WEBVTT - S1 E5: Thirty Eight 0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:05.080 Rip Current is a production of iHeart Podcasts. The views 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:08.600 and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the host, 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:12.280 producers or parent company. Listener discretion is it five. 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:20.319 At twelve twenty five pm on September twelfth, one week 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:24.759 after Lynette From's assassination attempt, President Gerald Ford arrived at 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:28.320 Lambert Field in Saint Louis. He was scheduled to spend 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:31.440 five hours on the ground, during which time he would 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:34.920 do a television interview, make an appearance at a thousand 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.559 dollars a couple Republican fundraiser, and give a speech to 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:42.440 a regional White House conference on domestic and economic affairs. 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:46.320 The main event, though, was a speech to the National 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:52.560 Baptist Convention USA, the nation's largest black religious organization. Ford 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:56.160 was concerned about his lack of popularity among black citizens. 0:00:56.840 --> 0:01:00.280 In the speech, he said, among other things, that black 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:04.200 Americans were quote competing in our society more than ever 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:09.280 before and quote America is better for it. He also 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:13.200 observed that quote equality in the true spirit of our 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:17.200 founding fathers is not yet a full reality for every American. 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.959 I am sorry to say. The speech was scheduled for 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:26.319 two pm at Keel Auditorium. At twelve fifty a three 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:30.200 year police veteran named Thomas kal Katera was on a 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:34.200 catwalk above the auditorium floor when he saw about thirty 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:38.240 feet away a man standing on a stairway leading down 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:41.080 from the third floor, about one hundred and fifty feet 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:43.959 from where Ford would be speaking in just over an hour. 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:47.880 He was holding something in his hand. Kl Katara thought 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:50.880 he might be a maintenance worker and called out to him. 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:54.640 The man looked at cal Kata. Cal Kata took in 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:58.600 the guy's appearance, white, thirty to thirty five years old, 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:02.520 six feet maybe one hundred and seventy five pounds. He 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:06.440 wore a medium length black wig, a white short sleeved shirt, 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:10.160 and dark trousers. Kaw Katara could now see that in 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:14.079 his left hand he held a forty five caliber automatic pistol. 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:19.760 Kl Katara started after him. The man ran, kal Katara 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:23.320 chased him across the crowded convention floor until the man 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:27.440 ducked into a room. Kaw Kata, close on his heels, 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:31.040 burst through the door to find the room empty. There 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:34.160 were several exit doors. The man could have taken any 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:39.960 of them. He had escaped. Two sixteen man mobile reserve 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:42.600 units were brought in to join the search of the 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:47.000 maze like auditorium. They performed a methodical search but failed 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:50.799 to find the man cal Katara had seen. Daniel P. 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:56.320 Horgan Keel, auditorium's assistant manager, was not surprised, quote, if 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:59.320 I wanted to hide, there's no way you could find me. 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:03.160 A few minutes later, there were reports of a man 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:05.480 on the roof of a parking lot just south of 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:09.080 the auditorium, but police found no one there other than 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:14.440 an elderly parking attendant. Also that day, six anonymous bomb 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:17.760 threats were phoned in, including four claiming to have put 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:22.320 explosives and kill auditorium. The police had already swept the building, 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:24.919 so this did not prove to be a big concern. 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:29.600 At five point thirty two, Air Force one departed Lambert 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:33.400 Field with Gerald Ford on board. Upon hearing the plane 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:36.560 had lifted off a plane closed, officer slumped in a 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:40.280 chair at the command post in police headquarters. Don't you 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:44.280 feel fifty pounds? Later, he said to no one in particular, 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:49.800 I'm Toby. 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:54.600 Ball, and I'm Mary Catherine Garrison, and this is rip current. 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:07.080 My follow Americans, Our long national nightmare. 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:24.440 Is over, Episode five thirty eight. The incident at Keyl 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:27.760 Auditorium did not cause a stir in nationally. The New 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:31.039 York Times referred to it in passing as Saint Louis 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:34.279 police report of a man allegedly carrying a handgun in 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:37.599 a larger article about Ford's commitment to continue engaging with 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:42.360 crowds despite Lynette's atempt in Sacramento. In a prepared statement, 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:43.400 Ford said. 