September 29, 2025 • 44 mins
Why are the media & Hollywood so obsessed with Richard Nixon? In Part Nine, we tell the story of the dramatic Watergate hearings…and the tug of war between Nixon’s primary accuser and the truth.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is Red Pilled America. Hey, Fambam, have you heard
we started making video versions of our audio documentaries. They're
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(00:25):
save America one story at a time. Now on with
the show. Previously on Red Pilled America.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
You don't know everything. I have a cancer prey.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Through his questions, it was obvious that Nixon had no
knowledge of any of this.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
I'm involved in that obstructive justice.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Any prosecutor investigating the break in would see John Dene's
fingerprints all over the Watergate scandal.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
I still wanted to give them a chance to survive.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Dean would look for what Nixon could not give him, immunity.
Speaker 5 (00:59):
I cut off one arm, then cut off the other.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
John Deane retained a lower. He was turning on President Nixon.
Speaker 6 (01:05):
The biggest White House scandal in a century, The Watergate
scandal broke wide open today.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Why are Hollywood and the media so obsessed with Nixon.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
I'm Patrick Carrelci and I'm Adriana Cortez.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
And this is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
This is not another talk show covering the day's news.
We are all about telling stories.
Speaker 7 (01:30):
Stories.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
The media marks stories about everyday Americans if the globalist ignore.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
You could think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries,
and we promise only one thing, the truth. Welcome to
Red Pilled America. We're at part nine of our series
(02:02):
of episodes entitled The Fighter. If you haven't heard the
previous episodes, stop and go back and listen from the beginning.
We're looking for the answer to the question why are
the media and Hollywood so obsessed with Richard Nixon by
telling the often ignored story of his life. So to
pick up where we left off, in mid April nineteen
seventy three, Assistant Attorney General Henry Peterson urgently arrived at
(02:25):
Nixon's front door. He informed the president that his investigation
implicated both his chief of Staff, Bob Haldeman and domestic
affairs adviser John Erlickman in the Watergate cover up. After
two agonizing weeks, of internal struggle, Nixon reluctantly asked for
their resignations. He also unceremoniously fired the ring leader of
the cover up, John Dean. It was a pivotal moment
(02:47):
for Richard Milhouse Nixon. He'd already lost his good friend
John Mitchell to the scandal. Now Holdeman and Erlickman, his
two closest advisers, were tangled in the Watergate web. The
fighter from Your Belinda was becoming more and more isolated.
His enemies smelled blood, and things were about to get
much worse. In late April nineteen seventy three, Attorney General
(03:17):
Richard kleindinst delivered more bad news to the White House.
Kleindenst believed that he was obligated to inform the judge
overseeing the Pentagon Paper's espionage case that White House plumber
Howard Hunt had broken into the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist.
The White House agreed with the Attorney General and directed
the information to be transmitted to the judge.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
The development hit newsrooms like carbs at a fat camp.
The media ate it up.
Speaker 6 (03:48):
At the Pentagon Paper's trial in California today, it was
revealed that the people who burglarized the Watergate also burglarized
the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrs.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
About two weeks later, the judge overseeing the case made
a stunning announce.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
The conduct of the government has placed the case in
such a posture that it precludes the fair, dispassionate resolution
of these issues by a jury.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Shockingly, after Daniel Elsberg admitted to committing arguably the largest
theft of top secret documents in American history, the judge
dismissed all charges against him. President Nixon couldn't believe the
turn of events. He felt like it was a personal attack.
On the day of the news, he vented to a
(04:34):
White House advisors In the wake of the decision, Ellsberg
(04:56):
took softball questions from his media comrades.
Speaker 8 (04:58):
If you could sum it up in one big round sentence,
does it all come out now?
Speaker 9 (05:04):
It comes out that a presidential prosecution that was started
for political reasons is ending for political reasons. It was
conducted by illegal means from beginning to end.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
He then previewed the forming media narrative around the Watergate investigation.
Speaker 9 (05:19):
It started, we now know in order to help re
elect a president, and it's ending now. I think to
avoid impeaching that same president. But they won't stop that
process because the facts, thanks in part to this trial,
I'm glad to say, are out on the table. They're
out of the safes, just as the Pentagon papers are
out of the safe and they're the same kind of facts,
(05:39):
and they can't and put back in the safes. Congress
is going to have to deal with them, the courts,
the jury, the press, the public.
Speaker 10 (05:46):
They're already.
Speaker 9 (05:48):
Congress is lagged on this, but they're now ready at last,
and they should end the war and end this kind
of administrative executive misconduct.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Ellsberg thumbed his nose at President Nixon, and the entire
political establishment were about to join him because the Watergate
hearings were set to begin. The origin of the hearings
is almost as revealing as the show trial itself. You
may recall that in late January nineteen seventy three, the
judge overseeing the DNC break in trial, Judge Sirrica, called
(06:18):
for the Senate to investigate Watergate to see how high
the scandal went. In response to Judge Currica's clarion call,
Senate Resolution sixty was passed that established a select committee
on the presidential campaign activities to investigate the Watergate affair.
And who was the Senator that sponsored that resolution? None
other than the Senator from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy. The same
(06:41):
man that killed a woman in chap Equittic just four
years earlier, was now questioning the president's integrity. The irony
was even too thick for his Democrat colleagues. Instead of
following tradition and naming the sponsor of the resolution as
the chair of the inquiry, the Democrats instead selected segregationist
Senator Sam Irvin.
Speaker 10 (07:00):
We all beginning these hearings today that spare of utmost gravity.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
On May seventeenth, nineteen seventy three, Senator Irvin opened the
Watergate hearings.
Speaker 10 (07:10):
The questions that have been raised in the wake of
the June seventeen break in strike at the underguarding of
our democracy. If the many allegations made to this date
are true, then the burglars who broke into the headquarters
of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate were on
effect breaking in the home of better citizen of the
United States. And if these allegations proved to be true,
what they were seeking to steal was not the jewels, money,
(07:33):
or other property of American citizens, but something much more valuable.
They are most precious heritage, the right to vote in
the free election.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
The goal of the Watergate hearings was revealed the Establishment
wanted to overturn the second largest presidential landslide in American history.
Each witness was selected to craft a single narrative, one
that casts the Oval Office as the invisible hand behind
the breaking. Initially thought to be a Dison reelection committee affair,
one of the arrested burglars, James McCord, helped bring the
(08:08):
cover up right into the White House.
Speaker 11 (08:10):
Political pressure from the White House was conveyed to me
in January nineteen seventy three by John Caulfield to remain silent.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Caawfield was John Deane's assistant.
Speaker 11 (08:21):
Take executive clemency by going off to prison quietly, and
I was told that while there I would receive financial
aid and later rehabilitation and a job.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
The Senators then summoned the deputy head of Nixon's re
election committee, Jeb Macgruder, to testify.
Speaker 12 (08:39):
The sources say that macgruder has told federal investigators that
he attended a meeting in the office of then Attorney
General John Mitchell in February of last year, where he
says the Watergate break in was plotted by Mitchell, g
Gordon Liddie, and John Dean, the third personal counselor to
President Nixon.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
The committee was executing their strategy. With each witness, they
inched the ski closer and closer to President Nixon.
Speaker 13 (09:05):
Almost every one of those witnesses who testified on television
that fabled summer of Watergate of nineteen seventy three first
appeared for sworn testimony behind closed doors.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
That's author an investigative journalist James Rosen in two thousand
and eight, speaking about Watergate at the Nixon Presidential Library
and Museum.
Speaker 13 (09:23):
Before they'd send them up on television to testify in
front of the full panel of seven lawmakers and the
Cleague lights and the cameras, first they would show up
to testify a company by council in what they call
executive session behind closed doors. The major witnesses testified in
executive session. John Dean one hundred and fifty pages. Jeb
macgruder one hundred pages. James McCord one of the Watergate burglars,
(09:44):
the one that planted the wiretaps. E Howard Hunt, one
of the conspirators who planned the Watergate break in, Alexander Haig,
multiple witnesses. In all five thousand pages of executive session
testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee, no one had read
it until me in the year two thousand and two.
What you would see is subtle but significant changes in
a which this is testimony from closed door to three
(10:05):
days later when they go on television, And.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
According to Rosen, in these closed door sessions, the witnesses
were frequently coached to make their testimony more damaging to
Nixon and his top aids. The committee conveniently ignored the
eye opening details of the break in operation, the desk
key of Idamaxi Wells found on one of the burglars,
the alleged call girl phone that was being targeted, the
(10:27):
sexually explicit nature of the wiretap calls, the CIA's involvement.
