This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we continue with our American stories.

And our next story comes to us from Jeff Bloodworth,

who is a professor of American

history at Gannon University and is a Jack Miller Center fellow. And the Jack Miller Center

plays a fundamental part of our history storytelling. You are now American Stories and is a

value partner. Let's take a listen to Jeff Bloodworth. Carl Albert did not want to be

president. The five-foot four-inch speaker of the House had not risen from abject poverty

to the nation's second highest office by lacking ambition. But in 1973, when the Speaker realized the Watergate crisis could elevate him into the White House,

he forced war, personal ambition for the nation's greater good.

We now know that Watergate was America's greatest constitutional crisis since the Civil War.

But in the first months of the scandal, Albert tread carefully.

The Senate Watergate Committee began its work in early 1973,

but Albert firmly resisted calls for the House to begin impeachment proceedings before it was time.

By late 1973, the crisis had reached a crescendo when the vice president, Spiro

Agnew, resigned over charges of bribery and tax evasion. This put Albert into a political bind.

With Agnew out, he, as the speaker, was next in line to the presidency, and revelation to the

Watergate tapes and the Saturday Night Massacre

made Nixon's impeachment a real possibility. President Carl Albert was not just a pipe dream.

It was within his grasp. The 25th Amendment gave Congress the power to vote on Agnew's replacement.

As Speaker, Albert could have killed the vote.

Without a vice president, Democrats who controlled the House and Senate could impeach

...