the key to understanding richard nixon is that richard nixon was never self-confident that he could easily win a national election. he had left the 1960 election, which he lost narrowly to john f. kennedy, with bitterness. in a sense, the election had been stolen from him. this allowed the demons that he always had within him to play during elections. it s about lust for power and absence of morality. it was all about holding on to power. no one can find out about this, whatever it takes. when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal. i told the american people i did not trade arms for hostages. there will not be a cover-up. there will not be an abuse of power in this office. when you have a president who thinks he can do anything he develops weapons of mass destruction. i just want 11,780 votes. and that s really when you reach a tipping point in a democracy. that s how dictators come to power. within hours of the arrests at the waterg
in washington. many have tried to dissect the events of watergate. i lived them. this room and the next contain my archives. it s magazines and newspaper articles, depositions, documents, everything related to watergate. i was 31 when i went to the nixon white house to work. i had no intention of ever walking away from the job that the people elected me to do. the job forever changed the trajectory of my life. we re not on the road to fascism, but we re dangerously close to it. these are the events that are going to follow me to my grave. i told the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency. we will never give up. we will never concede. we will stop the steal. here we are 50 years later, and the events of watergate are as relevant as they have ever been. there will not be a cover-up. there will not be an abuse of power. weapons of mass destruction. my name is john dean. i was richard nixon s white house counsel. the morning of
national election. we had left the 1960 election, which he lost narrowly to john f. kennedy with bitterness. in a sense, the election had been stolen from him. this allowed the demons that he always had within him to play during elections. it s about lust for power and absence of morality. it was all about holding on to power. no one can find out about this, whatever it takes. when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal. i told the american people i did not trade arms for hostages. there will not be a cover-up. there will not be an abuse of power in this office. when you have a president who thinks he can do anything he develop weapons of mass destruction. i just want 11,780 votes. and that s really when you reach a tipping point in a democracy. that s how dictators come to power. . within hours of the arrests at the watergate, the nixon white house started covering up. i was the desk officer of the cover-up. i get the information and g
this room and the next contain my archives. it s magazines and newspaper articles, depositions, documents, everything relating to watergate. i was 31 when i went to the nixon white house to work. i have no intention of ever walking away from the job that the people elected me to do. the job forever changed the trajectory of my life. we re not on the road to fascism, but we re dangerously close to it. these are the events that are going to follow me to my grave. i told the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency. we will never give up. we will never concede. we will stop the steal. here we are 50 years later, and the events of watergate are as relevant as they have ever been. there will not be a cover-up. there will not be an abuse of power. weapons of mass destruction. my name is john dean. i was richard nixon s white house counsel. the morning of june 17th, 1972, i got a call saying they have got this strange weird burglary in th
in sandy quinn a member of the board former president of the nixon foundation colonel jack brennan. the marine military aid the president nixon and his chief of staff in the san clemente years judge, jim rogan. thank you for being here, sir. jean hernandez the mayor pro tem of the great city of yorba linda. thank you for being here gene. i want to welcome dr. lori cox hahn, who is the doybee henley chair of presidential studies at chapman university and her colleague dr. luke nichter, who is the james? kavanaugh chair in presidential studies, which is a new program at chapman university and we re joined by the dean of students, dr. jerry price as well at a new program at chapman that the foundation has helped to put together and we re really excited about so thank you all for being here. in addition. i want to thank all of our president s council members that are here tonight for their support which makes this evening and all of our evenings like this possible. this evening.