The committee didn't care about these details. Their primary concern
was crafting a narrative that would lead to the removal
of Nixon and jail time for his inner circle.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
The committee had plenty of room to maneuver in the
creation of their narrative. These hearings were not your regular
trial where lawyers of those being accused have a chance
to cross examine witnesses. This crucial advocacy aspect of a
trial was completely absent, and as a result, the hearings
were polluting any future jury pool in a likely Watergate
(11:07):
criminal case. Lawyers for the witnesses made this argument.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Directly or indirectly, this hearing will influence any jury which
might be called to hear the case in New York.
This places mister Stands in an impossible position, and a
completely unfair one. Under our constitutional system the fundamental laws
of this land, an accused is entitled to a fair
(11:33):
trial by an impartial jury, unimpeded by a deluge of publicity.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
But at the time this concern was brushed to the side.
The Urban Committee was pure political theater, and its leading
man was about to take the stage.
Speaker 14 (11:49):
John W.
Speaker 10 (11:49):
Dean the Third, raise your right hand.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
On June twenty fifth, nineteen seventy three, John Dene stepped
to the microphone and it was light's camera action.
Speaker 10 (12:00):
You swear that the evidence that you should to the
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities shall be the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Speaker 15 (12:10):
So have you gone so help me God.
Speaker 10 (12:13):
All the testimony he's previously given to the committee's stafe,
and all of the testimony which he may give to
this committee is given by him on the basis of
the auto of immunity.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
It was clear that this was the week the committee
was waiting for, and they wanted to make sure the
media cut every second of it on tape.
Speaker 10 (12:32):
You and mister Leans felt places because I'm going.
Speaker 16 (12:35):
To leave the chairmans the chairman, I'll sit back.
Speaker 10 (12:37):
Because by the reporters of some the instructs.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Abuse, John Dean was well coached. He took an approach
that helped craft the committee's desired narrative. He portrayed himself
as the tortured whistleblower just looking to finally tell the truth.
Speaker 16 (12:55):
It's a very difficult thing for me to testify about
other people. It's far more easy for me to explain
my own involvement in this matter. The fact that I
was involved in obstruction of justice, the fact that I
assisted another in perjured testimony, the fact that I made
personal use of funds that were in my custody. It's
(13:16):
far easier to talk about these things myself than to
talk about what others did. Some of these people I'll
be referring to are friends. Some are men I greatly
admire and respect, and particularly with reference to the President
of the United States, I'd like to say this. It
is my honest belief that while the President was involved,
that he did not realize or appreciate at any time
(13:38):
the implications of his involvement. And I think that when
the facts come out, I hope the president is forgiven.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Dean suggested that Nixon was heavily involved in the cover up,
but right out of the gate he contradicted what he
told Nixon privately in the Oval office just a few
months earlier that he had reason to believe that Nixon
didn't know much about the details of Watergate.
Speaker 10 (14:00):
The reason I thought we ought to tross is our conversation.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
I have the impressions you don't.
Speaker 7 (14:07):
Know everything I know.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Dean did open his testimony with an admission of guilt,
but the story he wove placed him in the throes
of the hero's journey. In his telling, he was the
lone voice of sanity in a white house saturated with criminals.
Speaker 16 (14:24):
I have thought back over the sequence of events and
tried to determine if I in any way encouraged mister
Letty and his intelligence plans. I am certain of this.
I did not encourage him to develop illegal techniques because
I was unaware he was developing such plans.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
As seasoned eye could decipher Dean's strategy, every good manipulator
knows that to make their fairy tales more palatable, they
must be peppered with kernels of the truth. A whiff
of this tactic appeared in John Deane's opening remarks. Throughout
his statement, he used actual events, but with slight twists
that minimized his culpability and maximized the guilt of Nixon
(15:01):
and his inner circle. For example, where G. Gordon Lyddy
remembered John Dean ordering Howard Hunt out of the country
at their frantic, in person noontime meeting in the Park,
Dean remembered something totally different.
Speaker 16 (15:13):
Erleckman instructed me to call Liddy to tell him to
tell Hunt to get out of the country. I did
this without even thinking.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Dean's telling contradicted both G. Gordon Liddy's account and that
of another White House aide, Chuck Colson. Dean shifted blame
to his boss. In fact, he placed much of the
blame of the cover up on John Erlickman.
Speaker 16 (15:33):
I subsequently met with mister Erlickman to inform him of
the contents of Hansei. I remember well his instructions. He
told me to shred the documents and deep six the bravecase.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
But John Dene's most stunning testimony came when chronicling his
discussions with President Nixon in his first ever meeting with
the President in September nineteen seventy two, roughly three months
after the arrests. John Dene testified that he informed Nixon
that the Watergate scandal wasn't going away anytime soon.
Speaker 16 (16:03):
I also told him that there was a long way
to go before this matter would end, and that certainly,
I certainly could make no assurances that the day would
not come when this matter would not start to unravel.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
But in the audio recording of the meeting, Dean said
something quite the opposite. He said, quote, I think that
I can say that fifty four days from now that
not a thing will come crashing down to our surprise.
Dean's testimony appeared to plant the seed that Nixon had
been hiding the cover up from their first meeting, but
(16:36):
his testimony contradicted what he actually said on tape, and.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
This inconsistency was only the beginning.
Speaker 17 (16:48):
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Speaker 3 (18:08):
Welcome back to red Pilled America. So John Dene opened
up his Watergate testimony with one inconsistency after another, and
he was just getting started. Dean went on to testify
that President Nixon offered Howard Hunt immunity.
Speaker 16 (18:21):
I did not know if he realized that he himself
could be getting involved in an obstruction of justice by
having promised clemency to Hunt.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
But in the recording of their meeting, Nixon concluded that
he wouldn't be giving any one clemency, including Howard Hunt.
John Dene sounded so certain as he testified, which was
odd because, unlike at the White House, his testimony was
largely from memory alone.
Speaker 16 (18:48):
I did not realize how difficult it would be to
reconstruct my knowledge from memory. I had not kept a
diary or even a calendar of all my activities. Thus,
I have been reconstructing my knowledge this matter since March
twenty third to this day.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Some of his boldest claims were provably untrue.
Speaker 16 (19:07):
I began by telling the President that there was a
cancer growing on the presidency and if the cancer was
not removed, the President himself would.
Speaker 7 (19:15):
Be killed by it.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
That last part not on the meeting tape.
Speaker 16 (19:19):
I also told him that it was important that this
cancer be removed.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Immediately, Also not on the meeting recording.
Speaker 16 (19:25):
I also told the President if I was called to
testify before the grand jury of the Senate Committee, I
would have to tell the facts the way I knew them.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
And ditto for that claim as well.
Speaker 16 (19:34):
I recall it while Halloman Erlickman and I were sitting
at a small table in front of the President in
his Executive Building office, that I, for the first time
said in front of the President, but I thought that
haloman Erlickman and Dean were all indictable for instruction of justice,
and that was the reason I was disagreeing with all
it was being discussed at that point in time.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Again not true.
Speaker 16 (19:57):
I had let them very clearly know that I was
not going to participate in the matter any further. And
I thought thought it was time that everybody started thinking
about telling the truth.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Uh No, that didn't make the meeting recording either.
Speaker 16 (20:09):
Rather, I thought it was time for surgery of the
cancer itself, and that all of those involved must stand
up and account for themselves, and that the President himself
get out in front of this matter.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
And that one was quite a whopper. I mean, besides
the fact that John Dene was testifying on the condition
that he was given immunity. The tapes also contradicted this testimony.
When Nixon proposed that a clean way out of Watergate
was just to let Howard Hunt blab and let the
chips fall where they may, John Dene disagreed.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
You know, I don't think thingis waved.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Dean instead suggested immunity for everyone. Then John Dene delivered
perhaps one of the biggest falsehoods of his testimony.
Speaker 16 (20:53):
I recall that one of the first things that Erlickman
asked Mitchell was whether Hunt's money problem had been taken
care of. Mitchell said that he didn't think it was
a problem.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
He further that was simply not on the recording, and
it was an explosive allegation. Nixon and his entire inner
circle were present at the time of the alleged exchange.
In this one quip, John Dene implicated them all in
the so called blackmail payment. Dean told one provable untruth
after another, each making it look like Nixon was helping
(21:24):
orchestrate the cover up. From the beginning, President Nixon's former
White House Council was going scorched earth. Perhaps one of
the biggest indicators of John Dene's character was when he
admitted to using government cash for personal use. At some point.
Dean testified that he was asked to secure fifteen thou
two hundred dollars in cash that's roughly one hundred and
(21:46):
ten thousand dollars in twenty twenty two money. Dean locked
the money in his office safe, but when he allegedly
failed to pay expenses for his wedding and honeymoon, he
dipped into the stash.
