How Did The Watergate Scandal

The Watergate scandal had a profound effect on American history and impact on the American public's perception of the Presidency. The scandal was the first of its kind that truly grasped the media and public's attention. In just over 780 days, America became gripped by the shocking revelation that behind this scandal was the man they elected to sit in the White House and run their country, President Richard Milhous Nixon. The Watergate Scandal led to Nixon becoming the first and to this date only president to resign and step down from his position. On the 17th of June 1972, five men were arrested after a failed break-in attempt at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters located at the Watergate Complex, in Washington
The result was unsuccessful the group couldn't find any information to incriminate Ellsberg. The White House and G. Gordon Liddy who was the general counsel to the CRP was furious about this failed sabotage. By the time, 1972 rolled around it was time for the Presidential campaign to begin again and Nixon was running for his second round in office. With the leak of the Pentagon Papers and the failure to discredit Ellsberg, Nixon and his advisors were worried that the Democratic party might beat him in the upcoming election. It seemed to them that the DNC was too clean and they needed to dig up to dirt and leak it to the media so that there was a level playing field when it came to the election. With the help of the CRP and the Whitehouse Plumbers, five men were selected to break into the DNC headquarters in the Watergate Complex. Their mission was to try and obtain photographs and documents that could sabotage the Democratic party. After the failure of finding documents that could affect Ellsberg, the CRP didn't want to risk that again so they also told the men to put wiretappers on the phone lines so that they could listen in on
In February 1974, the House of Representatives allowed for an investigation of impeachment regarding the President. In July of that year, two different articles of impeachment were put forward, the first by a group on the Judiciary Committee who believed Nixon should be charged with obstruction of justice. The second was by the House who stated that he should be charged with abuse of power. The following month, on August 5th, the White House released a tape which was previously unknown. The tape was recorded six days after the Watergate break-in, in June 1972. The tape revealed Haldeman and Nixon discussing the early stages of the cover-up in the Oval Office. One of the plans revealed was to block the FBI's investigation by having the C.I.A claim that the burglary was a matter of national security. The tape was nicknamed the "smoking gun" tape, as previous to the release of the tape, Nixon denied having any hand in the Watergate scandal. The tape proved that Nixon had knowledge about Watergate as opposed to a previous statement he made in which he said he was unaware of the scandal before March 1973. The release of this tape was the final blow to Nixon's