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
By late august watergate was really a nonissue with the public. it wasn t a campaign issue. but nixon knew that the media would ask him questions so he said, i have had my white house counsel john dean investigate this. dean has conducted a complete investigation of all leads which might involve any present members of the white house staff or anybody in the government. nixon lied inventing a story about the investigation using me as his new shield. his investigation indicates that no one in the white house staff, no one in this administration, presently employed was involved in this very bizarre incident. i was flabbergasted. i thought, what a nice vote of confidence. isn t that flattering that he called me out? but then i realized he putt me in front of the bus.