up. This was 21 Democrats and 17 Republicans from the House. Now, what they do is they discuss whether there should be a vote of impeachment in the House, and then it would go to the Senate. So this is the start. No investigations happened yet, but that inquiry is set up. There is now an impeachment committee, and this is huge. As you have pointed out, no one has been impeached since Andrew Johnson back in 1868. No one was particularly clear how this even worked. I mean, no one was alive.

No one's grandparents were alive, probably. So how on earth do we do this? Fortunately, a stuffy academic somewhere had written a book about impeachment not long before. Wonderful. Wonderful. It became a handbook for most politicians and lawyers at the time. Now, it turned out, they checked, double-checked, impeachment was for treason, bribery, or high crimes and misdemeanors. Yes.

Now, you say yes, because you've heard of this, because we live in interesting times. But back then this was probably fairly new to pretty much everyone so what does that mean okay he's not committed treason he's not done the bribery that was his vice president um so i suppose it's high crimes and mr but what does that mean what does high crimes mean this book they're reading made it clear high crimes uh was abuse of power. When this was written, there was no US criminal code. So it just means, surely it means abuse of power.

That's what everyone was going for. So fair enough. The inquiry starts collating everything that the Watergate committee had put together, plus testimonies from the grand jury and transcripts from the tapes that they had got their hands on basically anything to do with watergate at all the impeachment committee then start putting together apparently there was so much paper at the inquiry's headquarters they had to get builders in to reinforce the floor wow i mean just use a different room just spread it out that's a more office space go downstairs yes who decided to have the hq on floor 32 i mean yeah i'm behind flooring all this information

was put in order and then simplified because it was a mess as you can imagine it's everything's on paper we're pre-computer it's like if you want to find something you've literally got to go from binders of paper to try and find it. Everything was all over the place. What they needed to get their heads around this was a simple narrative, a timeline of events. So that's what they did. They set out and started putting it all together. It started with the very basic information.

Nixon is sworn in as president. That's where it starts. And then it just goes dump, dump, dump, dump, dump. Pretty much like I'm doing now, what happens? Yeah. Having everything that had been discovered laid out in a bare timeline was shocking to most who read it, even people who had been following it. Now, as we are aware, it's very easy to get lost when the news moves very quickly. And the news was moving very quickly back then. People forgot huge events within a week because another huge event was happening. But here it was, black and white. Plans of kidnap.

Bribery. Hush money. Stuff left in unmarked airport lockers. Eyewitness accounts of the president ordering a criminal cover-up. It's all here. So this is how it's going to work. The inquiry is going to recommend to the House whether to impeach. To do that, a majority of the people in this committee have to say, yes, we should do it. If that happens, it then goes to the House,

and then 50% of the House needs to vote yes, he should be impeached. Then two-thirds of the Senate will have to find him guilty, and then he'll be removed. So that's the plan, but the very first step is not sure. Yes, the committee was largely Democrats, but this was back in the 70s. Parties were not so fanatically partisan as they are nowadays. A footballification, as it's sometimes called. Yes, exactly. There were a good number of liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats who could come down on either side. There was even some talk of some politicians making up their mind

based on the facts and evidence of what had happened rather than on which party the guy belonged to. Crazy, I know. Anyway, Nixon realised that if he was going to nip this whole impeachment thing in the bud, what he needed to do was persuade the swing voters on the committee. Now, this actually didn't seem too impossible. Remember, there's not many people on this committee. And if all the Republicans on the committee vote in favour of him, which, okay, not as easy as it would be nowadays, but not impossible,

he only needed to turn two Democrats. That was it. Only two? If he could convince two Democrats and the Republicans that there should be no impeachment, that kills it off immediately. And considering that a few of the Democrats were Southern Democrats, and from areas that were very pro-Nixon, thanks to the Southern strategy, this actually didn't seem that impossible. It's quite surprising, isn't it? Only two Democrats.

Yeah, if you look at the numbers, you've got 21 Democrats and 17 Republicans. So if you take two off those Democrats and add them to the Republicans, that splits it completely evenly. So it's not a majority. It needs two House members, and that's it. He's got away with it. So he goes on tour. It needs two House members, and that's it. He's got a way with it. So he goes on tour.

