Richard Nixon was the 37th president of the United States; he resigned as president after his involvement in the Watergate Scandal. People broke into the Watergate building to wiretap phones and steal secret documents. Nixon knew about the break in before hand and tried to cover it up. When people found out about him trying to cover it up, he decided to resign as president. He gave his speech on August 8th 1974 and resigned on the 9th. Nixon successfully apologized to the country by using pathos, ethos, and logos, as well as other forms of rhetoric.
In his speech, Nixon used forms of logos to appeal to people’s sense of logic. He wanted to give his reasoning of resigning in a way he knew people would understand. He said “It has become evident to me that i no longer have a strong enough political base in congress.”. By saying this he is explaining that he can’t lead the country without the trust and support of congress, which he does not have. Congress does not not support Nixon because of his ties to the Watergate scandal, so they obviously would not support him. He would not be able to really do anything t so he thought that there was not a point in being
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Nixon used forms of logos to appeal to logic, He explained to the people why he was resigning in a way that the people would understand and not ask too many questions. He uses ethos to prove that he is credible. He kind of admits that he did something wrong, and because he copped to that, some of his credibility was regained. Nixon also used pathos to appeal to people’s sense of emotion. He wanted people to believe his apology was genuine. He also used different forms of rhetoric to appeal to the audience and make the speech more understandable. Richard Nixon was clearly good at delivering speeches of this nature because not everyone was mad at him