Someone else who could lead the FBI to those ‘other involvements’ was Gordon Liddy. He laid out for Nixon’s campaign managers just what could come out … Liddy told the tale of the White House ‘plumbers unit’ and the crimes he and the Watergate team had carried out for the President. ibid.
Those problems could be contained only if the break-in team kept their mouths shut. Liddy explained what had to be done. ibid.
While their boss was burning evidence, FBI agents were uncovering more. ibid.
Howard Hunt and his wife began taking delivery of the hush money to distribute to the burglars. Nixon’s men paid out over a quarter of a million dollars in hush money that summer. It did the trick. The burglars stayed silent. ibid.
The biggest margin in history: it looked like he had got away with it. ibid.
The 1973 presidential inauguration. A re-election triumph for Richard Nixon. In the VIP enclosure the White House chief of staff, Bob Halderman, shot a home movie of his colleagues celebrating. But behind the victory smiles the President was entangled in a criminal conspiracy. The chairman of his campaign committee, John Mitchell, had sent a team to break into The Watergate to bug the Democrats’ headquarters. When they were caught red-handed, Nixon had launched a cover-up of his links to them. Watergate III: Scapegoat
Envelopes stuffed with cash had been dispatched to Howard Hunt and his men to keep them quiet during the Watergate trial. Now on the eve of sentencing he asked for a lot more money. ibid.
‘We have a cancer within close to the presidency. It’s growing daily. It’s compounding. It grows geometrically now. And there’s no assurance it won’t bust.’ ibid. Dean to Nixon
Dean tried to persuade the president that Hunt’s blackmail threatened all the inner circle, especially Nixon’s close friend John Mitchell who had organised the Watergate break-in. ibid.
Dean knew the president needed a scapegoat before the senate hearing started and he began to fear he was it. ibid.
To get immunity from prosecution Dean would have to shop Nixon’s closest associates. ibid.
Their fate was sealed when the secrets Nixon had been prepared to pay a million dollars to protect came out. John Dean’s lawyers led the prosecutors to the evidence. ibid.
Nixon had been going to extraordinary lengths to get Ellsberg convicted. ibid.
It would take all Nixon’s political skills to persuade the two men who knew his dirty secrets to sacrifice themselves to save him. ibid.
Dean finally agreed to tell the prosecutors about his conversation with the President, including the one in which Nixon had said he could get a million dollars to pay off the burglars. ibid.
Dean had struck an excellent deal. He would write a statement that described everything he had done in the cover-up but the Republicans would be prevented from seeing it in advance. ibid.
John Dean now set out to destroy the President of the United States. Dean’s appearance was carefully staged. ibid.
His tapes, the evidence that proved his involvement in Watergate were certain to be subpoenaed. Now he was faced with a crucial decision. She he destroy them? ibid.
‘I felt that it would be an admission of guilt to destroy them.’ ibid. Nixon’s Frost interview
He had ordered the cover-up of the bugging of Democratic Party headquarters at at The Watergate. This was a criminal obstruction of justice. Now the President’s former counsel John Dean had given evidence against him the cover-up was coming to light. Watergate IV: Massacre
The revelation that the President had had all his meetings automatically recorded meant that the tapes must have the answer to the key question – Was the President directly involved in the cover-up? ibid.
Cox [special prosecutor] Probes Nixon Home Purchases: Whether Campaign Funds Helped for San Clemente Is Key Issue. ibid. Los Angeles Times 1973
Agnew [Vice-President] had been trying to escape a trial in the courts. He claimed the constitutional process was for a vice-president to be impeached before a Congress. ibid.
Cox struck first and the TV networks carried it live. ibid.
At Cox’s public show of defiance, Nixon resolved to have him sacked at once. ibid.
No-one yet knew it but the Saturday night massacre had begun. ibid.
When the White House announced what they’d done, the media reported it as a naked attempt by the President to overthrow the rule of law. ibid.
The special prosecutors’ office was besieged by reporters. ibid.
The rump force of special prosecutors sat tight. ibid.
Congress now began talking impeachment. ibid.
22 October 1973: The Watergate crisis was closing in on Richard Nixon. The public mood turned against him when he tried to kill off the Watergate investigation and sacked the special prosecutor in charge of the case. Watergate V: Impeachment
Miss Woods: Tape Erased By Accident. ibid. The Washington Post 27th November 1973
[Leon] Jaworski heard Nixon and his aides plotting how to testify falsely without risking a charge of perjury. ibid.
The decision about Nixon could no longer be avoided. ibid.
The briefcase full of evidence which connected the President to the Watergate cover-up was handed over to the Chief Counsel of the House Impeachment Committee. ibid.
The public were appalled by the language and fascinated by the number of expletives deleted. ibid.
‘We were all reluctant to pay that sword out of the scabbard.’ ibid. Republican Congressman William Cohen
Christian Nationalism: A political movement that believes America was founded as a ‘Christian Nation’ privileging Christianity over all other faiths. Masquerading as religion, this ideology exploits scripture and sacred symbols to achieve extremist objectives. Bad Faith, captions, 2024
Christian nationalism is nationalism. It has nothing to do with Christianity. It’s about power in politics. ibid. Steve Schmidt
That we as a country have a special relationship with God. ibid. man in the know
They may have their Trump but they don’t have their Jesus. ibid. Reverend William Barber
Christian nationalism has been an effective political tool for centuries. The Ku Klux Klan emerged post Civil War to challenge emancipation. ibid. narrator
At its peak in 1924, the Klan claimed 8 million members. The vast majority were white evangelicals. ibid. caption
Paul Weyrich was a dangerous combination of religious zealot and savvy Republican operative. He realised that if could organise an army of angry Christians into a powerful voting bloc, he could completely transform America. ibid. narrator
The Moral Majority: It was a political creation from the political right. ibid. comments
So the GOP became God’s Own Party. ibid.
Their whole worldview was to increase income disparity as a gesture of God’s will. ibid. Anne Nelson
Jim Crow 2.0 Has Got To Go. ibid. protest banner
Christian Nationalism is incredibly powerful because of the money that’s been invested in it. But I think it’s also absolutely essential that people realise it is not the majority position in this country, it’s not even the majority position among Christians. ibid. dissenting Christian
It is really fundamentally about hatred of democracy. ibid. Barber
You are a target for a multifaceted operation of tremendous sophistication. ibid. Nelson
With the Council calling the shots, the wrecking-ball went to work. ibid.
Christian Nationalists were firmly embedded at the highest levels of government. ibid. narrator
The Council went into full combat mode to support the Big Lie. ibid.
The assault on democracy continued inside the chambers of Congress. Senate and House Republicans rejected the slate of electors. ibid.
So I’m looking at an intake questionaire for a violent extremist group … We need to have a solid understanding of how badly this could escalate. We are not at the point where violence is the solution to our problems. But there are a lot of people trying to convince vets and others that we are. And that is a very dangerous thing. Against All Enemies, airborne Army man, Amazon 2024
Everyone becomes more violent in the aftermath of warfare. ibid. expert
On January 6th 2021 US military veterans who had sworn an oath to defend the country were at the vanguard of a violent attempt to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election. ibid. narrator
They shouted for the hanging of our own vice-president. That’s a coup attempt. ibid. comments
The common ideology is simple: we had power, we should have power, power has been taken away from us, and by any means necessary we can get it back. ibid.
In America you have the right to be an arsehole. ibid.
Intimidation is a form of voter suppression and goes hand in hand with election subversion both in our history and today. The entire poll-watching program for the Trump campaign was called Army for Trump. ibid.
A slew of laws that limited access to the ballot box. ibid. narrator