He heads to the South, hoping that some strategy was going to work for him once more. He goes to Tennessee, Alabama, and Texas. In Nashville, he even played piano in front of a crowd playing God Bless America. Now, if you watch the video, he practically hops and skips to the piano. It's quite bizarre.

He seems in a very chipper mood, almost hyper. You would not be able to tell that he was spending his evenings drunkenly ranting at anyone and everyone about how everyone was out to get him. Yeah. Meanwhile, by the way, you remember me mentioning the whole war thing in the Middle East? Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's still going on.

Kissinger was dealing with that. He was attempting to deal with the Middle East as a whole. He complained to those close to him that the president was far too distracted by Watergate and was drinking too much. The current situation in Israel could lead to another Cuban missile crisis, he claimed, and the top man was a drunk and distracted guy at the wheel. So calling the president around this time, Nixon ranted and raged to Kissinger about how everyone was going after him

because they wanted to see him die. I'll quote Nixon here. That's quite brutal. Yeah, well, I'm quoting Nixon here. They might succeed. I might physically die. Nixon's not in a good way. So Nixon's new chief of staff, Anne Kissinger,

start to organize the troops without actually informing Nixon. They start organizing all the military stuff that's going around in the Middle East. They did not wish his clouded judgment to get in the way, basically. They order the country to go to DEFCON 3, so high alert. Yeah. Again, Nixon's not really involved in any of this. He's too distracted.

As it happened, the Russians, who were keeping a very close eye on US politics, obviously. They must be loving it right now. Well, yes and no. I mean, you want the enemy to not be doing well, but you want them to be stable enough that it doesn't send everything to hell. They decide, actually, let's just cool off a bit here. I'll quote Brezhnev here. doing well but you want them to be stable enough that it doesn't send everything to hell uh they decide actually let's just cool off a bit here i'll quote brezhnev here uh at the time the new

soviet premier nixon is too nervous let's cool him down they were genuinely worried that nixon was going to go off at the deep end that's that's quite good actually they're realizing you know if if he gets pushed too far we could be in a nuclear war yeah exactly so the russians step back at this point going you know what let's not push america they're they're going through something right now uh the russians accept the united nations stepping in and kissinger goes to work uh threatening all sides in the middle east until a quote-unquote peace was accepted by all sides. I do not have time to go through the mess that all of that was and just generally go down a Kissinger rabbit hole

as tempting as it is. Just know that this was a good enough result that Nixon very quickly tries to take the credit. Talking to the press, I'll quote, even in this week when many thought the president was shell-shocked, unable to act, the president acted decisively. The tougher it gets, the cooler I get. Always a sign of someone going off a deep end when they're referring to themselves in the third person. Yeah. Yes. Jamie's cool.

Jamie's good. Jamie's not stressed. Jamie's not stressed. Jamie's cool. Kissinger later said that Nixon was in no state to be making decisions at this time. He was simply agreeing with things suggested to him. Yeah. His aides went along with Nixon saying this at the time, but later say, no, this was not him.

More bad news, by the way, just in case Nixon's not stressed enough. The tapes that he had released, turns out, well, he hadn't released all of them. There were a couple missing. Oh, really? Oh, sorry. Sorry about that. And one had an 18-minute gap in it. Oh, yeah.

That must have been the moth flying nearby, just wafting the sound waves away. No, no, apparently it was someone going over the tapes had answered her phone and accidentally hit the wrong button on the tape machine whilst answering the phone. And this goes through a whole thing in the investigation where they actually get her to reenact how she was sat. And it is so obviously rubbish, because in order to have hit the button and answer the phone,

she would have had to have stretched her arms at full stretch to try and do both things. And no one would ever do that. And the tape recorder on the ceiling, so, you know. Yeah, it's just a nonsense. There's an 18-minute gap where obviously something very dodgy happens, but that's gone forever. Anyway, but no, apparently it was all an accident.

Oops, very, very sorry. No one believed a word of it, obviously. Coughs for the president to resign start spreading once more, coming from newspapers that have previously supported the president. It starts looking like end-of-day stuff. Then came the unrelated news that Nixon apparently owed the government nearly half a million in taxes. Oh. Due to some creative accounting.

