The Fall of Nixon: When the Smoking Gun Goes Blam!

also watched that Oliver Stone movie Nixon. Okay, no, I didn't watch that one actually, but whatever thrill I know, right, I'm lying like my man Nixon, just right out the gate.

So let's get into some American history. Yes on the morning of June eighteenth, nineteen seventy two, inside the Sunday morning edition of the Washington Post, there's this news story written by veteran crime reporter Alfred E. Lewis. The story

runs on the front page. A little story, though, runs on the front page, and it says, quote, five men, one of whom said he is a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency, were arrested at two thirty am yesterday and what authorities described as an elaborate plot to bug the officers of the Democratic National Committee here here being Washington DC. Yeah, that's not all, Elizabeth Old Vett

reporter Alfred E. Lewis. He included particularly interesting revelations such as and I quote, police said the men had with them at least two sophisticated devices capable of picking up and transmitting oral and telephone conversations. In addition, police found lock picks and door Jimmy's also twenty three hundred dollars in cash, most of it in one hundred dollars bills

with the serial numbers in sequence. The men also had with them one walkie tucky, a short wave receiver, forty rolls of unexposed film, and two thirty five millimeter cameras.

was also Frank Sturgis of Miami. He is a man who shows up in all sorts of things, like allegations about the GfK assassination anyway, former Cuban military intelligence officer. There is Uhennio R. Martinez of Miami, a licensed real estate agent and notary public in Florida.

Do you know the name G. Gordon Liddy?

sky Marshall program they have. G. Gordon Lyddy established the sky Marshall program.

he loves it. Oh, it's a great idea, Gordon. Now together they go on. They sell this big idea to the re election Committee's acting chairman, who is Jeb Stewart McGruder. Then they also tell this other guy who's the Attorney General of the United States, John Mitchell. Then they tell this other guy, the President's counsel, his personal lawyer, John Deane. They all love it, kind of right, someone like no, no, no, should we do this? But they're like, I don't know.

They think about it. Now, what's the big idea, Elizabeth.

General of the US. Why why would he do this so that he can run the committee to re elect the president. Oh God, I don't get it myself, but that's what he did, right, g Gordon, Lady, he gets. But in charge of the off the books operation to do like you know, hijinks. Now, the other security experts they're also broad in. We have one James McCord, we mentioned him earlier. Then another one who's brought in is E.

Howard Hunt. Okay, like we gotta talk about E. Howard Elizabeth.

the guys Nixon gave us the deep state. Yeah, now, at this point when they're busted for their involvement in the Watergate break in E. Howard Hunting, G. Gordon Liddy, they were working together on a secondary assignment to kill a US journalist for one of Nixon's thatchetmen.

the former FBI agent and later CI agent. By seventy two he was the head of security for the Committee to re elect the President. Now he was also allegedly

a spy for the Soviet Union. Oh, he's the head of security for the committee to re elect Nixon. Was apparently allegedly a spy for the Soviet Union. He'd been compromised in a honey trap. Oh by this really known famous psych Soviet honey trapper. So it was going around Washington honey trapping people. And then so he would then had to help this guy to keep other moles from being discovered. So he'd find out was like oh yeah, and being the head of security, he was able to

like work his stuff in the White House. Like anyway, these cats were all kinds of deep state, and you say, Elizabeth, they were. So here we go. We have G. Gordon Liddy's plan to put the Big Idea into play. It goes terribly. Now we've met the you know, the cold warriors. So let's take a little break, Elizabeth, and when we get back, we will break into the Watergate literally and see how it went down so poorly. All right, Elizabeth, we're back.

