RICHARD NIXON and WATERGATE 1974 The Fall (Part 14) The Emotional Final Week

The Richard Nixon Experience

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In this episode, the Smoking Gun Tape has pulled the rug out from under President Nixon and now he is being urged to resign by even his most loyal defenders. However, his family unanimously urged him to fight on. It is in this final emotional week that President Nixon goes back and forth about what to do. The President himself seems to have already come to the decision to resign, while at the same time hoping to find a glimmer of hope from somewhere.
Three leaders from congress, John Rhodes, the Republican House Minority Leader, Hugh Scott, the Senate Minority Leader and Senator Barry Goldwater , the 1964 Republican Presidential Nominee, all come down to the White House for a fateful meeting to tell him that his support in Congress had totally evaporated. It was then that Richard Nixon moved forward with his decision to resign the Presidency.
He would enlist his main speech writer Ray Price to help him put together the words for an address to the nation and his Chief of Staff Alexander Haig would reach out to the Vice President and the Congress people who had fought so hard and valiantly on President Nixon's behalf, men like Representatives Charlie Wiggins of California and Charlie Sandman of New Jersey. In order to prepare them for the momentous decision now just hours away.
Then the President would meet with the Congressional Leadership and have a moment with his old friend from Oklahoma, a man who had come to the House in the same class as Nixon, and who had risen to the position of Democratic Speaker of the House, but Carl Albert had not been able to tame his out of control caucus and in one of the most telling moments of the entire Watergate Scandal says what sounds like a sad admission of guilt, that he knew what had happened was totally unfair.
Speaker Carl Albert says as he was leaving the meeting, with the President's last remaining ally in leadership , Senator James Eastland D- Mississippi , by his side " Dick, I hope you don't blame me for this....."
This is that story and will lead you right up to the moments just before Richard Nixon would address the nation.