EP 167: The Watergate Scandal (Part One)

This week on Hashtag History, we will be discussing the Watergate Scandal. This was an absolutely explosive political scandal that – sadly, pales in comparison to modern-day political scandals – but was truly monumental at the time, and continues to be to this day. That is because this was a political scandal that went all the way up to the top, proving that the President of the United States, Richard Nixon, had people on his team breaking into their opponent’s office – the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington DC, called the Watergate complex – in order to plant listening devices so that they could overhear their political strategies.

It was all exposed by investigative journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post. But even still, Nixon was able to skirt responsibility for a period of time, even winning re-election in 1972. That was before the Senate investigation into Watergate took place, however, which exposed that Nixon was not only involved in the scandal from the onset but that he had also destroyed evidence and fired people that may have implicated him otherwise. Given this unlawful conduct and abuse of presidential power, talks of impeachment began. But before that could happen, Nixon became the first and only president in American history to resign He was succeeded by his Vice President, Gerald Ford, who ultimately – in an extremely controversial move – ended up pardoning Nixon for his actions.

Watergate had significant consequences, leading to 69 people — including two cabinet members – charged with crimes associated with the scandal, it led to massive losses for the Republican party in future elections, and – perhaps one of the greatest legacies in terms of cultural memory and vernacular – it was the scandal that led to us adding “-gate” as a suffix to other scandals throughout history.

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