Nov. 17, 1973

Richard Nixon served as president for five and a half years, with a little over 20 years of political experience prior. But when he found himself in the middle of the growing Watergate scandal, the then-president had to muster all his political wisdom to try and prove his innocence.

Conducting a televised question-and-answer inside the Contemporary Resort of Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, the visibly on edge Nixon did his best to bat away any concerns over his role in the scandal. Needless to say, the attempt did not go according to plan.

While addressing over 400 journalists from the Associated Press, Nixon delivered one of his most famous declarations in his political career for all the wrong reasons. He promised the press that had “never obstructed justice.” He was pushed further by the press, questioned for his role in the cover up of his re-election campaign’s break-in to the Democratic National Committee’s Watergate Building. Nixon declared the American people need “to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m no crook.” Nixon’s comments would become his legacy, as the president would resign less than a year later on August 8, 1974, becoming the first and only president to resign in office.

While remembered for telling the world he was not a crook, the conference was a political nightmare all around. At one point, Nixon was questioned about Air Force One. His response was that if the plane goes down, “they don’t have to impeach me.” The morbid attempt at humor was a sign of Nixon’s deteriorating mental health from the scandal stretching over a year by the time of his conference.

The Watergate scandal would go on to define Nixon’s presidency, resulting in the American public’s trust in government dropping from 62% when first taking office in 1969, to 36% when leaving office in 1974.  To this day, American trust in politics has never returned to that 62% in 1969.¹

1. Sources: Pew Research Center, National Election Studies, Gallup, ABC/Washington Post, CBS/New York Times, and CNN surveys. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/06/24/public-trust-in-government-1958-2024/ ↩︎