For the first attempt, Jim mccoord, he consults a special registry of old spies. It's called apparently the FBI Society of Former Special Agents. There's literally a registry like a book of old former spies. Magazine, there's there's a movie for you, Hollywood, just waiting to be made, the FBI Society of Former Special Agents. It's an actual book. Just open the book. The movie starts anyway. McCord finds himself an old spy in this book, calls him up and

he goes, hey, you want some side work. I got a little piece work for you. And he's like, is it wet work? No, man, it's cool. So the former spy, this guy's name is Alfred C. Baldwin, no relation to Alec or Danny Baldwin. The dude used to be a bodyguard for the Attorney General John Mitchell's wife, which is why they felt they could trust him.

what are you gonna say at the conventions? Like, how's it going, Bob? Well, let me tell you a story. Keep to yourself, I'm telling you, right. So a couple weeks later, on a Saturday night, June seventeenth, nineteen seventy two, the spy guys break back into the Watergate complex where the second time, except things don't go as smoothly the second time. You see Elizabeth, their security protocols were pretty amateurish for a bunch of former spies. Yeah, because okay,

this is how they get caught. Security guard working late at night, he notices one of the doors in the underground parking lot is taped open, like at the lock part that would come to the It's taped over so it'll stay open, all right. He's like, well, I have's messed up. You can't have that. He takes it off and he goes back on his rounds. Yeah, when he comes back, the tape back, he's like, wait, a minute, I thought I took this off. He realizes, wait a minute, nope,

and he calls the cops. He's like, there's hanky stuff afoot.

rushing into the water gate. Meanwhile, on the sixth floor there are five men breaking into the DNC. Now these guys are spy guys. They have a lookout, right. They have this old spy they picked up from the spy Yellow Pages. Baldwin, he's watching their six so to speak. Where is he? He's across the street at Howard Johnson's right in like a hotel. He's on the sixth floor. He's watching from a window, just like he told them. He's supposed to alert them, but you see, Elizabeth, he

gets bored. It's two thirty in the morning. There's no nobody on the streets. There's the streets slows, nothing's going down. So the Lookout what does he do? Turns the TV on, starts to watch this late night creature feature. It's called The Attack of the Puppet People. Now, this was a nineteen fifty eight black and white horror film. I went, I looked it up, and so knock off from the previous year's big hit horror film, The Incredible Shrinking Man.

Oh okay, this flagrant money grab, The Attack of the Puppet People, it flips it. This is about a woman who takes a job working as a secretary for the scientist. And the scientist Elizabeth. He's mad, like a mad scientist. He shrinks people through like his thing. Then he keeps them in little glass cases and that way no one can ever hurt him and no one can ever leave

him anyway. That's the movie, right. So ultimately this movie brings down President Nixon because if that Lookout it hadn't been so captivated by the attack of the puppet People, there would have been no water.

me God doesn't epicent to humor. Anyway, this old spy working freelance as the lookout, Baldwin, as I said, doesn't see anything going on, and then boom, history happens. Right, So Baldwin he spots the cops going as the lights go, he radios them. They take off with their burglary tools, but it's too late. At this point the cops are on the same floor as then all five guys get

caught together. Shake down, break down your busy yep. Right next day, g Gordon Liddy, he has to go and tell his co conspirators the bad news. Like, hey, man, come to news. The five burglars they hired to break into the DNC. We're all arrested and we're hoping they don't talk. So what's the immediate response And from the Nixon White House when their spykup goes wrong? Well, Nixon is first told about the Watergate break in. He knows Nick it's a big deal. He's like whatever, so he

tells his White House, Hey, John Erlickman. He gets told the news. Five days afterward, he sees the paper. He sees the story in the newspaper. He's like on the beach right reading the newspaper. He sees it, it doesn't make sense of it. Then later on he's told what it means. In response, Nixon says, to the guy, oh, who was the that did that? That was Nixon's response. Right now, you better believe Nixon has a plan to

handle this fiastro. Nixon starts cooking right, so he orders the CIA to run a smoke screen to keep the FBI off of Nixon's trail. Wow, he knows who will be investigating.