Now this again had been bubbling along in the background, but again, Watergate just pretty much dominates everything. So it doesn't get talked about much. But yes, there's something dodgy going on there. And that starts to come out. Nixon, absolutely desperate by this point, spoke to reporters in Disney World. And he said, people have a right to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I am not a crook. I mean, all the evidence doesn't really point towards that.

But he said he wasn't a crook, and he's the president. President's at my chair. Was he wearing the plastic Mickey Mouse ears at the time? He was wearing the Mickey Mouse ears and he was wearing a plastic Nixon mask. I am not a crook. Yeah. So that's where we get his famous quote from. It was when everything had just gone to, like, hitting the fan.

It was. Hell in a handbasket. Yeah. Now, obviously this wasn't believed because obviously it wasn't believed and the new man in charge of the watergate committee then spoke up nixon had indeed put a new man in charge of the committee this guy orders 64 more tapes to be released oh yeah you know you know those tapes uh i want the rest. Thank you. Right. Okay, fine. The White House released the tapes.

Sort of. What they actually did was release 1,200 pages of transcript. Here's the tapes, they said. What's written in there is verbatim. That's quite clever. That's very clever, actually. You don't go, well, I could listen to hours and hours, or I could just quickly read it and skim.

There you go. Honest. It's all true. Honest. Here you go. Transcripts. Nixon, I love children. I think we should do the best for them in the world.

Puppies are amazing, aren't they? Dean, Mr. President, why? How did you save those orphans nixon well all in a day's work as the president's dean it's only a burning building so nixon says right these these transcripts honestly uh they are they're true honest um for executive privilege reasons i can't give you the tapes i'm sure you understand uh but here's the transcripts there's no no that's ridiculous yeah that was the response of pretty much everyone who was saying that said the transcripts were a huge hit with the public as you can imagine of course they were were. Because this was... You say Dolphin Children from a burning building.

This was almost a quarter of a million words. And it really went into the details of the inner workings of the White House in a way that no one had ever seen before. These were private conversations between people who had become celebrities, because Watergate was such a big thing. And now we get to read exactly what they said. This would be a bit like if today they released the transcripts for what Trump was saying just after the 2020 election in the Oval Office. I'd pay good money for that. Exactly. And yes, you would know. It's like, I can't trust this because Trump released them,

but I'm still going to read them. Oh, you bet I'm going to read them. So yeah, everyone's reading them. The Post and the Times publish it in a softback book, which becomes a bestseller overnight. Everyone's very excited. It mused many that the most common words in there were expletive deleted,

which is what they used for every time that swear word happened, which was very often. The whole page. Yeah. However, the joy of getting the transcripts did not distract most from the problem, which is obviously this is nonsense.

This is just what the Nixon team wants us to read. They could, bear with me here as I work through this logic, lied. What? Yes, they could have. But he's the president, he wouldn't do that. But, said someone, and by someone I mean pretty much everyone, they've released transcripts for all the tapes. Yes, they have.

Including the tapes they've already handed over. Yes, they have. So we could just compare these transcripts to the tapes we do have and see if they're accurate, right? Oh, yes, we can. They were orphans. How did you stab that orphan in the face, Mr President? With glee, Dean. With glee.

Yeah, turned out there were many cases where the transcripts and the tapes did not match up subtle subtle things like uh in one case the transcript nixon said the administration should get off the cover-up line as in we need to move away from trying to cover this up yeah when they listened to the tape nixon said the administration should get on the cover-up line. So, just small details. It's just a word. Just one word. Yeah. It was a bizarre attempt at a cover-up,

so obvious that members of the impeachment committee then leaked the tapes to the press just to show, look, it's not true. These do not tally up. Now, some Republicans were outraged by this. This leaking proved that the Watergate Committee was a partisan witch hunt. It's the leaks you should investigate, not the obvious crimes and cover-up.

But the leak is the problem. Again, you could imagine such a thing happening. Yeah. So anyway, the tapes were subpoenaed once more. No, now come on. Pass over the tapes. We have no more of these transcript subpoenaed once more. No, no, come on. Pass over the tapes. We have no more of these transcripts. Nixon refuses once again.

No, executive privilege. So the committee go to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court agreed. Nope. Hand over those tapes, because we all want to see what's in them. Yeah. Yeah.

