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
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
He was a no nonsense judge. he was actually a very conservative judge, throw the book at them kind of judge. there was a prosecutor in the courtroom, and judge sirica felt early on that he wasn t pursuing the idea that this went higher than these five burglars. he couldn t believe that the prosecution was so inept. why was it being cut off at the burglar level? why wasn t it going higher? earl silbert, who was the chief prosecutor u.s. attorney had a philosophy that if you re going go after the higher up, the higher up they are, the more you have to have them by the balls, and did not feel that they had enough of it. and he kept saying to the prosecutor, you re not asking about the higher ups. what about the higher ups? the judge. so he started to question the burglars themselves.
weren t you suspicious when you were told to use an assumed name? didn t that indicate to you there was some hanky-panky going on? no, your honor. he was very concerned about the justice department prosecution. made no bones about that. he said something is fishy here. sirica, who had repeatedly has repeatedly expressed an interest asked baldwin to what person at the reelection committee he had delivered logs of wiretapped conversations. i do not know. and he just knew in his gut that it was pointing to that building down at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. he knew it and he wouldn t let go. and it made a difference. to stand up to power, it s really hard to do that. for a judge to step out of his role but he did it. you wonder, you know.
The justice department prosecution. made no bones about that. he said, something is fishy here. sirica, who had repeatedly expressed an interest in whether any higher ups were involved, asked what person he had delivered logs of wire-tapped conversations. i do not know. and he just knew in his gut . and he just knew that it was pointing to that building down at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. he knew it, and he wouldn t let go. and it made a difference. to stand up to power it s really hard to do that. for a judge to step out of his role and take on a position that maybe he shouldn t have but he did it, and you wonder you know, you wonder in our own times where are those heroes.