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:46.800 Only by going around the country to meetings like this, 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:49.920 by meeting people face to face and listening to what 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:52.359 they have to say, can you really learn how people 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:55.560 feel and what they think. Doing this is an important 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:58.800 part of my job. I have no intention of abdicating 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:02.400 that responsibility. I have no intention of allowing the government 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:05.000 of the people to be held hostage at the point. 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:05.279 Of a gun. 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:10.479 On the same day, The Times ran an article titled 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:14.599 Felon admits guilt in threat on Ford. The four paragraph 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:18.680 article actually touched on two stories. The first was about 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.599 the guilty plea entered by thirty five year old Thomas d. 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:24.680 Elbert for leaving a phone message in mid August for 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:28.599 the Secret Service threatening the President's life. The last paragraph 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:32.000 related that the Sacramento County District Attorney had determined that 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:35.360 Sandra Good hadn't broken any laws by compiling a list 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:38.120 of people who had been supposedly sentenced to death by 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:42.520 the International People's Court of Retribution. This assessment that Sandra 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:44.960 did not pose a real threat echoes a question that 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:48.920 still remains about Lynette's attempt on Ford. How serious were 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:52.840 Lynette's intentions. The gun had not fired, was the bullet 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:56.360 unchambered by accident? Was she merely trying to get attention 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.839 without actually harming the president? Or was she really trying 0:05:59.880 --> 0:06:03.039 to kill Ford and didn't pull it off. In the 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:06.640 following clip, television reporter Steve Swatt, sitting on a desk, 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:09.320 holds a black pistol in his hand and describes to 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:11.279 the camera how Lynnette's gun worked. 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:14.360 This is the type of gun that was pointed at 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:18.800 the president, a forty five caliber automatic. The pistols magazine 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:25.799 or clip contained four cartridges, but merely loading the clip 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:28.520 into the gun is not enough to fire it. Ms 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:31.480 From allegedly tried to fire the gun without pulling back 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:34.880 a mechanism which forces a cartridge into the chamber. Had 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:40.280 this been done, would have fired. 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:45.359 As a member of the Manson family, Lynette had become 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.559 familiar with guns. The following clip is from the film 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:52.920 Manson nineteen seventy three. The scene, shot after Manson's imprisonment 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:56.080 shows Lynette holding a rifle and talking to the camera. 0:06:56.880 --> 0:06:57.919 You have to make love with it. 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:00.280 You have to know it. 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:07.080 You have to know every part of it. And to 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:09.640 know you know it is to know it so that 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:13.440 you could pick it up any second and shoot. Later. 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:17.679 Ask whether they feared a police raid to confiscate their guns, Lynette, 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.400 along with Sandra Good and a third Manson girl, had 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:23.520 this response, if you want. 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:27.440 It here it is, come and get it. 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:30.400 That's very hurried because it won't be here. 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:32.400 Wrong, your motherfuckers. 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.280 Her intention that morning is still an open question. From 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:39.080 biographer Jess braven. 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:43.600 One, She's been kind of ambiguous about whether she wanted 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:46.840 to kill him or not. What seems the most plausible 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:49.200 explanation is that she wasn't sure. I mean, she hadn't 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:51.360 ruled it out, but hadn't decided that she was going 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:52.080 to do it for sure. 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:57.520 From herself hasn't been consistent in her statements in many ways, though, 0:07:57.560 --> 0:07:59.720 it seems as though her intent is not as important 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:04.360 as this question, regardless of outcome. Why had Lynette chosen 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:05.960 to point a gun at the president? 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:06.400 Why? 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:10.560 Gerald Ford? Again, the answer isn't completely clear and probably 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:15.080 includes several factors. One is her continued allegiance to Manson. 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:19.360 Manson hated Nixon for some reason. When Manson wrote Nixon's name, 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:20.680 he spelled it with two x's. 