Speaker 16 (21:58):
The cash remained in my safe, untouched until October twelve,
nineteen seventy two, when I moved a packet of bills
amounting to four hundred and fifty dollars that's.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Roughly thirty five thousand dollars in twenty twenty two cash I.
Speaker 16 (22:11):
Removed the forty eight to fifty after I had failed
to make arrangements to pay for the anticipated expense of
my wedding and my honeymoon.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Dean was not the angel he pretended to be. To
make his testimony even more explosive, he suggested that the
president wouldn't have won reelection without the.
Speaker 16 (22:27):
Cover up, but that I suspected that the chances of
re electing the president would be severely damaged. I said
that I did not believe that they related to the
Watergate in any way, but should they leak out, they
would be political dynamite an election year.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Dean even accused President Nixon of directly ordering the break
into Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office.
Speaker 16 (22:48):
He had received his orders right out of the Oval office.
I was so surprised to hear that, I said, you
must be kidding. He repeated again, if he received his
instructions out of the Oval office.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
But the accusation directly contradicted White House recordings. John Deane's
opening statement lasted six hours. Practically the entire first day
of his testimony was making one damning accusation after another.
In Dean's telling, the White House was run mafia style
and he was the poor, unfortunate soul that witnessed it all.
(23:21):
His testimony was extraordinary, not just for its inaccuracies, but
in how it served Nixon up on a platter to
the media.
Speaker 7 (23:30):
John W. Dean, the third what before the Senate Watergate
Committee today, and as expected, gave the committee names, dates,
and places involved in the Watergate affair and its cover up.
Included among those names of the names of those having
knowledge of the cover up was Dean's former boss, the
President of the United States.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
John Deane was being used as a political weapon by
Nixon's most belligerent enemy, the media. The entire Democrat narrative
machine was frothing at the mouth over Dean's explosive accusations. Washington,
d C. Had a fever, and the only prescription was
more Watergate. At the time, there wasn't a place you
(24:06):
could travel to in the nation's capital that wasn't airing
the saga. It was on bar TV screens, on taxi radios,
displayed in the newsstands. Watergate was America's first saturation news event.
TV had come of age by nineteen seventy three, roughly
ninety seven percent of American homes had television sets, and
then two thirds of those had two or more throughout
(24:29):
the house. People still trusted the news. This newly matured
narrative machine cast John Dean as a selfless whistleblower hero,
a truth teller, and the people gobbled it up hook
line and sinker.
Speaker 18 (24:43):
I like buying large. Mister Deane's recollection of that account
is essentially correct in all its material details.
Speaker 15 (24:49):
In fact, I don't really see any significant inconsistencies yet
with mister Dean.
Speaker 19 (24:52):
I think mister Dean was an attractive witness. He spoke
for six hours today in a very low, almost monotone voice.
He's an attractive man, appears to me personally. I think
that it'll be very hard to paint him as some
sort of villain or demon, at least based on his
(25:14):
own presentation.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
The mainstream media couldn't get enough of the story. It
was their chance to take down the anti communist crusader
that dared to try and stop them from publishing the
top secret Pentagon papers.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
And it wasn't just the newspapers, radio and Big three
news networks leading the coverage. The fledgling new Public Broadcasting System,
or PBS, used the Watergate hearings to catapult the network
into the national spotlight. By the time John Dene testified,
(25:47):
PBS was less than four years old and it was struggling.
It was supposed to be an educational network used to
bring school into the home, but it quickly got into
the news game. Nixon saw PBS as just another liberal
news network designed to attack Republicans, a prediction that turned
out to be right. For forty seven days and nights
(26:10):
in the summer of nineteen seventy three, PBS covered every
minute of the hearings. Then they rebroadcast the drama with
their slanted commentary in prime time. Every TV station needs
a hit show to survive, and for the taxpayer funded network,
Watergate was it. A PBS executive put it best in
nineteen seventy three when he said, Nixon vetoed the funding bill,
(26:34):
cut our funding, and now he's giving us our best programming.
It's sort of like being reborn. As John Dene's testimony continued,
PBS did its best to pretty up the former White
House Council.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
If the Senate Committee expected today to seriously test the
credibility of its star witness John Dean. It failed. The
former White House Council withstood five hours of questioning, and
his damning charged us against President Nixon remained for another day,
intact and officially unanswered. John Dene, president Nixon's chief accuser,
(27:07):
has weathered his third day of Senate testimony, and it
was by far the toughest and most dramatic. Throughout all this,
Dean firmly and coolly stuck to his story. John Dene
weathered his fourth day as a Watergate witness today and
was subjected to questions submitted directly by the White House.
But the main point of the day was that John
Dene remained as cool and determined as he has all weak.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
As his testimony came to a close, John Dene made
sure to underscore his role as the benevolent public servant,
an almost christ like figure.
Speaker 16 (27:39):
I've sought to provide this information, with all the facts
and information that I know regarding this matter, to answer
all of the questions that have been asked of me,
and to hide nothing of my own involvement in this matter,
and provide the truth as I know it. This has
been most difficult for me because I've had to speak
(28:00):
against the President of the United States, some of my
friends and some of my former colleagues. I attempted to
end this cover up, initially from working within the White House,
and when that didn't work, I took it upon myself
to work from without.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
A few days later, Establishment Republican Senator Howard H. Baker
of Tennessee delivered the most memorable line of the hearings.
Speaker 18 (28:24):
The central question at this point is simply put, what
did the president know.
Speaker 15 (28:32):
And when did he know it?
Speaker 1 (28:34):
The committee put that question to President Nixon's close friend
and former Attorney General John Mitchell, when do.
Speaker 8 (28:40):
You think the president found out about what agate and
the cover up? I haven't any idea, Senator, I haven't
any idea at all, because, as I testified before that
if the President had found out about it, obviously he
would have pursued his responsibilities in that area very vigorously.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
The Committee was landing solid jabs it. It wasn't until
July sixteenth, nineteen seventy three, that it connected with a
devastating uppercut, and it was another Establishment Republican that delivered
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Speaker 3 (30:35):
Do you want to hear red Pilled America stories ad free?
Then become a backstage subscriber. Just log onto Redpilldamerica dot
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and help us save America one story at a time.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Welcome back to red Pilled America. So the Urvin Committee
was landing solid jabs on President Nixon, but it wasn't
until July sixteenth, nineteen seventy three, that the committee connected
with a devastating uppercut. And it was another establishment Republican
that delivered the blow. Fred Thompson, Council for the Republican
(31:12):
Minority in the Committee, questioned Nixon's deputy assistant, and the
answer turned the entire Watergate affair on its head.
Speaker 15 (31:19):
So you were employed on January twenty first, nineteen sixty nine,
and continued to be employed until March fourteen of this year.
Speaker 8 (31:26):
Is that correct?
Speaker 15 (31:27):
That's correct, mister Butterfield. Are you aware of the installation
of any listening devices and the oval office of the President?
Speaker 18 (31:37):
I was aware of listening devices.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Guess sir Fred Thompson already knew the answer to the question.
The witness had delivered this juicy Morsel to Thompson behind
closed doors in the executive session, but their exchange seemed
almost rehearsed for maximum drama.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
The media characterized the audio tapes as another example of
a paranoid White House. They completely ignored the fact that
presidents had been recording White House meetings and phone calls,
dating back to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was nothing new,
but the audio tapes became the central story of the hearings,
and a big question arose. Would Nixon release the tapes?
(32:17):
The White House response was swift. Nixon refused to release them,
claiming executive privilege.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
This principle of confidentiality of presidential conversations is at stake
in the question of these tapes. I must and I
shall oppose any efforts to destroy this principle, which is
so vital to the conduct of this great office.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Watergate Committee Chairman Sam Irvin took the opportunity to take
a jab at Nixon's refusal to release the tapes.
Speaker 10 (32:45):
This is a rather than mark the letter about the tapes.
If you notice, the president says he's heard the tape,
so some of them and they sustain his position. But
he says he's not going to let anybody else harem
for failed, they might vow a different conclusions.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Of war over the audio tapes was underway and the
committee was just heating up. On July twenty fifth, nineteen
seventy three, it was John Erlickman's turn to face interrogation.
Speaker 7 (33:21):
Well, mister John Arliman, take the witness table, and I
see he has you stand up, and sir, raise your
right hand.
Speaker 10 (33:28):
You swil that the evidence that you should give to
the Senate Select Committee owned presidential campaign activity should be
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
So after God I did, I'll suppose you all state shoe,
name and address for the record.
Speaker 14 (33:43):
My name's John Erlickman. I live on Chesapeake Drive in
dreat Falls, Virginia.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Nixon's former domestic affairs advisor forcefully claimed his innocence.