Something else to worry Nixon, though, because on the very same day that he got the Supreme Court hearing, whilst getting dressed after a swim, Nixon was informed that the House would indeed be impeaching him. The committee had come to their conclusion. They had decided to look into four reasons to impeach him in the end, by the way. Four? Yeah, the illegal bombing of Cambodia, which we discussed last time,

where he just lied about the bombing, and then it turned out that he'd lied about the bombing. Then there was the tax stuff that I alluded to, but didn't have time to go into. And then there was two accounts, one of obstruction of justice and one of abuse of power. Now, the first two didn't actually stick, but the second two, the abuse of power and obstruction of justice, did. The committee voted to start impeachment proceedings in the house the house were going to go to a vote now this part was a slam dunk the house would impeach then it would go to the senate and it wasn't that long ago where getting a two-thirds in the senate would

have proved difficult but by this point everyone knew nixon was lying through its teeth to be honest that was a slam dunk also i mean i even back then is well yes i i'm in his party but yeah he's terrible yeah i mean i'd like to say that even today if there was such irrefutable evidence of wrongdoing but um i just can't say it but anyway we'll get into that in a later episode um right so so nixon thinks about defying the supreme court with the tapes but it's like no no he can't do that uh the tapes were damning he had to hand them over he was going to get impeached there's nothing he could do on one of the tapes that he was handing over he knew that the smoking gun tape was there he knew he had a tape where he said

let's use the cia to put pressure onto the fbi to cover this up yeah and this was days after the watergate now he had known about this tape for a very long time by the way his lawyers hadn't and what had most of his aides so then a very embarrassing period happens where he has to go around explaining to those people who've been supporting him that actually i've been lying through my teeth and they've got proof. Everything they said is true. Yep. I'm sorry.

So Nixon releases the tapes and it hits the papers. Nixon knew about the cover-up. He ordered the cover-up. Nixon has pants on fire. And all this looks very bad for Nixon. Apparently he swung from framed bravado to tears. The impeachment was going to happen. He was going to be removed from office.

So there's only one thing he could do, and that's resign. To begin with, he gave a speech to the White House staff that was full of bitterness about the press, and he retold the tale like he often did about his lemon ranch and how he pulled himself up from humble beginnings. Is thingy silver? Lionel, I'd like to think, because he's been very quiet this episode, I think Lionel has just scurried away into a drawer in the desk

in the White House. He doesn't want anything to do with this. He didn't grow up with nixon for this so he's just he's in the drawer in the oval office that's where he's just gonna sit there bide his time until he is called upon as the legend says when america needs a hero oh yeah yes that's when he will come out yeah Yeah. Anyway, after Nixon tells the White House staff what's going to happen, he then appears on TV and addresses the public. Shall we listen to it?

Yes. This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this office, where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of this nation. Each time I have done so to discuss with you some matter that I believe affected the national interest. 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 but with the disappearance of that base i now believe that the constitutional purpose

has been served and there is no longer a need for the process to be prolonged 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 interests 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 will require. 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 interests 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.

So there you go. He resigns. He took a helicopter to Air Force One immediately after this, and he and Pat head to California. And the next day, as he just mentioned, at noon his resignation took effect, and he is no longer president. The first resigning president.

Yeah. I'm not going to go into detail about what happens next, because we've got Ford's episode to go over that. But, just so you know, Ford completely pardons Nixon of any crimes. By accepting the pardon, Nixon had to admit the crimes were committed,

but he never has to pay for them. And in fact, within weeks, he manages to sign a book deal worth millions. Of course. Of course. So Nixon goes on to live a life full of riches. What a guy. The end. Yes. Should we judge him? We should so judge him. Let's judge him. Statesmanship. Ah, statesmanship. Good. Did he do any good, Jamie? Did he? Well, yes. Yes. Yeah, he did.

Yes, he did. He was not a hands-down awful president all the time. The big obvious thing is obviously his work with China, bringing them close to the United States. Therefore, keeping Russia more in check with the arms treaty that was going on. This was diplomatic work rather than military, and it was proved to work almost immediately. You've got disarmament talks with Russia going on because of it. Generally, this is a week that changed the world for the better, and it genuinely was. Nixon can claim credit for this.