Right in August first, nineteen seventy two, Washington Post publishes a story that connects the Watergate break into the Nixon reelection committee. The next month, all five burglars they get indicted by a grand jury. So the story just keeps cooking in the newspapers. All five burglars plead guilty. They all dummy up. No one says anything. Indicted with them are E Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy. The charges they get conspiracy, burglary, violation of federal wiretapping laws. They're

facing serious time. Ye, they all go down. They all lie to the FBI. They say that they were just doing it on their own. They're just good old fashioned anti communists. No one ever hired them to do this. They did it of their own militia. Just five guys break into the DNC and plant microphones. So, Elizabeth, what do we always say about lying to the FBI?

to sources involved in the Watergate investigation. So now they're saying the attorney generals involved in the paper booh, the idea that the highest lawn the land is dirties. It was a shocking allegation. In nineteen seventy two, Yeah, right, Elizabeth, you know how Daniel Ellsberg wrote his whistle blower book, The Pentagon Papers. Yes, he was a Pentagon employee and he released a bunch of stuff saying that basically the Pentagon was lying about Vietnam and here is all the proofs.

So now he's worried because these guys are going to prison for a long time and they know about multiple crimes, not just Watergate. So in other words, they know where all the metaphorical bodies are buried. Yeah, So to contain these spiraling scandals, John dened white House counts. So it is told he needs to deep six whatever is in E. Howard Hunt's White House safe. Oh right, They're like, what do you I don't about, lawyer, What am I supposed

to do? They're like, oh, I don't know, get get hauled him to help you.

He comes up with the idea to have the CIA block the FBI investigation. Next was like I love it now Nixon's advisor John Erlokman, and he just flat out lies to the FBI as just anywhere he can. And he also doubles down and eventually lies in the grand jury that's convened later on.

and that's why they felt that they could trust him. Well, Nixon's people now aren't so sure if they can trust Martha because John Mitchell knows his wife is planning to leave him. So and not always how life goes, You're like, oh, like a web of major several crimes over here. Baby, She's like, I want a divorce home. So John Mitchell he's in Newport Beach, California, and he hears the news about the Watergate breaking. He hears about Baldwin getting busted,

and he's like, Oh, this is not gonna be good. Right, So Mitchell knows he has to fly back to Washington, DC. He tells his wife's security detail to keep her there and keep her isolated from any reporters and away from the phone. He basically kidnaps his own wife. Yeah, during the summer of seventy two for the entire summer, at least for most of the summer. In June, Martha tries to get hold of a reporter who will listen to

her because she's been kidnapped. She calls Helen Thomas. The political used to be in the front row all the time. So Martha Mitchell tells Helen Thomas that she's planning to leave her husband, the former now former Attorney General. But before Helen can ask any questions about what's going on, the call goes dead cring. It turns out a bodyguard has yanked the phone court out from the wall.

guy bodyguard. Anyway, despite her bruises, Martha Mitchell tells her story to the journalist the week after the Watergate break, and she says how her husband, the former Attendee General is all involved, had her in prisoned in a hotel room in Newport Beach. He tried to escape several times. She tried to jump from the balcony. She was getting ruffed up. She was given sedatives by a shrink and

locked away. They're like, what the story goes out? Right, Nixon's people tell the press that, well, she was a hospitalized for a drinking problem, you know, blah blah blah. Yeah, right, so they just they just credit her entirely. Yeah, so at first, that's our first like attempted. The story almost breaks. Everyone was like, oh, this woman's insane. When she's a drinker, We're not gonna listen to her.

Washington Post. Funniest thing about Deep Throat, other than the fact his name is based on a porn film, is how He actually wasn't helpful at all in breaking the case. I mean not really when you're going to go back and look at it. The only thing he really did was to tell Woodward and Bernstein to focus on the money and to see who had access to the money.

love this. He would get his hands on the New York Times newspaper that was going to be delivered to Woodward's house somehow, we don't know. He'd draw a circle on page twenty. Then down in that same corner of that same page, would be a hand drawn clock. That clock would give the time that Deep Throat wanted to meet right now. If Woodward wanted to speak to Deep Throat, he'd place a red flag in his old flower pot. He'd place the flower pot on his balcony at the rear.

