The day he resigned, he said it. He called all of his aides and friends and family to the

West Wing of the White House just before he left on the helicopter. A couple of hours

before he actually left office through resignation. And he had his wife and daughters and son-in-laws

there and it was a rambling talk about the grievances he felt. His mother wasn't treated right. His

father was poor and then at one point he raised kind of with his hand indicated this is why I called

you all here. And then he said always remember others may hate you but those who hate you don't win.

Unless you hate them and then you destroy yourself. It was the hate that was the poison that

destroyed him and his presidency and at that moment to his credit he understood it.

That's Bob Woodward one of the Washington Post reporters who uncovered the Watergate scandal that

brought down Nixon's presidency. And William Cunningham also with the Washington Post and this is the

36th episode of Presidential.

I shall resign the presidency effect he's at noon tomorrow.

Watch your huts and do it for you.

This episode is going to focus on Watergate and Nixon's resignation looking at what it was about Nixon's

personality and his view of power that ultimately led to as he said a sort of self-destruction.

I do think some early biography is always important though so before I turn back to Bob Woodward I'm going to tell just the

short version of Nixon's pre-presidency story. So Richard Nixon was born in your Belinda, California in 1913 and his

family lived on a lemon ranch but the ranch failed while he was still a child and it left his family

in the financial distress. So they moved to a nearby town when he was about nine years old and his

family ran a gas station that was part grocery store. His father was supposedly a pretty aggressive

angry guy and his mother was the gentler one she was a devout quaker. They had five sons and Richard

was the second but two of Richard's brothers died from illnesses while they were boys.

...