We the People Podcast – Susan Feathers

The Constitutional Legacy of Watergate

Today’s publication of Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from An American (on Substack) takes readers back to when President Richard Nixon engages in a cover up of crimes and abuse of his power. It begins when a break in at the Democratic Party offices occurs in June of 1972. As the investigation moves forward, the nation learns that officials in Nixon’s leadership and operations staff were the perpetrators. Richardson describes the subtrefuge and lies perpetrated by Nixon and the subsequent deliberations in Congress during a House Impeachment investigation.

At the time, two articles of impeachment were brought forth by the House of Representatives : 1: the cover up, and 2) the abuse of power. Both are relevant in our time: former President Trump and crimes in office and a subsequent interference with the peaceful transfer of power.

The recent attemps by President Trump to alter election results and his actions while in office that spurred citizens to an insurrection at the Capitol have not been adjudicated because Republicans no longer have the ability to think beyond political affliliation. A partisan Supreme Court has recently ruled that the President has almost complete immunity for acts commited while in office and to some extent afterwards. It is an outlier. It changes us from a democracy to an autocracy and it is very dangerous.

Below is a link to a new podcast from the National Consitution Center in which legal scholars and historians discuss Watergate and the House and Senate investigations in light of the current discussion about abuse of power. At that time in the early 1970s, the President was held responsible for his acts while in office. Even the President is not above the law our representatives declared. That was a time when many Americans and legislators on each side of the aisle were clear about our Constitutional principles.

We the People Podcast on August 8 from the National Constitution Center.