If he returned home and the flower pod had been moved, that meant that they were to meet at their usual spot. Now. Fun fact that twenty eleven, the site where they met, this underground garage was marked with a historical plaque to denote the significance of this spot in American history. Six years later, in twenty seventeen, the garage was destroyed by new developers. Anyway, my point, the Washington Post isn't the only one covering this story. The New York Times is

on It Time, is on It Time magazine. Yeah, but regardless of all these competing scoops between them, other papers around the country, they're mostly ignoring Watergate. They just see like La Times, Philadelphia Quirer, Chicago Tribune. They're all just acting like it's it's not really, it's a non story. So they just report the White House's denials of the

scoops from the other papers. So the Post puts out a claim White House because then they just report Nixon just just you know, yeah, exactly, So at this point, the Watergate story isn't coming anywhere near to touching Nixon

or his White House. Then comes the end of the summer and the autumn, and with that the presidential election of nineteen seventy two. Yeah, non November seventh, nineteen seventy two, Richard Dixon is reelected. He defeats George McGovern Elizabeth a landslide, one of the biggest electoral ass kickings in all of you has history prior to Reagan. Right now that he'd won reelection in a major landslide, Nixon felt he has

solid proof that he is untouchable. It's retribution time, right, Nixon decides this gives his team legit reason to order the assassination of his enemies. That's when he goes go kill Jack Anderson. Right, That's when this happens. Is once he's reelected, that's when he's like, why dose plumbers.

petting zoo. And at first, after the Watergate burglars, they played guilty. No one's talking. The story looks like it may go away. Yeah, then e Howard Hunt blackmails the president.

So he goes, You're like, Jimmy Hoffele, give me Jimmy Hoffele or whatever. I can't say if it's for sure, Jimmy Hoffer. But as you covered, Jimmy Hoffer was helping him get money. So Nixon had sources for dark money. So at this point, Elizabeth, the cover up. The cover up is now fully kicking in and it's about to bring down Nixon. He just doesn't know it yet. So we got about a year left of his presidency. One thing we haven't discussed yet is why did Nixon want

his guys to break into the DNC office? What was Nixon really after?

the case of the United States versus. G. Gordon Liddy, which became publicly available about a decade ago the Watergate burglars, they all testified that they'd operated under belief that they were looking for evidence that linked the Democrats to Castro's Cuba. Okay, but wouldn't you tell a bunch of anti communists that, you know, that's just a cover story to tell those idiots?

so they must be cheating too. It's kind of their logic, right, Yeah. But professor nicktur he's the guy from Texas A and M.

president and future president. Then apparently he just forgets to ever pay Hughes's back, like oops, so slip my mind, right, nineteen sixty comes around, Kennedy's people learn about this unpaid loan. It comes back to bite Nixon. It gets leaked to the press. Nixon's convinced that's why he loses to Kennedy, right, and then he wants to kill the reporter.

So he realizes he can't complain to anybody, But this time He's like, I ain't look that happened to me again. So at this point, you know, Nixon's like, Okay, I don't know how, but I'm gonna go back to Howard Hughes and ask for more money because the Kennedy's are gone.

It's sixty eight, right, So he goes back and Howard Hughes between sixty eight and seventy Howard Hughes withdraws a half million dollars and he slides it to his man, Dick Nixon through his brother, and apparently the Democrats get some evidence that get wind of this. They get evidence and then there's this is the evidence they planned to use to knock him out in seventy two, so just like they had in sixty So Nixon's like, no, it ain't happening. So he then says, break into Watergate, get

me that evidence, which is the theory. You go, yeah, we don't know if that's the case, because we don't know what's in he Howard hunt Safe, We don't know what. There's a lot of not knowns, right, but there are.

