RICHARD NIXON Watergate 1973 (Part 15) The Disclosure of the Taping System

The Richard Nixon Experience

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Assistant to the President for Special Files, Alexander Porter Butterfield would be questioned by lawyers for the Ervin Committee and while being asked questions he was directly asked if there were recording devices in the White House. His answer to that question changed everything about the Watergate Scandal. It laid the groundwork for the downfall of the Nixon Administration.
Years later, when asked if he should have burned the White House tapes Richard Nixon would answer " Yes, I should have because they were open to misinterpretation as we have seen." He was very correct. To this day people think that the tapes proved Nixon's guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt. But in reality they don't.
They do prove he cursed a lot, said the word "God Damn" a lot, made anti-semetic remarks , racist remarks, and he would fly off the handle saying things in anger that he should not have said, and he was a President who thought out loud, mulling over every angle of an issue, legal and illegal, moral an immoral, until a workable solution was determined. For an American people who had never heard a President talk in private before it was a shocking thing to hear. But what you did not hear, was a President committing an actual impeachable offense.
But as in all situations in life it is often far more complicated than can be explained in a simple sentence and a lie, as the old saying goes, can be half way around the world before the truth can get out of bed. This series is dedicated to the truth, the ugly, complicated truth. The truth is Richard Nixon is no angel, but he faced some sinister forces in American Government determined to bring him down during the second most divided era in all of our history.
This podcast documentary series is dedicated to showing you the facts about the scandal that derailed a presidency. We don't delve into conspiracy theories or guesswork as to the involvement of CIA connections, or secret plotters with innuendos. As this Podcast moves forward we will document everything we talk about and give you source material where you can read and look it up for yourself.
Is there more to the story than what we will cover from this point on?
Most likely.
But what we will show you we can provide a paper or electronic trail for and it is not a pretty sight. What we can also show you is that Richard Nixon's claim about the misinterpretation of conversations made to fit a certain narrative is in fact very real. We hope you will listen for yourself and be able to differentiate between things said in private, in different contexts, and actual criminal intent. Then you may come away with a totally different viewpoint of the events that brought down the President of the United States.
But that is the story we will tell as we travel down the road of Watergate. This episode is the story of how the tapes came to light and the beginning of the fight that would become the final act of the Nixon Administration.