So that is good. Are you happy with that, that we give him some good there? Yeah, he essentially saved the world. I'm taking 10 points. Okay, right. So let's see if there's anything we can do to take off that glowing 10. Okay. Okay, statesmanship bad.

Where to begin? His actions eroded trust in the government so badly that you could argue it's never really recovered. Yeah, his scandal is still held up as one of the most serious in all of United States history. In fact, if it wasn't for very recent events, I would have said definitely was the biggest scandal in all American history. He lied. He cheated. Repeatedly. He was drunk on the job, and he was not in control on many occasions.

repeatedly. He was drunk on the job and he was not in control on many occasions. Only the refusal to follow his orders stopped innocent people from being bombed to death on several occasions. He created a situation where kidnapping of elected officials and private citizens was seen as an acceptable method for winning elections. He continued a war pointlessly in order to save face rather than admit that he had no more of a plan than Johnson had, and just to help his polls during an election. He chose a vice president, who was also forced to resign due to breaking the law, solely to get racists happy. The southern strategy came in to define the Republican Party to this day. What started as an attempt to get the racist fringe voters slowly over time

leads to this being the Republican core message. This is not good. No, not at all. He's almost, he's essentially started the, I don't want to get political, but he started the... Whilst we're judging political figures. Yeah, but essentially started the modern footballification. Well, do you remember last episode when I said some people

pointed to Nixon as being the birth of the modern GOP? Yeah. And I said I don't quite agree with that for various reasons. Because, actually, if you remember, he did go for some quite liberal practices if they would help his polling numbers. Now, they failed in the Senate. Remember, his war on drugs was not a full-on crime and punishment thing.

That was how do we help people get off drugs using medicine and stuff. So this isn't full-on modern Republican Party. He steered clear of the abortion issue. Right to bear arms is still simply just not a thing. No one cares about that at this precise moment in time. So is this the birth of the modern Republican Party? I argue not quite. But then there definitely are some things that really do come to define the modern Republican Party.

I think in terms of deifying a certain thing and seeing as, OK, I can do this. I will do this now. I will be this corrupt and other people will follow in the future. That's a modern politician thing. Yeah. In this overt way. Possibly. But I mean, we have seen corrupt politicians before.

Yeah. We have. So what makes Nixon different? Modern world. Is it modern world? Ease of technology. Is it just that he was... People knew more.

Yeah, is it just that he got caught? Is that it? That's a very good point. I don't know. It's a tricky one. It's also very hard to separate disgrace gate and statesmanship here because we should for this round only be looking at him as a political figure how much did he help the country well in some ways quite a lot in some ways quite a lot he does deserve points for some

of the stuff he did but that list of being a bad president is extensive. See, when you started reading off the negative, I just typed in one next to me. I'm willing to give him a two. I'm willing to give him a point for his work with China and his work with Russia. He worked with the two biggest opponents of America rather than against them. I'm willing to give them a couple of points

and that makes everyone in the u.s feeling safe and therefore everyone else in the rest of the world yeah but then also against him let's not forget the uh the india indo-pakistan war where the u.s just go off the rails slightly and it's only because russia backed down. I mean, this is essentially Cuban Missile Crisis in reverse. It was America this time. I mean, that didn't make the world safe, but it worked. Russia did back down. America was stronger for it. It was just a hell of a gamble.

And was it worth that gamble? I'm going to go for two. I'm going to go for one. One. Okay, then that is three for statesmanship. What's next round, Rob? Yeah. Disgrace Gates.

Yay! Right, the very round that is named after him, but this is personal, not professional, so the actual act of Watergate doesn't apply here, ironically enough. And again, his reaction to Watergate, which is what brought him down, definitely does count.

The tapes count, Rob. The tapes. He was a cheat and a liar and a racist and a bigot. And I can say this with conviction that I've never been able to say before on this podcast, because we've got the tapes to prove it. Yes, you can try and defend Nixon, but if you do that, you have to be willing to admit that the office of president can have someone with these qualities still be a good president. Which I know some people would argue, but I would argue against it, and it's my podcast. Now, obviously, he's not the first racist, sexist, lying jeep that we've covered. We've had many before. In many ways, he's not even the worst. We have definitely had worse presidents in this area before, but he got caught more than anyone else. It is undoubtable that he was these things.