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:24.400 From her point of view, he's the heir of Richard Nixon. 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:27.840 She hates Nixon wasn't the only one to really hate Nixon, 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:31.360 but she had a particular reason too, because Nixon had 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.760 said negative things about Manson. During Manson's criminal trial in 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:35.680 Los Angeles. 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:40.960 Nixon had mentioned Manson while talking about how the media had, however, 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:45.960 unintentionally made heroes out of criminals. A second reason could 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:48.480 be that Lynette was trying to bring Manson more attention. 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:51.880 She and Sandra Good had spent considerable time and effort 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:54.760 trying to persuade any official they could to allow them 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:57.200 to visit Manson while he was at the Fulsome State prison. 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:01.920 These attempts were unsuccessful. In nineteen seventy four, Manson was 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:04.800 transferred for seven months to the Vacaville Medical Unit, of 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:08.640 the California Penal System for mental health treatment. He returned 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.800 to FULSOM in November of seventy four, but was assaulted 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:15.600 by two other inmates in May of seventy five. In June, 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:18.360 he was transferred to San Quentin for his own protection. 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:22.080 It may have seemed to Lynette that Manson was fading 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:25.839 from public consciousness. With this attempt, she could and did 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:29.240 bring Manson's name back into the news with another shocking 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:33.480 act of potential violence. Finally, as we saw last episode, 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:38.000 Lynette and Sandra had become fixated on environmental degradation. In fact, 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.520 this was the reason Lynette gave specifically that the redwoods 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:46.439 were endangered. Lynette initially claimed that environmentalism was behind her attempt, 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:48.680 but later she would say that she was trying to 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:51.959 draw more attention to Manson. But maybe the best way 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.040 to understand Lynette's targeting Afford is that he was a 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:58.439 symbol of the establishment that she and Manson both rejected. 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:03.120 She didn't really have a much of an impression about 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:04.959 Ford as a person. I mean, at one point she 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:06.480 sort of just referred to me, he's just sort of 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:08.240 a robot. I mean, she just sort of sees him 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:13.880 as a symbolic representation of the establishment in the country 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:18.080 and industry and all the bad things going on in 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:19.400 her view in the country. 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:27.640 Looking back fifty years after the fact, it's hard to 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:32.000 imagine anyone trying to kill Gerald Ford. Of all the presidents, 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:35.760 he seems to have gone down in popular perception as 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:40.000 an honorable but forgettable president whose main achievement was soothing 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:44.640 the country after the trauma of Watergate. A second impression 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:48.079 might be chevy Chase's depiction of Ford as a hapless 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:50.199 klutz on Saturday Night Live. 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:52.679 Let's take a look at the recent popularity pauls. 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:54.400 Shall we. 0:10:56.679 --> 0:11:00.640 This is ironic as Ford was probably the most decorated 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:04.319 athlete ever to occupy the White House. Though he may 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:07.480 be the least remembered president since World War Two, he 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:13.080 inherited a unique and very difficult situation. Nixon's resignation didn't 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:16.880 end the problems of Watergate. Ford had to tread carefully. 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:20.520 Here is Ford at his swearing in ceremony. 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:29.760 My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:31.800 constitution works. 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:35.120 Our great Republic is a government of laws and not 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:40.120 of man. Here the people rule, but there is a 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:46.880 higher power, by whatever name, we honor him who ordains 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:52.680 not only righteousness but love, not only justice but mercy. 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:58.560 As we bind up the internal wounds of Watergate, more 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:03.200 painful and more poison than those of foreign wars, let 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:08.080 us restore the golden rule to our political process, and 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:14.040 let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate. 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:18.600 Gerald Ford is the only person to ascend to the 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:23.040 presidency without being elected as either president or vice president. 