Speaker 14 (33:52):
Let's be clear, I did not cover up anything to
do with Watergate, nor were mister Dean and I keeping
steady company during all those weeks.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Erlikman argued that the Dad Daniel Ellsberg psychiatrist break in
was a legal and reasonable action given the instability of
the time.
Speaker 14 (34:08):
Today, the presidency is the only place in the nation
where all the conflicting considerations of domestic and international politics, economics,
and society merge. It's there that street violence and civil rights,
and relations with Russia and their effect on China, and
(34:28):
the Cambodian military situation, and a thousand other factors and
events are brought together on the surface of one desk
and must be resolved. Some of these events in nineteen
sixty nine and nineteen seventy included hundreds of bombings and
public buildings in this country, a highly organized attempt to
shut down the federal government, which you'll all remember, intensive
(34:49):
harassment of political candidates, and violence, street demonstrations which endangered
life and property. Taken as isolated incidents, these events were serious,
taken as a part of an apparent campaign to force
upon the President ofeign policy favorable to the North Vietnamese
and their lives. These demonstrations were more than just garden
variety exercises of the first Amen.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
Hundreds of thousands of American servicemen were in a bloody
conflict with the communists Viet Kong. Tens of thousands were
already dead. The Nixon administration was striving for peace with
North Vietnam, Erlikman explained that this was the environment in
which Daniel Elsberg released the top secret Pentagon papers, just.
Speaker 14 (35:29):
As and because they affected the President's ability to conduct
foreign policy, they required the president's attention and concern.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Not long after the leak, the White House learned the
papers were leaked to the Soviet embassy, that Elsberg had
access to far more confidential materials, and he was leaking
what he had while President Nixon was in sensitive negotiations
with the Soviet Union, North Vietnam, and China. Adding to
the White House's dilemma, FBI Director Jay Edgar Hoover refused
to investigate Elsberg because of his personal relationship with his
(36:01):
father in law. In all of this, according to Erlikman,
the actions of the White House Plumbers Unit were warranted.
Speaker 15 (36:08):
Sterlic When are you telling me that the break in
the doctor Fielding's office was to satisfy the President of
the United States.
Speaker 14 (36:13):
The President wanted very much to make sure that a
thing like this could not happen again.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
The committee pushed back, claiming the Fourth Amendment that protects
people from unreasonable search and seizures prohibited the White House's actions.
Speaker 10 (36:25):
There's no well in this instrument that the president has
a right to suspend the Fourth Amendment.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
But Erlokman responded, claiming that the national security exemption to
the Fourth Amendment applied in this situation.
Speaker 14 (36:40):
I think the Supreme Court has said that the search
or seizure or whatever it is, has to be reasonable,
and they've said that a national security undertaking can be
reasonable and can very nicely.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
Comply with the Farth Amendment.
Speaker 14 (36:52):
But mister Chairman, the Congress in nineteen sixty eight has
said this, nothing contained in this chapter or in section
six oh five of the Communications Act fourth Shuttle limit
the constitutional power of the President to take such measures
as he deems necessary to protect the nation against and
(37:14):
then it goes on to protect national security information against
foreign intelligence activities. Now, that is precisely what the President
was undertaking. He was not undertaking it under this statute.
He was undertaking it under that constitutional power of which you, gentlemen,
and the other members of the Congress recognized it.
Speaker 7 (37:34):
Yes, that of call that statute.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
Stopping Daniel Ellsberg and his potential co conspirators from leaking
more top secret documents was a paramount national security concern
to the Nixon white House, and they weren't getting any
help from the broken intelligence community. Erlikman also argued that
the White House was not trying to keep their Elsburg
investigation secret from the government. He pointed to the fact
that the FBI, the CIA, and even the Justice Department
(37:58):
were all aware of their Elsburg investigation.
Speaker 14 (38:00):
The Justice Department already had the when information about the
Elsburg break when. I can't say when. John Dean told
me that Henry Peterson had the information and the photographs
and the whole business. Oh, I would guess a year
or more ago.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
Erlikman also addressed the elephant in the room, how did
Nixon and its inner circle missed the events that led
to the Watergate breaking in.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Nineteen seventy two.
Speaker 14 (38:25):
With a foreign situation as it was, the President decided
quite early that he simply could not and would not
involve himself in the day to day details of the
presidential primaries, the convention, in the campaign. He made a
very deliberate effort to detach himself from the day to
day strategic and tactical problems, and so the regular work
of the White House relating to government and the nation's
(38:48):
problems continued unabated. If anything, we on the domestic side
were busier with the president on governmental business than in
other years. In nineteen seventy two, the president had to
delegate most of his political role and it went the people,
not otherwise burdened with governmental duties. As a result, I
personally saw very little of the campaign activity during the
(39:10):
spring and early summer of nineteen seventy two. That is
the context in which I hope you will receive this testimony. Similarly,
you must measure the President's role in all of this
in true perspective. The nineteen seventy two campaign, the Watergate
and its investigation competed for his attention with the claims
of hundreds of members of Congress, economists, diplomats, educators, scientists,
(39:35):
labor leaders, businessmen, and countless other citizens, and with the
demands of the problems of the nation in their manifold
and compound complexities, with the daily mail and the endless meetings,
the speeches and other communication with the public, with the
need for management, leadership, and inspiration, and the need and
desire for time to study and think.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
In other words, the initial news of the Watergate break
in took a back seat to far more pressing matters.
John Erlikman's arguments were compelling, and compared to John Dene,
they were full of passion and sincerity. The committee largely
gave John Dene the benefit of the doubt, but by contrast,
they were openly hostile to Nixon's former domestic affairs advisor.
Speaker 7 (40:18):
Oh, this was a.
Speaker 10 (40:18):
Domestic intelligence activity. These people were from the promise from
the White House.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Yes, those we had.
Speaker 11 (40:25):
We had a man passing sequence to the Soviet government.
If you authorize this break in, didn't you?
Speaker 14 (40:30):
I was trying to know, sir, I did not.
Speaker 12 (40:33):
Why didn't FBI handed the job.
Speaker 14 (40:35):
The director simply refuse to permit his top people to
conduct interviews of some of mister Ellsberg's family. I think
you'll recognize it. All through this proceeding, we keep coming
back to bureau problems. I think in retrospect that the
administration would have been far better off if mister Hoover
had been retired earlier, pre dating this episode. I think
(40:59):
the thing that your argument artfully chooses to void dealing.
Speaker 10 (41:04):
With I'm not frying the board anything. I'm trying to
hit this proposition. Well, I'm as chairman.
Speaker 4 (41:08):
Now you've interrupted me at all.
Speaker 14 (41:11):
You have the delightful trial room practice of interrupting something
that you don't want to hear. I'd like if I
could to finish the sentence.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
And of course it wasn't just the committee beating up
on John Erlickman. Unlike with John Dene, the media punched
Erlikman below the belt.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
One of the few new facts he permitted to escape
his well organized mind was his wife's observation that he
looked on television as though he were scowling too much.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
The narrative machine was no doubt weakening President Nixon. At
the beginning of the Watergate hearings, Nixon's approval rating was
fifty six percent. By the end of the hearings, that
number plummeted to thirty two percent. Nixon was getting bloodied up,
but he wasn't about to go down without a fight
(42:12):
next time.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
On the conclusion of the Fighter.
Speaker 5 (42:15):
During the past three months, the three major networks had
devoted an average of over twenty two hours of television
time each week.
Speaker 10 (42:23):
To this second by.
Speaker 12 (42:24):
An overwhelming voter four hundred and ten to four, the
House of Representatives today gave its Judiciary Committee unqualified powers
for an investigation to determine if there are sufficient grounds
to impeach President Nixon.
Speaker 6 (42:37):
President Nixon has not yet responded to the sledgehammer decision
of the Supreme Court today, which rules that he must
immediately turn over tapes of sixty four presidential conversation.
Speaker 5 (42:48):
And I want to say this to the television audience.
I made my mistakes, but in all of my years
of public life, I have never profited, never profited from
public service. I've earned every cent.
Speaker 10 (43:00):
Nixon was driven from office by secret cabal of corrupt judges, prosecutors,
and Hill staff, endorsed by a complacent press.
Speaker 14 (43:09):
John dene pulled off an incredible hoax, and he pulled
it off on the Watergate Committee, and he pulled it
off on the courts, and he pulled it off on
the American people.
Speaker 13 (43:17):
And in a sense, he erased the election.
Speaker 10 (43:19):
And today, if you looked at it objectively, you'd have
trouble saying what Nixon did wrong.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
Red Pilled America's an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's produced by
me Adrianna Coortez and Patrick Carelchi for Informed Ventures.
Speaker 16 (43:38):
Now.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Our entire archive of episodes is only available to our
backstage subscribers. To subscribe, visit redpilled america dot com and
click support in the topmenu. Thanks for listening.
