During the 1972 presidential campaign, a group of five men were caught breaking into the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. Nixon was implicated in the break in by the press because they had reason to believe that the break in had been ordered by a White house official. Despite winning the election, America’s confidence in him had been lost. Soon a Senate hearing began the scandal spiraled, Nixon’s character came to light in many ways including firing those investigating him and his Vice President Spiro Agnew came forward for his own crimes and resigned. It became clear that Nixon would soon be impeached so he followed Agnew’s lead and resigned as well.
When Gerald Ford took office, many Americans were still caught up on the hype of the scandal. They wanted to discover whether Nixon was at fault and if he was, they wanted to see criminal charges pursued. However, Ford pardoned him. This surprised and shocked many who had been following the trial but it also allowed the country to move on to more pressing matters.
History110 * Group2 