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:28.240 How did this anomaly occur? Mostly due to the historic 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:32.880 corruption of the Richard Nixon White House. The Nixon administration 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:37.199 was so corrupt that his own Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:40.960 had to force the vice president, a former governor of 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:45.240 Maryland named Spiro Agnew, to resign before Nixon was impeached. 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:49.840 The optics of impeaching Nixon and then immediately impeaching his 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:55.000 successor were not tenable. Agnew, among other things, had been 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:59.480 engaged in the most straightforward kind of political corruption, receiving 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:04.160 kickback contracts awarded to companies doing business with the state, 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:08.040 and even to Baltimore County when he served as county executive. 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:11.960 Any argument that this corruption did not extend to his 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:15.760 time as Vice president was rendered moot by the testimony 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:18.920 of a man named Lester Mattz, who, as owner of 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.600 an engineering firm, had not only kicked back five percent 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:27.199 of agnew arranged contracts dating back to his Baltimore County days, 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:30.120 but it actually met with Agnew at the White House 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:34.839 and handed him ten thousand dollars in cash. Attorney General 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:38.520 Richardson had Agnew backed into a corner, and the Vice 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:43.200 President submitted his resignation to Nixon on October ninth, nineteen 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:47.240 seventy three. It's a fascinating story that you can hear 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:52.240 on the podcast bag Man. The next day, October tenth, 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:55.720 Nixon needed to move to name a new vice president. 0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:59.520 His nominee would then need to be approved by Congress, 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:04.640 then controlled by the Democrats. Nixon himself was under legal 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:09.160 pressure as he was negotiating with Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:13.600 over the release of tapes of Oval Office meetings. Though 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:16.400 Nixon did not believe that the collection of events that 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:19.440 we now know as Watergate threatened his ability to continue 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:24.280 as president, times were tense. In his speech announcing his 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:27.800 nomination afford to be the new president, Nixon laid out 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:30.320 the criteria he used to make his decision. 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:33.760 Let me tell you what the criteria were that I 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:39.920 had in mind. First, and above all, the individual who 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:43.360 serves as vice president must be qualified to be president. 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:47.880 And second, the individual who serves as. 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:51.200 Vice president of the United States must be one who 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:55.280 shares the views of the president on the critical issues 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:59.200 of foreign policy and national defense, which is so important 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:02.040 if we are play our great role, our destined role 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:09.520 to keep peace in the world. And Third, at this 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:14.160 particular time, when we have the executive in the hands 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:19.440 of one party and the Congress controlled by another party, 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:22.280 it is vital that the vice president of the United 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:26.040 States be an individual who can work with members of 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:32.080 both parties in the Congress in getting approval or those 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:37.160 programs of the administration which we consider our vital for 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:38.560 the national interest. 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:45.000 Nixon wanted to name John Connolly, who he greatly respected. 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:48.840 Connolly was a conservative Democrat who had been John F. 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:53.000 Kennedy's secretary of the Navy before leaving to become governor 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:57.040 of Texas. He was sitting beside Kennedy when Kennedy was 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:00.720 assassinated in Dallas and was wounded by the so called 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:05.640 magic bullet. He served for a year as Nixon's Treasury secretary, 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:09.080 and then resigned to support Nixon's nineteen seventy two re 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:15.160 election campaign with the organization Democrats for Nixon. Connolly met 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:18.560 the first two criteria, but advisors told Nixon that he 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:22.880 would not be confirmed in the House of Representatives. Disappointed, 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:27.040 Nixon looked at the remaining field of possibilities and decided 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:31.200 on Ford. Nixon had known Ford since nineteen forty eight, 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:34.160 when both men had been in the House of Representatives. 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:37.880 Ford joined a group of junior House members that Nixon 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:41.160 had helped to organize, called the Chowder and Marching Club. 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:45.280 Nixon had hinted to Ford before his runs for president 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:48.720 in nineteen sixty and nineteen sixty eight that he would 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:52.360 consider him as a running mate. He didn't follow through, though, 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:57.080 in fact, Nixon did not think highly of Ford's abilities. 