This is Red Pilled America. Hey, Fambam, have you heard
we started making video versions of our audio documentaries. They're
over at YouTube and Rumble. Please check them out and
subscribe to the video channels. We've provided links in our
show notes, and if you like what you see, consider
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com and click donate in the top menu. Help us
(00:25):
save America one story at a time. Now on with
the show. Previously on Red Pilled America.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
You don't know everything. I have a cancer prey.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Through his questions, it was obvious that Nixon had no
knowledge of any of this.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
I'm involved in that obstructive justice.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Any prosecutor investigating the break in would see John Dene's
fingerprints all over the Watergate scandal.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
I still wanted to give them a chance to survive.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Dean would look for what Nixon could not give him, immunity.
Speaker 5 (00:59):
I cut off one arm, then cut off the other.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
John Deane retained a lower. He was turning on President Nixon.
Speaker 6 (01:05):
The biggest White House scandal in a century, The Watergate
scandal broke wide open today.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Why are Hollywood and the media so obsessed with Nixon.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
I'm Patrick Carrelci and I'm Adriana Cortez.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
And this is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
This is not another talk show covering the day's news.
We are all about telling stories.
Speaker 7 (01:30):
Stories.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
The media marks stories about everyday Americans if the globalist ignore.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
You could think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries,
and we promise only one thing, the truth. Welcome to
Red Pilled America. We're at part nine of our series
(02:02):
of episodes entitled The Fighter. If you haven't heard the
previous episodes, stop and go back and listen from the beginning.
We're looking for the answer to the question why are
the media and Hollywood so obsessed with Richard Nixon by
telling the often ignored story of his life. So to
pick up where we left off, in mid April nineteen
seventy three, Assistant Attorney General Henry Peterson urgently arrived at
(02:25):
Nixon's front door. He informed the president that his investigation
implicated both his chief of Staff, Bob Haldeman and domestic
affairs adviser John Erlickman in the Watergate cover up. After
two agonizing weeks, of internal struggle, Nixon reluctantly asked for
their resignations. He also unceremoniously fired the ring leader of
the cover up, John Dean. It was a pivotal moment
(02:47):
for Richard Milhouse Nixon. He'd already lost his good friend
John Mitchell to the scandal. Now Holdeman and Erlickman, his
two closest advisers, were tangled in the Watergate web. The
fighter from Your Belinda was becoming more and more isolated.
His enemies smelled blood, and things were about to get
much worse. In late April nineteen seventy three, Attorney General
(03:17):
Richard kleindinst delivered more bad news to the White House.
Kleindenst believed that he was obligated to inform the judge
overseeing the Pentagon Paper's espionage case that White House plumber
Howard Hunt had broken into the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist.
The White House agreed with the Attorney General and directed
the information to be transmitted to the judge.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
The development hit newsrooms like carbs at a fat camp.
The media ate it up.
Speaker 6 (03:48):
At the Pentagon Paper's trial in California today, it was
revealed that the people who burglarized the Watergate also burglarized
the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrs.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
About two weeks later, the judge overseeing the case made
a stunning announce.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
The conduct of the government has placed the case in
such a posture that it precludes the fair, dispassionate resolution
of these issues by a jury.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Shockingly, after Daniel Elsberg admitted to committing arguably the largest
theft of top secret documents in American history, the judge
dismissed all charges against him. President Nixon couldn't believe the
turn of events. He felt like it was a personal attack.
On the day of the news, he vented to a
(04:34):
White House advisors In the wake of the decision, Ellsberg
(04:56):
took softball questions from his media comrades.
Speaker 8 (04:58):
If you could sum it up in one big round sentence,
does it all come out now?
Speaker 9 (05:04):
It comes out that a presidential prosecution that was started
for political reasons is ending for political reasons. It was
conducted by illegal means from beginning to end.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
He then previewed the forming media narrative around the Watergate investigation.
Speaker 9 (05:19):
It started, we now know in order to help re
elect a president, and it's ending now. I think to
avoid impeaching that same president. But they won't stop that
process because the facts, thanks in part to this trial,
I'm glad to say, are out on the table. They're
out of the safes, just as the Pentagon papers are
out of the safe and they're the same kind of facts,
(05:39):
and they can't and put back in the safes. Congress
is going to have to deal with them, the courts,
the jury, the press, the public.
Speaker 10 (05:46):
They're already.
Speaker 9 (05:48):
Congress is lagged on this, but they're now ready at last,
and they should end the war and end this kind
of administrative executive misconduct.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Ellsberg thumbed his nose at President Nixon, and the entire
political establishment were about to join him because the Watergate
hearings were set to begin. The origin of the hearings
is almost as revealing as the show trial itself. You
may recall that in late January nineteen seventy three, the
judge overseeing the DNC break in trial, Judge Sirrica, called
(06:18):
for the Senate to investigate Watergate to see how high
the scandal went. In response to Judge Currica's clarion call,
Senate Resolution sixty was passed that established a select committee
on the presidential campaign activities to investigate the Watergate affair.
And who was the Senator that sponsored that resolution? None
other than the Senator from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy. The same
(06:41):
man that killed a woman in chap Equittic just four
years earlier, was now questioning the president's integrity. The irony
was even too thick for his Democrat colleagues. Instead of
following tradition and naming the sponsor of the resolution as
the chair of the inquiry, the Democrats instead selected segregationist
Senator Sam Irvin.
Speaker 10 (07:00):
We all beginning these hearings today that spare of utmost gravity.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
On May seventeenth, nineteen seventy three, Senator Irvin opened the
Watergate hearings.
Speaker 10 (07:10):
The questions that have been raised in the wake of
the June seventeen break in strike at the underguarding of
our democracy. If the many allegations made to this date
are true, then the burglars who broke into the headquarters
of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate were on
effect breaking in the home of better citizen of the
United States. And if these allegations proved to be true,
what they were seeking to steal was not the jewels, money,
(07:33):
or other property of American citizens, but something much more valuable.
They are most precious heritage, the right to vote in
the free election.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
The goal of the Watergate hearings was revealed the Establishment
wanted to overturn the second largest presidential landslide in American history.
Each witness was selected to craft a single narrative, one
that casts the Oval Office as the invisible hand behind
the breaking. Initially thought to be a Dison reelection committee affair,
one of the arrested burglars, James McCord, helped bring the
(08:08):
cover up right into the White House.
Speaker 11 (08:10):
Political pressure from the White House was conveyed to me
in January nineteen seventy three by John Caulfield to remain silent.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Caawfield was John Deane's assistant.
Speaker 11 (08:21):
Take executive clemency by going off to prison quietly, and
I was told that while there I would receive financial
aid and later rehabilitation and a job.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
The Senators then summoned the deputy head of Nixon's re
election committee, Jeb Macgruder, to testify.
Speaker 12 (08:39):
The sources say that macgruder has told federal investigators that
he attended a meeting in the office of then Attorney
General John Mitchell in February of last year, where he
says the Watergate break in was plotted by Mitchell, g
Gordon Liddie, and John Dean, the third personal counselor to
President Nixon.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
The committee was executing their strategy. With each witness, they
inched the ski closer and closer to President Nixon.
Speaker 13 (09:05):
Almost every one of those witnesses who testified on television
that fabled summer of Watergate of nineteen seventy three first
appeared for sworn testimony behind closed doors.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
That's author an investigative journalist James Rosen in two thousand
and eight, speaking about Watergate at the Nixon Presidential Library
and Museum.
Speaker 13 (09:23):
Before they'd send them up on television to testify in
front of the full panel of seven lawmakers and the
Cleague lights and the cameras, first they would show up
to testify a company by council in what they call
executive session behind closed doors. The major witnesses testified in
executive session. John Dean one hundred and fifty pages. Jeb
macgruder one hundred pages. James McCord one of the Watergate burglars,
(09:44):
the one that planted the wiretaps. E Howard Hunt, one
of the conspirators who planned the Watergate break in, Alexander Haig,
multiple witnesses. In all five thousand pages of executive session
testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee, no one had read
it until me in the year two thousand and two.
What you would see is subtle but significant changes in
a which this is testimony from closed door to three
(10:05):
days later when they go on television, And.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
According to Rosen, in these closed door sessions, the witnesses
were frequently coached to make their testimony more damaging to
Nixon and his top aids. The committee conveniently ignored the
eye opening details of the break in operation, the desk
key of Idamaxi Wells found on one of the burglars,
the alleged call girl phone that was being targeted, the
(10:27):
sexually explicit nature of the wiretap calls, the CIA's involvement.