election campaign. This point, the story starts to cook, but Nixon still goes to landslide election in November seventy two. Then comes January seventy three, age fifty one, Nixon gets sworn in as president for his second term fifty one. That's all he was his second term.

history to be sworn with the oath of office four times. Anyway. Ten days later, the five Watergate burglars are found guilty. Right now, he's like this, He's like, I can get around this. At this point, he thinks this is pure politics. He's just gonna fight it hard, right, So this seems to be a shock though for one of the burglars, and one James Bicord, he has a change of heart. He's like, I am a former FBI agent. I am not going down for Nixon. Right, So when he goes

like full Johnny Utah in nineteen sixty style. The day of the sentencing, he tells the judge he perjured himself and he has secret details that go all the way to the White House. Right newspapers they hear this, they go nuts. They finally go wild on this story because now the Watergate story is sexy because the former spy guy says, I'm gonna blow the cover off the deep state.

He's like, wait a minute. So instead of his plan for him the White House Counsel and the former Attorney General John Mitchell, and the Chief of Staff Halderman, and White House eight earlomen To all go to the Department of Justice together and tell the truth on what they did and resigned at the same time. He thinks he

can save the presidency. That's his plan. Instead, he's got other competing plans, namely the one which is save John Dene, so that that's the one that makes him go to the US Attorney and start asking about if I got a deal what would I have to tell you guys. So he starts talking to the US attorney about saving John Dene. Around the same time, he goes to Chief of Staff HR Haldeman says, I'm thinking about talking to the DOJ right now. What does Haldaman do? If you

know anything about Haldiman? He, by the way, calls himself the President's son of a bitch. That's his own nickname for his role in life. He and so Haldeman right hand to Nixon. He says to John Dene, I think you ought to think about it, because once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it's hard to get back in. What a weird threat.

You can go right in. You nod, push open the door. The President is indeed expecting you. When the door to the oval office pushes open, Nixon looks up at you and says, oh good, you're here now. You, Elizabeth, are the White House Counsel to the President, John Deane. As you take your seat across the desk from Nixon, he starts right in. He tells you he's been thinking about next steps. He wants you to write it all down, a narrative for you to tell to the press. Before

you resign. That's his new plan you resign. This comes as a surprise to you, but you've talked with your own lawyer and you tell Nixon, well, my lawyer tells me that you know, legally you're in damn good shape. Is that right? Yeah, that's right, because you're not. Now these is almost are ex transcription. Yeah, yeah, this catches you off guard, Elizabeth, What exactly is Nixon getting at?

You came to Nixon today to tell him you plan to resign, but on your terms, and also you expect others to go with you, namely Erlickman, Haldeman and also John Mitchell. As you two discussed past crimes and whether or not Nixon is going to ask Erlickmann and Haldeman to resign as well. It's obvious Nixon wants to keep his guys out of the line of fire. Meanwhile, you scratch some notes on a yellow legal pad. Nixon goes

over the events of the cover up. Of the cover up, he suspiciously gives you a lot of credit for it, as he protects his guys. You didn't tell me this about Erlockmann, for example, when you came in that day. I know he said Hunt needs this money, and you were using it as an example of the problems ahead. Then Nixon asks you, point blank, John, let me ask you this. Let suppose listening breaks and they ask you John dene Now, John Dean, you were the president's council.

Did you report the things to the president? What did you report to the president? I would, I would refuse to answer any questions as to anything. This answer seems to make Nixon happy. He loves that. Okay, but what about you? Nixon taps his pencil on his desk as he thinks. You're panicking now, wondering why is Nixon making you say all of this incriminating stuff out loud about what you did well, handing all the culpability to you and downplaying his own. Then it hits you, this SOB

is recording this conversation. You're sure of it. Meanwhile, Nixon is still laying out the big lie of who knew what when and who told who what. As the President talks, you look around the Oval office, wondering where the microphone is are where the microphones are? Nixon seems a little sweaty, like he knows he's lying to his own lawyer. You listen to the President as he outlines his vision for you to take the fall for the cover up of the cover up of Watergate. Nixon plans for you to

