Richard Nixon Watergate Scandal

On July 13th, 1973, Alexander Butterfield, a white house employee who handled schedules and papers of the President’s, testified that Nixon had been secretly taping conversations in the oval office for two years, but Nixon refused to give up the tapes. Nixon went to extremes to keep the tapes and the transcripts. “ Nixon fought hard. He fired special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, who insisted on getting the tapes.” (94, Miller). Two weeks later, all was revealed about Nixon’s involvement once he finally gave up the final tape. “With the release of the incriminating tape- the famous “smoking gun” - Nixon’s Republican support in Congress vanished. On Aug. 9, [1974], four days later, Nixon became the first president in history to resign.” (95, Miller).

Archibald Cox was the special prosecutor investigating Watergate and President Richard Nixon’s involvement. Cox demanded the President hand over all of the tapes, but Nixon wanted to negotiate. Cox would not settle for anything less than every piece of smoking gun evidence against President Richard Nixon and planned to appeal the matter to the United States Supreme Court. On October 20, 1973, Nixon demanded that Attorney General Elliot Richardson fire Cox, but he refused and resigned. Next ordered Attorney General William D Ruckelshaus, but he also refused and resigned. Solicitor General Robert H. Bork took Ruckelshaus place as Attorney General and obeyed Nixon by dismissing Cox before he could get the Supreme Court to appeal. (89, Burns). The Saturday Night Massacre represented both a profound challenge to the American justice system and a turning point in the downfall of Richard Nixon. (90, Burns). As a result, the American government was looked down upon by its people and by other countries because of the unprofessional, un-american, unlawful acts of President Richard

Our founding fathers put a system in place so congress, nor the president, nor the supreme court held all of the power and allowed the people have a say on who was put into the positions of power. Nixon had no regard for the constitution when he ordered the attorney general to fire the man specifically hired to investigate the president and ensure that all of his affairs were legal and in line. He was also not in check when he instructed the CIA to stop the FBI’s investigation into the break-in of the Watergate building and it’s burglars. Nixon abused his presidential power to attempt to get away with illegal activities and cover up his involvement with the Watergate