The committee didn't care about these details. Their primary concern
was crafting a narrative that would lead to the removal
of Nixon and jail time for his inner circle.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
The committee had plenty of room to maneuver in the
creation of their narrative. These hearings were not your regular
trial where lawyers of those being accused have a chance
to cross examine witnesses. This crucial advocacy aspect of a
trial was completely absent, and as a result, the hearings
were polluting any future jury pool in a likely Watergate
(11:07):
criminal case. Lawyers for the witnesses made this argument.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Directly or indirectly, this hearing will influence any jury which
might be called to hear the case in New York.
This places mister Stands in an impossible position, and a
completely unfair one. Under our constitutional system the fundamental laws
of this land, an accused is entitled to a fair
(11:33):
trial by an impartial jury, unimpeded by a deluge of publicity.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
But at the time this concern was brushed to the side.
The Urban Committee was pure political theater, and its leading
man was about to take the stage.
Speaker 14 (11:49):
John W.
Speaker 10 (11:49):
Dean the Third, raise your right hand.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
On June twenty fifth, nineteen seventy three, John Dene stepped
to the microphone and it was light's camera action.
Speaker 10 (12:00):
You swear that the evidence that you should to the
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities shall be the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Speaker 15 (12:10):
So have you gone so help me God.
Speaker 10 (12:13):
All the testimony he's previously given to the committee's stafe,
and all of the testimony which he may give to
this committee is given by him on the basis of
the auto of immunity.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
It was clear that this was the week the committee
was waiting for, and they wanted to make sure the
media cut every second of it on tape.
Speaker 10 (12:32):
You and mister Leans felt places because I'm going.
Speaker 16 (12:35):
To leave the chairmans the chairman, I'll sit back.
Speaker 10 (12:37):
Because by the reporters of some the instructs.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Abuse, John Dean was well coached. He took an approach
that helped craft the committee's desired narrative. He portrayed himself
as the tortured whistleblower just looking to finally tell the truth.
Speaker 16 (12:55):
It's a very difficult thing for me to testify about
other people. It's far more easy for me to explain
my own involvement in this matter. The fact that I
was involved in obstruction of justice, the fact that I
assisted another in perjured testimony, the fact that I made
personal use of funds that were in my custody. It's
(13:16):
far easier to talk about these things myself than to
talk about what others did. Some of these people I'll
be referring to are friends. Some are men I greatly
admire and respect, and particularly with reference to the President
of the United States, I'd like to say this. It
is my honest belief that while the President was involved,
that he did not realize or appreciate at any time
(13:38):
the implications of his involvement. And I think that when
the facts come out, I hope the president is forgiven.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Dean suggested that Nixon was heavily involved in the cover up,
but right out of the gate he contradicted what he
told Nixon privately in the Oval office just a few
months earlier that he had reason to believe that Nixon
didn't know much about the details of Watergate.
Speaker 10 (14:00):
The reason I thought we ought to tross is our conversation.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
I have the impressions you don't.
Speaker 7 (14:07):
Know everything I know.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Dean did open his testimony with an admission of guilt,
but the story he wove placed him in the throes
of the hero's journey. In his telling, he was the
lone voice of sanity in a white house saturated with criminals.
Speaker 16 (14:24):
I have thought back over the sequence of events and
tried to determine if I in any way encouraged mister
Letty and his intelligence plans. I am certain of this.
I did not encourage him to develop illegal techniques because
I was unaware he was developing such plans.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
As seasoned eye could decipher Dean's strategy, every good manipulator
knows that to make their fairy tales more palatable, they
must be peppered with kernels of the truth. A whiff
of this tactic appeared in John Deane's opening remarks. Throughout
his statement, he used actual events, but with slight twists
that minimized his culpability and maximized the guilt of Nixon
(15:01):
and his inner circle. For example, where G. Gordon Lyddy
remembered John Dean ordering Howard Hunt out of the country
at their frantic, in person noontime meeting in the Park,
Dean remembered something totally different.
Speaker 16 (15:13):
Erleckman instructed me to call Liddy to tell him to
tell Hunt to get out of the country. I did
this without even thinking.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Dean's telling contradicted both G. Gordon Liddy's account and that
of another White House aide, Chuck Colson. Dean shifted blame
to his boss. In fact, he placed much of the
blame of the cover up on John Erlickman.
Speaker 16 (15:33):
I subsequently met with mister Erlickman to inform him of
the contents of Hansei. I remember well his instructions. He
told me to shred the documents and deep six the bravecase.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
But John Dene's most stunning testimony came when chronicling his
discussions with President Nixon in his first ever meeting with
the President in September nineteen seventy two, roughly three months
after the arrests. John Dene testified that he informed Nixon
that the Watergate scandal wasn't going away anytime soon.
Speaker 16 (16:03):
I also told him that there was a long way
to go before this matter would end, and that certainly,
I certainly could make no assurances that the day would
not come when this matter would not start to unravel.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
But in the audio recording of the meeting, Dean said
something quite the opposite. He said, quote, I think that
I can say that fifty four days from now that
not a thing will come crashing down to our surprise.
Dean's testimony appeared to plant the seed that Nixon had
been hiding the cover up from their first meeting, but
(16:36):
his testimony contradicted what he actually said on tape, and.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
This inconsistency was only the beginning.
Speaker 17 (16:48):
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Speaker 3 (18:08):
Welcome back to red Pilled America. So John Dene opened
up his Watergate testimony with one inconsistency after another, and
he was just getting started. Dean went on to testify
that President Nixon offered Howard Hunt immunity.
Speaker 16 (18:21):
I did not know if he realized that he himself
could be getting involved in an obstruction of justice by
having promised clemency to Hunt.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
But in the recording of their meeting, Nixon concluded that
he wouldn't be giving any one clemency, including Howard Hunt.
John Dene sounded so certain as he testified, which was
odd because, unlike at the White House, his testimony was
largely from memory alone.
Speaker 16 (18:48):
I did not realize how difficult it would be to
reconstruct my knowledge from memory. I had not kept a
diary or even a calendar of all my activities. Thus,
I have been reconstructing my knowledge this matter since March
twenty third to this day.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Some of his boldest claims were provably untrue.
Speaker 16 (19:07):
I began by telling the President that there was a
cancer growing on the presidency and if the cancer was
not removed, the President himself would.
Speaker 7 (19:15):
Be killed by it.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
That last part not on the meeting tape.
Speaker 16 (19:19):
I also told him that it was important that this
cancer be removed.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Immediately, Also not on the meeting recording.
Speaker 16 (19:25):
I also told the President if I was called to
testify before the grand jury of the Senate Committee, I
would have to tell the facts the way I knew them.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
And ditto for that claim as well.
Speaker 16 (19:34):
I recall it while Halloman Erlickman and I were sitting
at a small table in front of the President in
his Executive Building office, that I, for the first time
said in front of the President, but I thought that
haloman Erlickman and Dean were all indictable for instruction of justice,
and that was the reason I was disagreeing with all
it was being discussed at that point in time.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Again not true.
Speaker 16 (19:57):
I had let them very clearly know that I was
not going to participate in the matter any further. And
I thought thought it was time that everybody started thinking
about telling the truth.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Uh No, that didn't make the meeting recording either.
Speaker 16 (20:09):
Rather, I thought it was time for surgery of the
cancer itself, and that all of those involved must stand
up and account for themselves, and that the President himself
get out in front of this matter.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
And that one was quite a whopper. I mean, besides
the fact that John Dene was testifying on the condition
that he was given immunity. The tapes also contradicted this testimony.
When Nixon proposed that a clean way out of Watergate
was just to let Howard Hunt blab and let the
chips fall where they may, John Dene disagreed.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
You know, I don't think thingis waved.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Dean instead suggested immunity for everyone. Then John Dene delivered
perhaps one of the biggest falsehoods of his testimony.
Speaker 16 (20:53):
I recall that one of the first things that Erlickman
asked Mitchell was whether Hunt's money problem had been taken
care of. Mitchell said that he didn't think it was
a problem.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
He further that was simply not on the recording, and
it was an explosive allegation. Nixon and his entire inner
circle were present at the time of the alleged exchange.
In this one quip, John Dene implicated them all in
the so called blackmail payment. Dean told one provable untruth
after another, each making it look like Nixon was helping
(21:24):
orchestrate the cover up. From the beginning, President Nixon's former
White House Council was going scorched earth. Perhaps one of
the biggest indicators of John Dene's character was when he
admitted to using government cash for personal use. At some point.
Dean testified that he was asked to secure fifteen thou
two hundred dollars in cash that's roughly one hundred and
(21:46):
ten thousand dollars in twenty twenty two money. Dean locked
the money in his office safe, but when he allegedly
failed to pay expenses for his wedding and honeymoon, he
dipped into the stash.