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.960 Hr Haldeman, Nixon's chief of staff, believed that the House 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:04.960 members knew Ford well enough that the thought of him 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:09.679 as president would prevent them from impeaching Nixon. Secretary of 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:15.040 State Henry Kissinger was similarly underwhelmed, but Nixon had decided. 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:19.960 Two things made the choice cazier. First, Nixon didn't believe 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:22.880 that he'd have to leave office, so Ford would never 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:27.400 be president. Second, Ford said that he'd retire in January 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.880 of nineteen seventy seven, when the new president was sworn in. 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:35.359 Ford wouldn't run for president in nineteen seventy six, even 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:40.000 though Nixon wouldn't be eligible having served two terms. This 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:43.680 would allow Nixon's favorite John Connolly to have the inside 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:49.240 track to the Republican nomination. On October twelfth, Nixon nominated 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:53.240 Ford as his new vice president. On November twenty seventh, 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:55.960 the Senate approved him by a vote of ninety two 0:17:55.960 --> 0:18:01.119 to three. On December sixth, the House followed suit. He 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:05.080 was sworn in immediately following his confirmation by the House 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:06.160 of Representatives. 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:15.040 Mister President, Members of the Congress, and distinguished guests, I 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:21.720 have the high personal honor of presenting to you a 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:28.240 dear friend and former Holly, whom we shall oh miss, 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:33.480 but whom we all congratulate, the Vice President of the 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:36.600 United States. 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:41.520 Nine months later, on August ninth, nineteen seventy four, after 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:45.879 Nixon resigned from office, Ford was again sworn in, this 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:49.520 time as the thirty eighth President of the United States. 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:53.600 He would assume an office that had been severely damaged 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:57.480 by the corruption of the Nixon administration. In trying to 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:00.000 restore honor to the post, he would have to fail 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:04.960 a question of what to do about Richard Nixon after 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:17.600 the break. Gerald Ford became the President of the United 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:21.440 States after Richard Nixon resigned in the face of congressional 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:26.920 hearings that had revealed the corruption within his administration. If 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:29.600 this was not enough of a challenge, he was also 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:32.880 the first man to hold the office without being elected 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:34.360 on a presidential ticket. 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:39.080 The nineteen seventies was a very difficult time to be president, 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:43.919 and Ford was in an unenviable situation inheriting what was 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:49.960 really a wounded presidency after Richard Nixon's resignation. My name's 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:54.440 Janik Mishkowski. I'm a presidential historian and I teach at 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:57.639 the Florida Institute of Technology. I've written a book on 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:01.359 Gerald Ford's presidency called Yer Old Ford and the Challenges 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:06.480 of the nineteen seventies. Nobody trusted the president anymore because 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:10.119 a president Richard Nixon had been caught lying and was 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:12.359 forced to resign in disgrace. 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:18.240 Therefore, I shall resign the presidency affected that noon tomorrow. 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:24.360 Vice President Ford, we'll be swelling in as president at 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:26.680 that hour in this office. 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:31.639 So Ford inherited an office that really was tainted. And 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:34.800 you have to even go back further in time than that. 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:38.400 Lyndon Johnson had done a lot to damage the presidency 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:42.920 because of getting the country into the Vietnam War, lying 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:46.680 about the war itself, and the prosecution of the war, 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:51.000 and how badly the US was actually doing during the war. 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:56.200 We fight because we must fight if we're to live 0:20:56.240 --> 0:21:01.119 in a world where every country can shape its own destiny, 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:06.280 and only in such a world will our own freedom 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:07.840 be finally secure. 