Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 6
The Preamble
Sharon McMahon
4.9 • 15.3K Ratings
🗓️ 11 May 2026
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A cover up that cost Nixon's presidency, a pardon that cost Gerald R. Ford his election, and a friendship dating back to the 1940s. It was the first time a President had been impeached, and the only time in U.S. history that a President resigned from office. The betrayal of the public’s trust reverberated well beyond Nixon’s presidency in a time of economic turmoil, but what happened following Nixon’s departure from office? How did the new Ford administration attempt to gain control over the rising unemployment and double-digit inflation? Join us as we learn about how this confluence of events created economic instability, unhappiness, and impacted the mood of the country in 1974.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Some follow the noise. |
| 0:03.0 | Bloomberg follows the money, whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion |
| 0:07.7 | dollar swings. |
| 0:09.0 | There's a money side to every story. |
| 0:11.4 | Get the money side of the story. |
| 0:13.5 | Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com. |
| 0:28.7 | Hello, friends, and welcome back to the sixth episode in our series about the 1970s, |
| 0:43.7 | Mayhem. Today we are jetting back to 1974. After serving 2026 days as president and with two and a half years to go in his second term, Richard Nixon addressed the nation from the Oval Office on August 8th, a weary and divided |
| 0:52.7 | country. Listen to the radio and TV broadcast of a man who once declared that |
| 0:58.6 | he was not a crook and would not leave office or tender his resignation. He said, |
| 1:05.5 | I have always tried to do what was best for the nation. Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, |
| 1:14.3 | I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of |
| 1:20.3 | office to which you elected me. In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort. |
| 1:37.8 | I'm Sharon McMahon, and this is the preamble podcast. |
| 1:43.1 | As his support on Capitol Hill and with members of his own party plummeted, |
| 1:48.0 | Nixon knew that he would be impeached, and to avoid embarrassment, he had to resign. |
| 1:56.4 | Watergate wasn't one event, and neither was the cover-up. Barry Goldwater was a leading conservative voice |
| 2:05.8 | at the time, and he saw Richard Nixon's pattern of lies and cover-up of the truth. He was disgusted |
| 2:13.1 | that his party's leader squandered the reputation of Republicans for his own political gain. |
| 2:20.1 | In order to avoid the entire Republican Party being sullied by Nixon's actions, |
| 2:25.5 | Goldwater wanted him out quickly and quietly. |
| 2:30.7 | On August 6th, two days before Nixon's resignation announcement, Goldwater spoke at one of the regular Senate-Republican conference lunches. |
... |
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