resign as the White House counsel. You will inform the press that you failed the president. You did not inform him with any of the illegality going on in his White House. You can hear the Grandfather clock in his oval office as it grows louder and louder. The TikTok is the sound of the clock ticking down on your future. Then you hear it. Nixon says he wants you to tell the truth. Don't lie, so believe me. Don't ever lie with these bastards. The truth always emerges. You say,

we know that, don't we It always does. You see it clear as a roach in a bowl of white rice. You see exactly how screwed you are. Nixon is going to gut you as the scapego for all the sins of the White House. Now, Elizabeth. In that meeting, John Deane realizes he's being secretly recorded. And this is also the meeting when Nixon begins to assume his White House counsel has flipped on him and he's cooperating with the DOJ. Walls,

as they say, are closing in. Meanwhile, Nixon instinctively knows he's desperately in need of throwing someone on the fire. Someone's gonna burn. Yeah, so Nixon, since John Dean just noped doubt on being the scapegoat, Nixon calls a meeting of his inner circle at Camp David. Right, and this is in April, at the end of April, last Sunday in April. There he cries, and he tells his two most loyal henchmen Erlickman and Haldeman that they need to fall on their swords. They all they end up hugging.

It's a really tender seat. Oh yeah, so and I think Erlikman asked him, like, what do I tell my kids? No, it's terrible. So on April thirty, at nineteen seventy three, Erlikman and hr Hauledeman they both go and resign. The Nixon crime family is breaking up house sad right, So what does Nixon do now, Well, Elizabeth Nixon's Gunna Nixon. So he asks his Attorney general, the new one, Klein dinst to resign. Why because Nixon wants to pick a

new one who will shut down this investigation. May sound familiar, right, We've seen that move. So Nixon he fires the attorney general. He appoints a new one. At this point, we're now into May of nineteen seventy three. The Watergate hearings are being broadcast by the big three networks, ABC, CBS, NBC. They all agree to share Watergate. By the way, they're not running it at the same time. They take individual days, so every third day they get Watergate. It's really weird. Yeah, right,

so everyone in the US is watching. They just switch channels every other day every day. The story is now burning bright like a wildfire. His now former White House counsel John Dean goes and testifies before the Senate Watergate Committee on TV for seven hours, saying everything he knows in this flat monitone that makes everyone believe he's telling

the truth. Now, he says everything he knows. At one point his testimony, Dean mentions how when he spoke with the President on that day that you were there, when you were him, he felt like he was being recorded. You remember that. Well, John Deane testifies about these mics in the Oval office. The Senate Committee is like, wait, wait, hold up, you're telling us Nixon made recordings of his crimes.

right now? So Nixon did indeed record the crime evidence of the crimes he planned in his White House because he planned in using that to blackmail his own people if they ever try to turn against him and be like, yeah, I've got evidence that you were down for this, right, but now everyone's got evidence that Nixon was down to this. So there's other bad news though, because Nixon's new attorney Journal,

he names a special prosecutor to investigate Watergate. This dude's name is Archibald Cox, so he's subpoenas these White House tapes. Everybody wants to hear these tapes. That's like the newest drop. Everyone wants to cop right. So first Nixon refuses to turn them over. He argues that since he's the president, he has quote executive privilege. The tapes are his, they belong to him, the president. This is where the argument Trump is borrowing comes from. Yeah, Nixon holds a press conference.

