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Sometimes no matter what a person does they'll forever be [Man looking sad in a dark shadow]

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remembered for a single event. Seriously you can be the nicest person in the [Man looking happy giving a thumbs up]

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world, you can help old ladies cross the road and rescue kittens from trees but [Man climbs up a ladder to save a kitten]

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you'll always be the kid who farted right in the middle of Mrs. Johnson's [Man in school class looking embarrassed]

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eighth grade science class. Well that was the case with Richard Nixon, after all

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the first thing we think when we hear Nixon is crooked president involved in [Man in the shadow fades into Richard Nixon]

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the Watergate scandal. If you think he farted in science class well then you

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probably knew him before we did, anyway flatulence aside Nixon had a ton of [Nixon sat in a classroom]

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foreign policy successes in his first term. Like opening diplomacy with China [Nixon dances around and does the peace sign with both arms]

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and easing tensions with the USSR, and he was reelected by a landslide but after

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he was implicated in the seriously shady doings at the Watergate Hotel well there [Nixon wearing a burglar's mask]

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was no coming back and here's how it all went down. Turns out that Nixon may have

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had a cheat sheet to help him with that landslide of a victory against

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Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern, and the McGovern was actually the [Confetti falling on Nixon]

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first to call the Watergate card. See during the summer of 1972

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two burglars were caught breaking into the democratic national headquarters at [Two burglars sneaking]

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the Watergate apartment complex in DC. At first McGovern just looked like a sore

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loser but pretty soon the nation found itself watching dumbfounded as the [People on a sofa looking shocked]

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investigation into the Watergate break-in got juicier and juicier.

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Originally it looked as if Nixon had nothing to do with the break-in, [Nixon whistling and hiding behind a newspaper]

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truth be told we still don't know if he knew about it beforehand or not. What we do

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know is that he tried to cover it up after the fact, we also know he was [Nixon dragging a rug over the burglars]

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really really bad at covering things up otherwise we wouldn't be talking about

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this right now. The burglars were members of the committee to re-elect the president.

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Their goal? To uncover classified files relating to the Democratic Party as well [Burglars taking top secret files out a cabinet]

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as to wiretap all phone conversations occurring within the political party's

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headquarters. Well the burglars first entered the Watergate building in May but

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after finding that the wiretaps were not working properly they reattempted to [Burglar with headphones on looks annoyed]

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install them in June. The burglars were busted when a security guard noticed

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that there was tape covering several of the building locks the guard alerted [Security suspiciously looking at a door lock]

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the police who caught the burglars red-handed.

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At first the first the burglary seemed random with no direct connection to the White

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House but that was to change very soon. [Man looking at an investigation board]

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Insert dramatic music here...

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[Dramatic music plays]

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Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were largely

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responsible for blowing the story wide open. Using information from an FBI

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informant known only as 'deep throat' they pieced together the conspiracy that would [Man with his face blurred out]

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captivate the nation. Well it turns out that just days after the break-in Nixon

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provided hush money to the tune of thousands of dollars to the burglars to [Men with their mouths covered by dollar bills]

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keep them quiet. The cover up unraveled as numerous White House aides and FBI

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agents began to either resign or come forward with info. What was revealed was [Pictures of implicated staff]

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much more than a conspiracy to break into the Democratic National

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Headquarters. Nixon had entered the realm of espionage but he was more Bond

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villain than 007. He had his fiercest political opponent spied upon [Nixon with an eye patch and a cat]

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he had their mail opened and their homes burglarized in order to find

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compromising information and the conspiracy went all the way through the

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government. It was now 1973 and Nixon still denied any involvement.

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He addressed the nation on TV and famously swore "I am not a crook." At first much of the [Nixon on an old TV set]

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nation believed him, but as further evidence came forward the public's

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opinion swung widely in the other direction. Pretty soon a White House aide

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testified that Nixon had installed a bugging system throughout the White House [Microphones on plants, garden nomes, mice etc..]

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that taped all phone conversations including several regarding the

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Watergate scandal. Nixon was so into spying he was actually spying on himself. [Nixon looking through a telescope that loops back on himself]

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Battle over the Nixon tapes waged for a year with Nixon refusing to release them

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citing national security issues. He pleaded executive privilege which deemed [Nixon chucking tapes into a safe]

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him above the reach of the courts. Well eventually it took the Supreme Court the

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highest court in the land to make Nixon hand 'em over. Just days later the House [Nixon holding a tape so that the judge cant reach it]

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Judiciary Committee voted to recommend three articles of impeachment to bring

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Nixon to trial for obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and defiance of

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Congress. Well Nixon handed over the tapes before the vote on impeachment was

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taken he resigned just three days later on August 8th 1974 [Footage of Nixon giving his resignation speech]

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knowing that the tapes offered undeniable evidence of his complicity

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with the cover-up. He probably would have been less embarrassed if he had just [Famous photo of Nixon after he resigned, making 'V' signs with his fingers]

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farted in Mrs. Johnson's eighth grade science class but... oh well...

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