could easily win a national election. he had left the 1960 election which he lost narrowly to john f. kennedy with bitterness. and a sense the election had been stolen from him. this allowed the demon that is he always had within him to play during elections. it is 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 it means that it is not illegal. i told the american people i did not trade hostages for arms. there will not be an abuse of power in this office. he develops weapons of mass destruction. we are in trouble. i just want to find 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 gather it and i share it and they were maki
you wonder in our own times. where are those heroes? about the time of the trial, i started having regular meetings with nixon on watergate. and he told me very frankly. he said i ve gotter lichtman working on the second term. you ve been reporting about watergate to me through them. i d like you now to start reporting directly to me. this was the first time i d really developed a one-on-one relationship with nixon, and i soon realized i am his point man on watergate. on march 19th, one of the lawyers from the reelection committee came to my office. he told me, he said john, howard hunt wanted me to send a message to you. he said if i don t get $120,000 like yesterday, i m going to have some seamy things to say about what i did for john