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:11.360 In addition to all of that, you had the ongoing 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:16.080 Cold War, you had the ignominious withdrawal of America from 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:20.240 Vietnam when South Vietnam was finally defeated by North Vietnam 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:25.199 in nineteen seventy five, a damaged Republican party because of Watergate, 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:28.560 and then the nineteen seventy four midterms were just a 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:32.320 disaster for the Republicans and for Gerald Ford, who was 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:35.920 leading the party. So it was a very very difficult 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:37.240 situation for Ford. 0:21:39.560 --> 0:21:41.680 But if you had to construct a person who would 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:44.679 embody the qualities that Middle Americans were looking for and 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:47.440 a president. You could have done a lot worse than 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:54.000 Gerald Ford. Ford's background fairly screams establishment. During his childhood 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:57.120 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he was both an Eagle scout 0:21:57.400 --> 0:22:00.320 and the captain of the high school football team. He 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:03.679 went to the University of Michigan, where again he was 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:08.720 a football star. He graduated in nineteen thirty five. Three 0:22:08.800 --> 0:22:12.919 years later he entered Yale Law School, graduating in nineteen 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:16.679 forty one. He enlisted in the Navy after the bombing 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:20.560 of Pearl Harbor. For eighteen months in nineteen forty three 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:24.720 and nineteen forty four, he was aboard the USS Materree 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:29.280 and was involved in several military actions. After the Navy, 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:32.480 he returned to Grand Rapids, where he won his first 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:36.040 race for Congress in nineteen forty eight. He served in 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:39.240 Congress from then until nineteen seventy three, when he was 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:44.880 named vice president. Despite his seemingly ideal background and ascension 0:22:45.000 --> 0:22:48.840 to House Minority leader in nineteen sixty five, Ford did 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:50.800 not have much of a national profile. 0:22:51.880 --> 0:22:53.960 The public knew him as a member of the Warren 0:22:53.960 --> 0:22:58.720 Commission investigating John F. Kennedy's assassination. They knew him as 0:22:59.000 --> 0:23:03.159 minority leader of the House in the nineteen sixties and 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:08.240 then Vice president for eight months before ascending to the presidency. 0:23:08.280 --> 0:23:09.080 His role was. 0:23:09.000 --> 0:23:13.000 Basically to shore up a foundering party as the walls 0:23:13.160 --> 0:23:17.320 of Watergate were closing in, and so he was traveling 0:23:17.359 --> 0:23:20.879 the country a lot. His images President was as a 0:23:21.000 --> 0:23:24.919 nice guy, and he truly was a nice person. I 0:23:25.000 --> 0:23:28.080 know this from having interviewed him getting to know him. 0:23:28.359 --> 0:23:32.080 He was a very kind hearted, open hearted person. 0:23:34.280 --> 0:23:38.160 The immediate and unavoidable issue facing forward upon taking office 0:23:38.880 --> 0:23:43.120 was what to do about Nixon. The situation was unprecedented. 0:23:43.760 --> 0:23:47.200 A former president was facing a jury trial for alleged 0:23:47.240 --> 0:23:51.560 crimes committed during his presidency. How would the country react 0:23:51.600 --> 0:23:55.240 to the spectacle, how would an impartial jury be found, 0:23:55.920 --> 0:23:59.440 and would a trial overwhelm the government's ability to accomplish anything. 0:24:01.080 --> 0:24:04.240 Ford was clear that he had to quote get the 0:24:04.280 --> 0:24:07.400 monkey off my back. He was going to pardon Nixon. 0:24:08.440 --> 0:24:11.159 In the days leading up to the announcement, Ford had 0:24:11.200 --> 0:24:14.960 a lawyer named Beton Becker visit Nixon in California to 0:24:15.000 --> 0:24:18.320 see how he was holding up. The report was not good. 0:24:19.240 --> 0:24:23.679 Becker later said, my initial impression was unhappily one of 0:24:23.760 --> 0:24:29.840 freakish grotesqueness. Nixon's arms and body were so diminished so 0:24:30.000 --> 0:24:35.320 as to quote project a headsize disproportionate to a body. 0:24:35.720 --> 0:24:39.560 Becker further reported that at times Nixon was alert, and 0:24:39.640 --> 0:24:44.639 at others he appeared to drift. This report seems to 0:24:44.680 --> 0:24:48.800 have strengthened Ford's determination to pardon Nixon. He held a 0:24:48.840 --> 0:24:51.879 meeting with congressional leaders to announce that he intended to 0:24:51.920 --> 0:24:55.959 go ahead with a pardon. They were stunned. House speaker 0:24:56.000 --> 0:24:58.199 Tip O'Neil said that he hoped it was not a 0:24:58.240 --> 0:25:01.399 part of some deal with Nixon. Ford assured him that 0:25:01.440 --> 0:25:05.879 it was not. Ford said that Nixon was a sick man. Depressed. 0:25:06.840 --> 0:25:10.280 O'Neill responded that he saw his point of view, but 0:25:10.400 --> 0:25:15.000 that it was too soon. Ford went ahead anyway. He 0:25:15.040 --> 0:25:18.879 announced the pardon just passed eleven am on September eighth, 0:25:19.240 --> 0:25:25.240 one month after Nixon's resignation. Public and congressional outrage was expected, 0:25:25.840 --> 0:25:30.840 and it came here. Ford response to Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman 0:25:31.040 --> 0:25:33.840 of New York, who had played a prominent role during 0:25:33.920 --> 0:25:35.959 the impeachment hearings. 0:25:36.040 --> 0:25:39.080 Mister Ford, you stated that the theory on which you 0:25:39.320 --> 0:25:43.239 pardoned Richard Nixon was that he had suffered enough. And 0:25:43.320 --> 0:25:48.240 I'm interested in that theory because the logical consequence of 0:25:48.280 --> 0:25:51.879 that is that somebody who resigns in the face of 0:25:52.000 --> 0:25:56.240 virtually certain impeachment, or somebody who is impeached, should not 0:25:56.320 --> 0:25:59.560 be punished, because the impeachment or the resignation and facem 0:25:59.600 --> 0:26:03.320 impeachment is punishment enough. And I wondered whether anybody had 0:26:03.320 --> 0:26:07.120 brought to your attention the fact that the Constitution specifically 0:26:07.160 --> 0:26:11.760 says that even though somebody is impeached, that person shall 0:26:11.880 --> 0:26:15.080 nonetheless be liable to punishment according to law. 0:26:15.920 --> 0:26:20.479 Missus Holtzman, I was fully cognizant of the fact that 0:26:20.520 --> 0:26:26.920 the president, on resignation, was accountable for any criminal charges. 0:26:27.920 --> 0:26:32.480 But I would like to say that the reason I 0:26:32.520 --> 0:26:38.560 gave the pardon was not as to mister Nixon himself. 0:26:39.000 --> 0:26:42.840 I repeat, and I repeat with emphasis. The purpose of 0:26:42.920 --> 0:26:47.640 the pardon was to try and get the United States, 0:26:47.880 --> 0:26:52.840 the Congress, the President, and the American people focusing on 0:26:52.920 --> 0:26:56.640