"We must make the world safe for democracy," Woodrow Wilson reasoned.
At 2:00a.m. (Eastern Standard Time) on the Saturday of June 17 1972, five men working for the Richard Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President were caught inside the 6th floor of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office building in Washington. At the time Richard Nixon was in the Bahamas. The men were accused of spying. Some 64 conversations were reportedly taped.
The actions of the men from the Richard Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President almost brought the nation to the brink of the worst constitutional crisis since the American Civil War. The scandal eventually brought Richard Nixon's presidency to an end (in August 1974).
At issue: the presidential actions were not beyond the law. "There is nothing in the Constitution that gives the President any power to withhold from an authorized Congressional committee evidence relating to campaign activity or evidence of criminal wrongdoing by his aides," it was explained. "(Richard Nixon) originally refused to permit his aides to appear before the committee on grounds that the constitutional principle of separation of powers would be endangered. He reversed this position only when it became clear the investigation could not be stopped."
It was argued Richard Nixon did not have any "real understanding of the constitutional checks and balances." The special prosecutor pointed out at the time, "Who is to be the arbiter of what the Constitution says? (President Nixon) may be right in how he reads the Constitution. He may be wrong. If he is wrong, who is there to tell him so? What then becomes of our constitutional form of government? The nation’s constitutional form of government is in serious jeopardy if the President, any president, is to say that the Constitution means what he says it does and there is no one, not even the Supreme Court, to tell him otherwise."
Richard Nixon maintained Watergate was "probably the broadest but thinnest scandal in American history...To say (Watergate) is like the Teapot Dome (bribery scandal 1920-23) is comparing apples to oranges, and rather poor oranges, too."
Richard Nixon's departure was said "marked both the culmination and the resolution of one of the nation’s greatest constitutional crises since the Constitution went into effect in 1789."
At 2:00a.m. (Eastern Standard Time) on the Saturday of June 17 1972, five men working for the Richard Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President were caught inside the 6th floor of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office building in Washington. At the time Richard Nixon was in the Bahamas. The men were accused of spying. Some 64 conversations were reportedly taped.
The actions of the men from the Richard Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President almost brought the nation to the brink of the worst constitutional crisis since the American Civil War. The scandal eventually brought Richard Nixon's presidency to an end (in August 1974).
At issue: the presidential actions were not beyond the law. "There is nothing in the Constitution that gives the President any power to withhold from an authorized Congressional committee evidence relating to campaign activity or evidence of criminal wrongdoing by his aides," it was explained. "(Richard Nixon) originally refused to permit his aides to appear before the committee on grounds that the constitutional principle of separation of powers would be endangered. He reversed this position only when it became clear the investigation could not be stopped."
It was argued Richard Nixon did not have any "real understanding of the constitutional checks and balances." The special prosecutor pointed out at the time, "Who is to be the arbiter of what the Constitution says? (President Nixon) may be right in how he reads the Constitution. He may be wrong. If he is wrong, who is there to tell him so? What then becomes of our constitutional form of government? The nation’s constitutional form of government is in serious jeopardy if the President, any president, is to say that the Constitution means what he says it does and there is no one, not even the Supreme Court, to tell him otherwise."
Richard Nixon maintained Watergate was "probably the broadest but thinnest scandal in American history...To say (Watergate) is like the Teapot Dome (bribery scandal 1920-23) is comparing apples to oranges, and rather poor oranges, too."
Richard Nixon's departure was said "marked both the culmination and the resolution of one of the nation’s greatest constitutional crises since the Constitution went into effect in 1789."