Speaker 16 (21:58):
The cash remained in my safe, untouched until October twelve,
nineteen seventy two, when I moved a packet of bills
amounting to four hundred and fifty dollars that's.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Roughly thirty five thousand dollars in twenty twenty two cash I.
Speaker 16 (22:11):
Removed the forty eight to fifty after I had failed
to make arrangements to pay for the anticipated expense of
my wedding and my honeymoon.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Dean was not the angel he pretended to be. To
make his testimony even more explosive, he suggested that the
president wouldn't have won reelection without the.
Speaker 16 (22:27):
Cover up, but that I suspected that the chances of
re electing the president would be severely damaged. I said
that I did not believe that they related to the
Watergate in any way, but should they leak out, they
would be political dynamite an election year.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Dean even accused President Nixon of directly ordering the break
into Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office.
Speaker 16 (22:48):
He had received his orders right out of the Oval office.
I was so surprised to hear that, I said, you
must be kidding. He repeated again, if he received his
instructions out of the Oval office.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
But the accusation directly contradicted White House recordings. John Deane's
opening statement lasted six hours. Practically the entire first day
of his testimony was making one damning accusation after another.
In Dean's telling, the White House was run mafia style
and he was the poor, unfortunate soul that witnessed it all.
(23:21):
His testimony was extraordinary, not just for its inaccuracies, but
in how it served Nixon up on a platter to
the media.
Speaker 7 (23:30):
John W. Dean, the third what before the Senate Watergate
Committee today, and as expected, gave the committee names, dates,
and places involved in the Watergate affair and its cover up.
Included among those names of the names of those having
knowledge of the cover up was Dean's former boss, the
President of the United States.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
John Deane was being used as a political weapon by
Nixon's most belligerent enemy, the media. The entire Democrat narrative
machine was frothing at the mouth over Dean's explosive accusations. Washington,
d C. Had a fever, and the only prescription was
more Watergate. At the time, there wasn't a place you
(24:06):
could travel to in the nation's capital that wasn't airing
the saga. It was on bar TV screens, on taxi radios,
displayed in the newsstands. Watergate was America's first saturation news event.
TV had come of age by nineteen seventy three, roughly
ninety seven percent of American homes had television sets, and
then two thirds of those had two or more throughout
(24:29):
the house. People still trusted the news. This newly matured
narrative machine cast John Dean as a selfless whistleblower hero,
a truth teller, and the people gobbled it up hook
line and sinker.
Speaker 18 (24:43):
I like buying large. Mister Deane's recollection of that account
is essentially correct in all its material details.
Speaker 15 (24:49):
In fact, I don't really see any significant inconsistencies yet
with mister Dean.
Speaker 19 (24:52):
I think mister Dean was an attractive witness. He spoke
for six hours today in a very low, almost monotone voice.
He's an attractive man, appears to me personally. I think
that it'll be very hard to paint him as some
sort of villain or demon, at least based on his
(25:14):
own presentation.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
The mainstream media couldn't get enough of the story. It
was their chance to take down the anti communist crusader
that dared to try and stop them from publishing the
top secret Pentagon papers.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
And it wasn't just the newspapers, radio and Big three
news networks leading the coverage. The fledgling new Public Broadcasting System,
or PBS, used the Watergate hearings to catapult the network
into the national spotlight. By the time John Dene testified,
(25:47):
PBS was less than four years old and it was struggling.
It was supposed to be an educational network used to
bring school into the home, but it quickly got into
the news game. Nixon saw PBS as just another liberal
news network designed to attack Republicans, a prediction that turned
out to be right. For forty seven days and nights
(26:10):
in the summer of nineteen seventy three, PBS covered every
minute of the hearings. Then they rebroadcast the drama with
their slanted commentary in prime time. Every TV station needs
a hit show to survive, and for the taxpayer funded network,
Watergate was it. A PBS executive put it best in
nineteen seventy three when he said, Nixon vetoed the funding bill,
(26:34):
cut our funding, and now he's giving us our best programming.
It's sort of like being reborn. As John Dene's testimony continued,
PBS did its best to pretty up the former White
House Council.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
If the Senate Committee expected today to seriously test the
credibility of its star witness John Dean. It failed. The
former White House Council withstood five hours of questioning, and
his damning charged us against President Nixon remained for another day,
intact and officially unanswered. John Dene, president Nixon's chief accuser,
(27:07):
has weathered his third day of Senate testimony, and it
was by far the toughest and most dramatic. Throughout all this,
Dean firmly and coolly stuck to his story. John Dene
weathered his fourth day as a Watergate witness today and
was subjected to questions submitted directly by the White House.
But the main point of the day was that John
Dene remained as cool and determined as he has all weak.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
As his testimony came to a close, John Dene made
sure to underscore his role as the benevolent public servant,
an almost christ like figure.
Speaker 16 (27:39):
I've sought to provide this information, with all the facts
and information that I know regarding this matter, to answer
all of the questions that have been asked of me,
and to hide nothing of my own involvement in this matter,
and provide the truth as I know it. This has
been most difficult for me because I've had to speak
(28:00):
against the President of the United States, some of my
friends and some of my former colleagues. I attempted to
end this cover up, initially from working within the White House,
and when that didn't work, I took it upon myself
to work from without.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
A few days later, Establishment Republican Senator Howard H. Baker
of Tennessee delivered the most memorable line of the hearings.
Speaker 18 (28:24):
The central question at this point is simply put, what
did the president know.
Speaker 15 (28:32):
And when did he know it?
Speaker 1 (28:34):
The committee put that question to President Nixon's close friend
and former Attorney General John Mitchell, when do.
Speaker 8 (28:40):
You think the president found out about what agate and
the cover up? I haven't any idea, Senator, I haven't
any idea at all, because, as I testified before that
if the President had found out about it, obviously he
would have pursued his responsibilities in that area very vigorously.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
The Committee was landing solid jabs it. It wasn't until
July sixteenth, nineteen seventy three, that it connected with a
devastating uppercut, and it was another Establishment Republican that delivered
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Speaker 1 (30:50):
Welcome back to red Pilled America. So the Urvin Committee
was landing solid jabs on President Nixon, but it wasn't
until July sixteenth, nineteen seventy three, that the committee connected
with a devastating uppercut. And it was another establishment Republican
that delivered the blow. Fred Thompson, Council for the Republican
(31:12):
Minority in the Committee, questioned Nixon's deputy assistant, and the
answer turned the entire Watergate affair on its head.
Speaker 15 (31:19):
So you were employed on January twenty first, nineteen sixty nine,
and continued to be employed until March fourteen of this year.
Speaker 8 (31:26):
Is that correct?
Speaker 15 (31:27):
That's correct, mister Butterfield. Are you aware of the installation
of any listening devices and the oval office of the President?
Speaker 18 (31:37):
I was aware of listening devices.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Guess sir Fred Thompson already knew the answer to the question.
The witness had delivered this juicy Morsel to Thompson behind
closed doors in the executive session, but their exchange seemed
almost rehearsed for maximum drama.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
The media characterized the audio tapes as another example of
a paranoid White House. They completely ignored the fact that
presidents had been recording White House meetings and phone calls,
dating back to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was nothing new,
but the audio tapes became the central story of the hearings,
and a big question arose. Would Nixon release the tapes?
(32:17):
The White House response was swift. Nixon refused to release them,
claiming executive privilege.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
This principle of confidentiality of presidential conversations is at stake
in the question of these tapes. I must and I
shall oppose any efforts to destroy this principle, which is
so vital to the conduct of this great office.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Watergate Committee Chairman Sam Irvin took the opportunity to take
a jab at Nixon's refusal to release the tapes.
Speaker 10 (32:45):
This is a rather than mark the letter about the tapes.
If you notice, the president says he's heard the tape,
so some of them and they sustain his position. But
he says he's not going to let anybody else harem
for failed, they might vow a different conclusions.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Of war over the audio tapes was underway and the
committee was just heating up. On July twenty fifth, nineteen
seventy three, it was John Erlickman's turn to face interrogation.
Speaker 7 (33:21):
Well, mister John Arliman, take the witness table, and I
see he has you stand up, and sir, raise your
right hand.
Speaker 10 (33:28):
You swil that the evidence that you should give to
the Senate Select Committee owned presidential campaign activity should be
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
So after God I did, I'll suppose you all state shoe,
name and address for the record.
Speaker 14 (33:43):
My name's John Erlickman. I live on Chesapeake Drive in
dreat Falls, Virginia.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Nixon's former domestic affairs advisor forcefully claimed his innocence.
Speaker 14 (33:52):
Let's be clear, I did not cover up anything to
do with Watergate, nor were mister Dean and I keeping
steady company during all those weeks.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Erlikman argued that the Dad Daniel Ellsberg psychiatrist break in
was a legal and reasonable action given the instability of
the time.