He tries to get America to move on from Wagage, which I think it's all time for us to move on. That's literally his quote, it's time to move on.

when the special crossecutor who won't drop the subpoenas. Nixon orders his new attorney general to go and fire him. The new attorney General's like, bro, that will not look good. Nixon's like, I don't give a goddamn how it look and a He's like, sir, I can't do that, right, So the attorney general, right, and then Nixon goes to the deputy attorney general. He's like, I want you to fire the special prosecutor. Deputy attorney General's like, sorry, man,

I'm gonna have to resign. So he quits too. Right. Dixon's like, well, somebody fire this will be So that's how he finds Robert Bork. That's how Bork interest eventually at the time he was a solicitor general. Bork is like, mister President, I am your guy. So future rejected Supreme Court justice candidate Robert Bork happily fires a special counsel. Now Nixon's got his active Attorney General, Robert Borke, looking for a warm body who will be the new special

Council and slow this investigation. It's a legitimate constitutional crisis. He Dixon had the FBI locked the Attorney General out of their office. Really, Oh yeah, the US attorneys He's like, He's like, FBI, you will lock stuff down. It was legit, people, it was nuts. Meanwhile, in the courts, HR. Haldeman and John Erlickman and John Mitchell and some others from the Nixon White House are all being indicted, right, so they're all trying to now cop please.

Nixon himself. Yes, yeah, so still though he does what he does release to his credit, I guess there are twelve hundred pages of transcripts, and they revealed Nixon to be this mean, vulgar, spiteful, bigot. Nixon has a slur for everyone, like any group he's got a slowly would name me a group, Elizabeth, I know that, right. He really loves to run down Kissinger. I'm like, one thing I apparently was like I didn't see that. He's like, oh,

he hates Kissing. He's always talking baud about Kissinger. Anyway, Nixon still won't give up power. Now that everybody can see what a venal jerky is, he takes his case to the Supreme Court. He's like, I want justice. So Nixon goes and he asks them to hear his case. The case is Unite States versus Richard Nixon. Supreme Court rules eight to zero against him. Yeah, boom right, it's a unanimous decision that rules that the president must release

the tapes. This is now July twenty fourth, nineteen seventy four. Meanwhile, at this point, Nixon is out of the country. He has he's bouncing around the globe like Diddy on the run. Right, He's like, can't catch men, right. Nixon stays busy. He goes, he meets with Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev right at a summit. Right, these two old men are like bounce around, like re member,

cold War is so much easier, right. The Soviets though, Like he's like trying to work a deal with the Soviets, but the Soviets are like, why would we deal with you? You're done, my friend.

to use the CIA to stonewall the FBI. This plan was to false, false acclaim that Watergate is a medal of National security.

to drag me out of this office now. At this point, it's the night of August seventh, nineteen seventy four. Barry Goldwater, who actually used to run for election as president and lost badly, he goes as the old guard leader he got the Republican Party. He goes in. He takes a late night trip over to the White House.

Nixon's like, oh, okay, sorry to see you guys. Go sends them out right The next day, August eighth, nineteen seventy four, fifty years ago, Americans gathered to watch the news when Nixon sat down for a televised address from the Oval Office, and President Nixon says.

on everybody. G Gordon Liddy does four and a half years inside e Howard Hunt. He gets sentenced to thirty five years, but only does thirty three months. Don't ask me how that plays out. James McCord two months inside for Halio Gonzalez, Bernard Baker, Uchanio Martinez, and Frank Sturgis.

They all get thirteen eighteen, fifteen months. But Nixon gets pardoned by Ford, though does no time inside, and then the stand of Watergate attaches itself to Ford and he loses his seventy sixty Jimmy Carter Boom Gerald Ford is the final victim of Nixon's humorous and there you go. That's Watergate, Elizabeth. What's our ridiculous takeaway?

thanks for listening. We will catch you next crime. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarn Burnett, produced and edited by the Woodword to Our Bernstein, Dave Coustin, and starring Annals Rutger as Judith. Research is by White House rufers Marissa Brown and Andrea Song Sharp and Tear. Our theme song is by White House House Band Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton. The host wardrobe provided by Body of five hundred, guest Harah, makeup by Sparkleshawt and mister Andre.

Executive producers are Babe Roboso's bankers, Ben Bolin and Noel Brown.