Can someone summarize the Watergate Scandal for me?

Question

Just a basic summary.

Answer 1

In the early 1970s, when Richard Nixon was running for reelection, someone broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, which was in an office/residence complex in Washington, D.C., called Watergate. It's still there.

Anyway, the scandal erupted when it was learned that the perpetrators were part of the Nixon administration, and that the White House had audio tapes to prove it. Congress pressured the President for many months to provide these tapes, while the Nixon administration continued to deny their existance. Finally, when the tapes surfaced, large portions of their content had been removed, destroying all evidence linking the criminals to President Nixon. The tapes only surfaced after Richard Bork, the attorney general at the time, sued Nixon, and the US Supreme Court ordered Nixon to provide the tapes and subpoenaed the tapes.

These tapes led to the drawing-up of articles of impeachement of Nixon, but he resigned before they could be passed.

Answer 2

Nixon was running for reelection. Didn't feel overly confident. ordered those below him to find out what the democrats were doing. Those below him ordered a small break in party to investigate (after hours) the happenings inside the DNC's headquarters in the Watergate Hotel. They broke in and went through the DNC's files. Reports were then made back to Nixon. Nixon realized what had actually happened and then erased some of the tape recordings (made for posterity -- installed by Kennedy) of those conversations (16 seconds).
Nixon won the election -- had it even without the insider information.
A big investigation took place to find out who was behind everything. The big questions were, "What did the President know?" and, "When did the President know it?". Nixon always maintained he was innocent, but was held ultimately accountable. Several people went to jail, Nixon resigned -- was facing impeachment proceedings. Nixon was then "Pardoned" by Jerry Ford -- to "Heal the country and move on." You should look up Mitchell, Urlichmann, Halderrnan.

Answer 3

The term Watergate scandal refers to a 1972 break-in of the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. by members of the Richard Nixon administration and the resulting cover-up which brought down the President. The burglars' aim was to plant listening devices, while disguised as common criminals to provide cover. They were informally called the "plumbers unit" to "plug leaks," and included former members of the CIA. Though then-President Nixon had endured two years of mounting political embarrassments, the court-ordered release in August, 1974, of a "smoking gun tape" about the burglaries brought with it the prospect of certain impeachment for Nixon; he resigned only four days later on August 9, making him the only U.S. President to have resigned from office.

The scandal revealed the existence of a White House dirty tricks squad, an enemies list, a plumbers unit to plug leaks and a secret campaign slush fund associated with CREEP, all with high level administration involvement. It brought into the open the involvement of the Attorney General, John N. Mitchell, in the dirty tricks, funds and cover up, as well as key White House advisors all of whom went to prison for these crimes.

Answer 4

Sure Nixon hired a bunch of guys to break into the National Democratic offices to steal information. He lied and said he didn't know anything about and nobody in his administration knew anything about it , but about 40 people including the guys who broke in were found guilty and went to jail . HR Halderman, John Erlichman, Chuck Colson were involved. Nixon was paranoid and hated everyone and if he hadn't made tapes saying so he wouldn't have been caught , impeachment procedings wouldn't have started and he wouldn't have had to resign in disgrace.

Everything happens for a reason and for the most part the GOP has been involved in most of really evil political scandals in the US.

Answer 5

It was a minor theft that was blown out of proportion by Nixon-haters and is kept alive by liberals, there was no harm done. Compared to the Clinton corruption, it was just a boyish prank.