Impacts Of The Watergate Scandal

Watergate: The Scandal That Tore America’s Government Apart

During the 1972 presidential election, one of the most notorious scandals in US history occurred. Several men employed by CREEP (the committee to re-elect the president) broke into the Watergate building of the White House to bug the Democratic Party in the 1972 election. On June 17, 1972, the men involved were arrested, and it was later found that President Richard Nixon played a role in the coverup of the scandal, leading to his resignation. After Nixon resigned, new laws were enforced regarding the presidential election, and Gerald Ford took his place for the remainder of the presidency. The impacts of the scandal are still seen today, as many Americans have lost their trust in

A man by the name of John Mitchell was the campaign director; he also organized Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign. The group was thought to be innocent as the public believed they were trying to raise money for Nixon’s presidential campaign. However, this was not the case. During the election, the group raised over 60 million dollars in illegal contributions. Some of that money went to the election campaign; however, hundreds of thousands of dollars went to a White House group called the Plumbers. The plumbers were a group that stopped political leaks to the press. The reason behind these generous donations to the Plumbers was never officially revealed; however, CREEP’s next maneuver likely played a role. A member of CREEP with the name of G. Gordon Liddy suggested that the Democratic offices of the Watergate building should be bugged and that the remaining funds be used to threaten or bribe Nixon’s opponents. With a majority of the group being former FBI and CIA agents, the group went through with the plan and broke into the Democratic offices. The initial break-in on May 28, 1972, went unnoticed by the security of the building. CREEP successfully broke in, wiretapped phones, and took photos of important documents. However, the wiretaps used failed to work properly, so on June 17, 1972, CREEP broke in again, but this time, they were

The coverup was initially successful as Nixon went on to win 49 of the 50 states in the 1972 presidential election; however, his glory was short-lived. In January 1973, trials for the Watergate burglars began. When CREEP member and burglar, James McCord, revealed that the men involved had been paid by the Nixon administration to keep quiet in court, US citizens began to believe that Nixon and other White House employees were involved with the scandal. Not only did they hear about the payments to keep the men quiet, but, the Washington Post was also spreading rumors regarding the president being involved with the cover-up of the scandal. Though all of this was bad for the reputation of President Nixon, it wasn’t anything compared to what was found out next. On July 23, 1973, a White House aide revealed to the Senate Watergate Committee that Nixon had secretly recorded all conversations in the oval office since becoming president, making it possible to figure out who was lying and what was going on. Because of this, Congress pressured Nixon into hiring Archibald Cox, a special prosecutor, to investigate Watergate. As part of this investigation, Cox asked for Nixon to turn over specific tapes, and the Senate Watergate Committee joined Cox’s