If you had to pick the beginning of the end for President Nixon, the date of June 13, 1971 might be the front running candidate. That was the day that the New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers, a top secret study commissioned by Defense Secretary Robert McNamera in 1967 which basically said that the US had f**ked up in Vietnam. And badly.
After the story about the Papers broke, Nixon became very concerned about leaks coming out of his administration.
Which, in turn, led to him creating the Plumbers unit to stop the leaks (get it?). The Plumbers eventually became frustrated with the lack of action and began to pester the Nixon White House for more jobs to do. One of the last jobs assigned to the Plumbers was to plant listening devices into the Democratic headquarters, located in the Watergate Hotel, almost exactly a year later in June, 1972.
In this episode's phone call, a nonplussed Nixon gets word about the Pentagon Papers from General Alexander Haig. But is it really possible the president wasn't aware of the impact of the New York Times story? Or was he lying?
That's what Harmon and Scott will be discussing in this episode. We'll also touch on how this reflects on President Trump and what the recent arrests mean for the Trump White House.
Also in this episode: the World Series, New York City open container laws, 80s sitcom starrs and Scott learns that there is a bona fide cast member from The Apprentice in Trump's White House Staff.
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