The usual arguments of defence just fall apart here. He was not a man of his times. There were many people at that time who disagreed with him, and we've got them recorded. You don't know what he really was thinking. Yes, we do. We've got the tapes. That's just one way of looking at it. There were many investigations that came to the conclusion that he was lying and cheating. It's like all of the arguments that we could use for earlier precedents that had very dodgy scores in this round. I mean, all those arguments just fall flat under the sheer weight of the investigations against him that found him to be an impeachable character. And yes, he is often cited as not actually being impeached because

he wasn't. He resigned before he could be impeached. And people go, oh, he wasn't impeached, but I call nonsense on that. I would say he is the only president to be found guilty when impeached and removed from office. Now, I know it didn't actually happen that way, but why did he resign? Because he knew it was going to happen. He didn't resign because he was unsure. He resigned because he knew he was going to be impeached and found guilty. So that is just cutting the paperwork out. That's all. The argument of him saying, you can't fire me, I quit, simply isn't good enough, in my opinion. He was removed from office. Yeah.

So if they knew he was that bad then, we should judge him as that bad now. Yes. So that's negative. Positive. He didn't act upon all of these unpleasant thoughts. For example, he acted to keep desegregation, even though he actually thought desegregation was bad. He, as president, kept his personal opinions to one side and generally didn't act on them that we have seen some other politicians really act upon in terrible ways.

That's true. Yeah, that's all I've got. All right. See, the trouble is, with this round, it's kind of like, well, you're judging him against slave owners. Mm-hmm. But trying to fit it in the time that he was in as well is important. So I've got minus 10 have you gone on

for the full minus 10 um yeah i mean it does make sense uh i remember this being something that we discussed right at the start how do you compare someone who owns other people to someone who okayed uh break him you can't and then try to cover it up these are two very very different things and it would be stupid to try and just quantify that in a simple score out of 10. So we decided to do it anyway. For the time, minus 10. Well, the thing is,

we judged those early presidents based on their actions. And yes, some of them owned slaves, but spent their entire life working to demolish slavery. So we were not as harsh on them although they got automatic points for owning slaves um there were no slaves at this time so nixon couldn't own any he would have done though well i mean it's it's very hypothetical so i'm not going to go into if he was born owning slaves, would he have kept them? But what he did do with what he had was awful. He was a disgrace of a president.

Yep. So is he the worst? I would argue no, but he's very high up there. I'm going to go for nine. Fair enough. Yeah. I'm going to give myself a little bit of wriggle room here

Minus 19 Silver's room This is where he gets his points Well Born on a lemon ranch Very religious series Family Lots of boys and lemons

That might make a good opening scene He had lots of tantrums as a youth remember The lemon ranch failed He worked in his family shop. His brother gets ill and dies slowly of TB. Remember that?

Yeah, that wasn't nice. Yeah, he was very socially awkward at school. He was called a brain. He studies law. He becomes a lawyer. He stalks Pat until she agrees to marry him. Remember that creepy business that happened? Yeah.

He gets recommended for a job in Washington, sorting rations. He signs up to fight in World War II. He becomes a radio host for a while, but then goes to fight in the Pacific. Here is war number one. Yeah. He organizes logistics. His story in the war isn't particularly exciting, but then that's the same for a vast majority of people in the war.

Everyone could have exciting stories that Kennedy managed to get. He did throw a snake on a friend, remember, though. He did do that. Oh, that's true. Yeah. He heads back to the States. He gets recommended for Congress by a friend of the family. He joins the Education and Labour Committee once he's elected,

goes to Europe to assess the damage. He then gets dragged into the Red Scare and joins the Un-American committee, starts accusing everyone of being communists. I mean, he's not full-on like some of them. He's no McCarthy, but he's certainly in that faction. He decides to run for Senate. He plays very dirtied in that election, getting the nickname Tricky Dicky because he drags his opponent through the mud. He then undermines the nomination for Warren, helping Eisenhower to become the Republican nominee. So he's playing dirty politics within his own party. He's then given the vice president nominee role for his efforts. There's then stuff involving dodgy money that comes up, and Eisenhower

wants him to step down during the election, but he refuses, infuriating Eisenhower. He becomes vice president. Doesn't do much, but then he goes up against Kennedy in the presidential election a few years later and loses. He's very bitter. He goes to become the governor of California and loses. Very bitter. Then, after a few years in the wilderness, where both Kennedy brothers are killed, he's back and he wins the election. And then we get the story of his presidency for the last two episodes all the stuff about vietnam russia uh all the stuff india pakistani war all of that stuff's going on interesting but is it silver screen worthy and then obviously we get watergate yeah i would argue everything i've said so far is not particularly

silver screen-y. Nope. Not at all. Not at all. He would be getting very low points but you cannot deny there have been films

about Watergate. I've watched films about Watergate. They're very good films. I'm happily watching them. So all of a sudden you've got some silver screen. Yes.