Speaker 14 (34:08):
Today, the presidency is the only place in the nation
where all the conflicting considerations of domestic and international politics, economics,
and society merge. It's there that street violence and civil rights,
and relations with Russia and their effect on China, and
(34:28):
the Cambodian military situation, and a thousand other factors and
events are brought together on the surface of one desk
and must be resolved. Some of these events in nineteen
sixty nine and nineteen seventy included hundreds of bombings and
public buildings in this country, a highly organized attempt to
shut down the federal government, which you'll all remember, intensive
(34:49):
harassment of political candidates, and violence, street demonstrations which endangered
life and property. Taken as isolated incidents, these events were serious,
taken as a part of an apparent campaign to force
upon the President ofeign policy favorable to the North Vietnamese
and their lives. These demonstrations were more than just garden
variety exercises of the first Amen.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
Hundreds of thousands of American servicemen were in a bloody
conflict with the communists Viet Kong. Tens of thousands were
already dead. The Nixon administration was striving for peace with
North Vietnam, Erlikman explained that this was the environment in
which Daniel Elsberg released the top secret Pentagon papers, just.
Speaker 14 (35:29):
As and because they affected the President's ability to conduct
foreign policy, they required the president's attention and concern.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Not long after the leak, the White House learned the
papers were leaked to the Soviet embassy, that Elsberg had
access to far more confidential materials, and he was leaking
what he had while President Nixon was in sensitive negotiations
with the Soviet Union, North Vietnam, and China. Adding to
the White House's dilemma, FBI Director Jay Edgar Hoover refused
to investigate Elsberg because of his personal relationship with his
(36:01):
father in law. In all of this, according to Erlikman,
the actions of the White House Plumbers Unit were warranted.
Speaker 15 (36:08):
Sterlic When are you telling me that the break in
the doctor Fielding's office was to satisfy the President of
the United States.
Speaker 14 (36:13):
The President wanted very much to make sure that a
thing like this could not happen again.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
The committee pushed back, claiming the Fourth Amendment that protects
people from unreasonable search and seizures prohibited the White House's actions.
Speaker 10 (36:25):
There's no well in this instrument that the president has
a right to suspend the Fourth Amendment.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
But Erlokman responded, claiming that the national security exemption to
the Fourth Amendment applied in this situation.
Speaker 14 (36:40):
I think the Supreme Court has said that the search
or seizure or whatever it is, has to be reasonable,
and they've said that a national security undertaking can be
reasonable and can very nicely.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
Comply with the Farth Amendment.
Speaker 14 (36:52):
But mister Chairman, the Congress in nineteen sixty eight has
said this, nothing contained in this chapter or in section
six oh five of the Communications Act fourth Shuttle limit
the constitutional power of the President to take such measures
as he deems necessary to protect the nation against and
(37:14):
then it goes on to protect national security information against
foreign intelligence activities. Now, that is precisely what the President
was undertaking. He was not undertaking it under this statute.
He was undertaking it under that constitutional power of which you, gentlemen,
and the other members of the Congress recognized it.
Speaker 7 (37:34):
Yes, that of call that statute.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
Stopping Daniel Ellsberg and his potential co conspirators from leaking
more top secret documents was a paramount national security concern
to the Nixon white House, and they weren't getting any
help from the broken intelligence community. Erlikman also argued that
the White House was not trying to keep their Elsburg
investigation secret from the government. He pointed to the fact
that the FBI, the CIA, and even the Justice Department
(37:58):
were all aware of their Elsburg investigation.
Speaker 14 (38:00):
The Justice Department already had the when information about the
Elsburg break when. I can't say when. John Dean told
me that Henry Peterson had the information and the photographs
and the whole business. Oh, I would guess a year
or more ago.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
Erlikman also addressed the elephant in the room, how did
Nixon and its inner circle missed the events that led
to the Watergate breaking in.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Nineteen seventy two.
Speaker 14 (38:25):
With a foreign situation as it was, the President decided
quite early that he simply could not and would not
involve himself in the day to day details of the
presidential primaries, the convention, in the campaign. He made a
very deliberate effort to detach himself from the day to
day strategic and tactical problems, and so the regular work
of the White House relating to government and the nation's
(38:48):
problems continued unabated. If anything, we on the domestic side
were busier with the president on governmental business than in
other years. In nineteen seventy two, the president had to
delegate most of his political role and it went the people,
not otherwise burdened with governmental duties. As a result, I
personally saw very little of the campaign activity during the
(39:10):
spring and early summer of nineteen seventy two. That is
the context in which I hope you will receive this testimony. Similarly,
you must measure the President's role in all of this
in true perspective. The nineteen seventy two campaign, the Watergate
and its investigation competed for his attention with the claims
of hundreds of members of Congress, economists, diplomats, educators, scientists,
(39:35):
labor leaders, businessmen, and countless other citizens, and with the
demands of the problems of the nation in their manifold
and compound complexities, with the daily mail and the endless meetings,
the speeches and other communication with the public, with the
need for management, leadership, and inspiration, and the need and
desire for time to study and think.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
In other words, the initial news of the Watergate break
in took a back seat to far more pressing matters.
John Erlikman's arguments were compelling, and compared to John Dene,
they were full of passion and sincerity. The committee largely
gave John Dene the benefit of the doubt, but by contrast,
they were openly hostile to Nixon's former domestic affairs advisor.
Speaker 7 (40:18):
Oh, this was a.
Speaker 10 (40:18):
Domestic intelligence activity. These people were from the promise from
the White House.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Yes, those we had.
Speaker 11 (40:25):
We had a man passing sequence to the Soviet government.
If you authorize this break in, didn't you?
Speaker 14 (40:30):
I was trying to know, sir, I did not.
Speaker 12 (40:33):
Why didn't FBI handed the job.
Speaker 14 (40:35):
The director simply refuse to permit his top people to
conduct interviews of some of mister Ellsberg's family. I think
you'll recognize it. All through this proceeding, we keep coming
back to bureau problems. I think in retrospect that the
administration would have been far better off if mister Hoover
had been retired earlier, pre dating this episode. I think
(40:59):
the thing that your argument artfully chooses to void dealing.
Speaker 10 (41:04):
With I'm not frying the board anything. I'm trying to
hit this proposition. Well, I'm as chairman.
Speaker 4 (41:08):
Now you've interrupted me at all.
Speaker 14 (41:11):
You have the delightful trial room practice of interrupting something
that you don't want to hear. I'd like if I
could to finish the sentence.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
And of course it wasn't just the committee beating up
on John Erlickman. Unlike with John Dene, the media punched
Erlikman below the belt.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
One of the few new facts he permitted to escape
his well organized mind was his wife's observation that he
looked on television as though he were scowling too much.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
The narrative machine was no doubt weakening President Nixon. At
the beginning of the Watergate hearings, Nixon's approval rating was
fifty six percent. By the end of the hearings, that
number plummeted to thirty two percent. Nixon was getting bloodied up,
but he wasn't about to go down without a fight
(42:12):
next time.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
On the conclusion of the Fighter.
Speaker 5 (42:15):
During the past three months, the three major networks had
devoted an average of over twenty two hours of television
time each week.
Speaker 10 (42:23):
To this second by.
Speaker 12 (42:24):
An overwhelming voter four hundred and ten to four, the
House of Representatives today gave its Judiciary Committee unqualified powers
for an investigation to determine if there are sufficient grounds
to impeach President Nixon.
Speaker 6 (42:37):
President Nixon has not yet responded to the sledgehammer decision
of the Supreme Court today, which rules that he must
immediately turn over tapes of sixty four presidential conversation.
Speaker 5 (42:48):
And I want to say this to the television audience.
I made my mistakes, but in all of my years
of public life, I have never profited, never profited from
public service. I've earned every cent.
Speaker 10 (43:00):
Nixon was driven from office by secret cabal of corrupt judges, prosecutors,
and Hill staff, endorsed by a complacent press.
Speaker 14 (43:09):
John dene pulled off an incredible hoax, and he pulled
it off on the Watergate Committee, and he pulled it
off on the courts, and he pulled it off on
the American people.
Speaker 13 (43:17):
And in a sense, he erased the election.
Speaker 10 (43:19):
And today, if you looked at it objectively, you'd have
trouble saying what Nixon did wrong.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
Red Pilled America's an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's produced by
me Adrianna Coortez and Patrick Carelchi for Informed Ventures.
Speaker 16 (43:38):
Now.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Our entire archive of episodes is only available to our
backstage subscribers. To subscribe, visit redpilled america dot com and
click support in the topmenu. Thanks for listening.
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Adryana Cortez
Patrick Courrielche
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