On August 9, 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned after the Watergate scandal.
On that day, many thought American politics had reached a low point that would never be seen again. Today, on the 50th anniversary, we look back on it and wonder at our own naivete and optimism.
The infamous Watergate scandal began with a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office Building during the 1972 presidential campaign. This break-in was later linked to members of Nixon’s reelection committee, leading to allegations of political espionage and a subsequent cover-up by the Nixon administration.
As the scandal unfolded, it became evident that there was a pattern of abuse of power by members of the Nixon administration. The situation escalated when the so-called “smoking gun” tape was released, which revealed that Nixon had been informed of the Watergate break-in shortly after it occurred and had approved plans to obstruct the investigation.
Caught red-handed and facing near-certain impeachment and loss of political support, Nixon delivered a nationally televised resignation speech on August 8, 1974, expressing his hope that his resignation would help heal the nation. The following day, he submitted his resignation, making him the only U.S. president to resign from office. The summary of events sounds pretty straightforward, but anyone who lived through those days or digs through the minutiae of public sentiment and the heated debate surrounding it remembers that America had never been so outraged at the abuses that Nixon had perpetrated.
Nixon’s resignation had a profound impact on American politics and society. It led to widespread distrust in government and increased cynicism towards political leaders. The event also prompted reforms aimed at improving transparency and accountability in government, including the enactment of campaign finance laws and the establishment of new ethical standards for public officials.
Fifty years later, the legacy of Nixon’s resignation continues to influence the political environment, but not necessarily in the ways that were anticipated or that the reforms were meant to work.
Nixon had the decency to resign when pressured and shamed into admitting he had strayed from the ethical path. He even apologized. An impeachment was a grave threat to any politician. Since then, we have witnessed the many scandals of Bill Clinton and his impeachment; the double impeachment of Donald Trump, the attempted impeachment of Joe Biden, even the threatened impeachment of Vice President Kamala Harris over migration policies in her role as “border czar”. We have a former president who is a convicted felon, has been charged with 34 felonies in total, but who is still the frontrunner in the 2024 election.
The Watergate scandal and Nixon’s resignation are often cited as cautionary tales about the dangers of unchecked political power and the necessity of vigilant oversight by the media, but Trump as president between 2016 and 2020, and as candidate for 2024, is determined to stomp on the Constitution and openly declares his intention of being a dictator (even if just for a day, in his words); who intends to arrogate more power to the President, effectively overturning the principle of the separation of the three branches of government (Executive, Judicial and Legislative) and checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution. It is an unprecedented power grab described at length in the Republican plan for governance known as Project 2025.
Scrolling through a list, “Chronicling Trump’s 10 worst abuses of power,” we shockingly find the subversion of the 2020 election, inciting an insurrection and the attempted overturn of the American government on top. Without even mentioning the other egregious abuses, such as undermining the Department of Justice, the FBI and other governmental institutions, we can look back on the Nixon resignation and wonder how we could have thought we had reached the low point of American politics.
In comparison to today’s politicians, Richard Nixon was a choirboy—an inept one at that.