But remember we are judging his life we're not just judging the one event no i think it's like if this is a series you'd skip past series one two three and four yes series five is where it gets interesting yeah and then series six is where they just condense the timeline too much and it just becomes unbelievable and you get annoyed. I'm thinking five. Yeah, I mean, that's... Heavily weighted. Yeah, it's just not a good story most of the way through, but it does have a good story in it.

But the story is, you don't need him to tell the story. No. You want his age to tell the story. Well, all the president's men, it's all about the reporters. Yeah. Yes, you could do it from Nixon's point of view, and you would still get a good story, but I first thought he's getting full marks in this round

because it's the Watergate story. But the more I've thought about it, it's like, it's dragged down by other stuff. And he doesn't have to even be the key figure in that most interesting story. Although he obviously is a big figure in it. So, you know what what i agree with you i'm gonna go five as well and it's 10 okay so here you go it's something a bit sci-fi about

that painting it's the weird glowing green light that's coming out from behind him as if uh could be as if something's landed in the field behind him and it's about to come out he's the moon landing he's there the moon landing. Oh, yes, you see, that's something I didn't even cover because that's just, is it that hugely important? Well, he did two speeches. He did a success speech and a sad speech. Yes, yes, he did.

And the sad speech is very interesting. If you don't know, the books at the back, the red and blue book, are just very, the artist can be asked to add in shading or anything it is just a block of color isn't it yeah they don't look like old leather bound books it's almost like he's left his child's homework out on his desk yeah he's got some official papers though that's probably his impeachment papers in his hand he's got a red and black tie that is very big and thick and also can i just point out that that tie clip is far too low down it's way that's not even doing a job no that's i mean it is holding your time but it's too far down we need to raise

that up a bit next time it's a very detailed painting there's um we've had a couple with less detail recently this is almost bordering on photorealistic, which is quite nice if you like that sort of thing. It's all right. I quite like the sci-fi effect behind it. Yeah, or Nuclear Warhead, and there's mountains behind it. Maybe that. But it's certainly no JFK one, which was just absolutely amazing.

Probably prefer it slightly to Johnson's one, maybe. I'm going to go for six. Go for six. I will match that because I agree. It's fine, but nothing there. I'd say three for this round. Bonus! Okay, how many terms?

Just the one because he did not get it through his second term he had to resign assassinations i'm gonna say zero because remember it's one if there's an assassination attempt uh someone did come out afterwards saying that they tried to kill him but when they saw how many guards he had how many secret service was around he went there that doesn't count he went to shot a different politician instead who we did actually shoot uh so so someone someone was thinking about it and serious enough to go and shoot someone else uh but i don't think that counts um the the gun wasn't pulled out or anything it was just a change of plan so but but he's close to getting a point in this round but but no election so nixon because we combine both of his

elections and make an average his first election he scraped through remember his second election wasn't but a landslide but if you combine the two of them he still gets the landslide points that's how good his second election was so he actually scores full marks in this round that gives him a total of three points for the bonuses. So what's his score, Jamie? He's a calculator, as we're going along. He got zero. He got bang on zero. Has he got zero? Has he seriously got zero?

He's got zero. I mean, I'm liking the comedy of that. It means he's not the worst president, which I'd argue he wasn't. And also a comedy of zero. It means he's not the worst president, which I'd argue he wasn't, and also a comedy of zero. Proud of Nixon. You get nothing.

Yeah. You get nothing at all. Yeah, I think that's fair. That does not put him as the worst. Nope. But it's an embarrassing score, which I think he deserves. Okay, well, he's got his score of zero but is he an american or an american can't american can't yes that's what we call this round hit the yes hit the cue go how do we define this this round again i don't know just like is it memorable

is it just memorable i don't think you can't change that? I don't think it is. You can't change that. No, I don't think it is. We're nixing in the street. No, no, no. You're thinking of the Roman series. The Roman series is this fun, is this memorable. American is, is this an American?

Someone who could get stuff done. Someone who was, and that means you've got some presidents who you don't like, you don't like their policies, you don't agree with some of the stuff they did, but actually they got some stuff done that was good for the country that you're going like, okay, I can accept that this president is held in esteem. He got some stuff done. He did.

I don't think they brought him down his personal bad stuff. Just saying. Yeah, you're saying it. I'm not convinced. No. No, of course you're not. No, he definitely can't get American. No no of course you're not no he definitely can't no no of course no he can't um yeah he was an awful president and an awful human being yes so no you get no points you get no american yeah i agree yes so take that nixon

pop it next to your pardon. There we go. Yeah. And on that note. Yes. Thanks for listening. Yes. So who have we got next? We've got Ford.

Yeah. Gerald Ford. Gerald Ford, inventor of the automobile. So very exciting. The original G. Yes. So do you know much about Ford? nope no no i i apart from yeah i know that i'm looking forward to my research on ford and carter they're the only two left that i

don't feel like i know much about and then i'm into i'm into presidents who were like in charge when we were alive jamie it's yeah it's Yeah. But anyway, that's for next time. Thank you very much for listening. I honestly can't tell you whether Bored will be a two or three part episode yet. I will have to see. Oh, yeah. But thank you for downloading some Poppy, iTunes, Stitcher,

iTunes, I've said that already, and Amazon. Thank you. Yes, all the places. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being you. Yes. Yes. The world appreci. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being you. Yes. Yes, the world appreciates it in its own way. Right, okay.

On that bizarre note, all that needs to be said is... The only thing to say is for me to interrupt this is editing Rob with an announcement at the end of the episode, just because this all came out after we finished recording, but before editing. So, the Intelligence Speech Conference that me and Jamie were a part of, very excitingly, earlier on this year, they are organising next year's conference, which is going to be coming along much earlier in the year, next year. So they're starting to look for funding because it costs a lot of money

putting this kind of thing together and they're just trying to cover their costs. So they've started up a Kickstarter and I'm very excited. Me and Jamie will definitely be involved in any way we can again. So I just wanted to let you know, if you wanted to help out with the Kickstarter,

then follow the link that will be in the description, or just go online and do your Google magic and you will find it. But the other thing is, Totalus Rankium have decided we are going to match the donations up to $200 of anyone who donates, just to give a bit more to Intelligent Speech. So we haven't fully worked out how we're going to do that yet. It might be on some kind of honour system. But yes, that is our intention. So just know if you do donate, and we will provide details, but your donation will be matched by us as well. Fantastic. Right. Okay. Well, I believe I just said all that needs to be said is goodbye.

Goodbye. This business with Watergate. So this business with Watergate. So this business with Watergate. A terrible business. What are we doing about it? It is a terrible business. What are we doing about it? I suggest we give them a lot of money to make it go away. I suggest we reimburse our finances into a savings account. Get Liddy a million dollars to make sure he's stum. I think Liddy reimbursed for his services that he has successfully fulfilled his patriarchy duties to presidency.

Just to make it clear, we will be bribing him. Just to be clear, we shall not be bribing him. Just to be clear, we shall NOT be bribing him. And what's all this I hear about Hunt? And what's all this I hear about Hunt? Does he want more money? Does he want to go on a picnic? No, I say. Send him a message, kill his wife. No I say, send him a message, give his wife a dress.

Right, over business, the war in Vietnam, just kill all the civilians. And this war in Vietnam, send all the people in Vietnam cakes. Lovely cream cakes full of their favorite fruits like, I don't know, apple. And Russia just nuked them. And Russia, they are our friends. I'm the president. I'm drunk and I don't care who hears it. I'm the president and I need to be more savvy with my conversational skills. And another thing. And one more announcement. These black people, gays, Jews, minorities, women, students, the press, hippie scum, all of them.

Kill them all. I love all of our American patriots. I hope they all have a good day. Thank you for listening, recording device. Nixon out.