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When the phone rings at 2am.m., most people groan and roll over.

But not Helen Thomas, the White House reporter with an all-access pass to the juiciest gossip in town.

The year is 1972, and she knows this late night call can only mean one thing. Her favorite

source has had one too many and is ready to spill the tea. On the other end of the line is Martha

Mitchell, the mouth of the South, aka the wife of

President Nixon's Attorney General.

She's known for two things, eavesdropping on her husband's hush-hush conversations and

having no problem blabbing about them all over town.

But this time, Martha's got a real doozy. In the dead of night, five men were caught red-handed breaking into the Democratic National Committee

offices at the Watergate Hotel. They had enough surveillance gear to make the NSA jealous, tear gas

guns straight out of a spy movie, and even wads of cash. Who brings money to a robbery? But here's

the kicker. Martha recognizes one of the burglars. He works with her husband. Just as she's about to

dish the dirt to Helen, the line goes dead. This phone call will lead to Richard Nixon resigning

from the presidency years later. He would personally blame Martha and her big mouth for toppling his presidency,

but we're about to learn that he's the one who should have kept his tricky trap shut.

The biggest White House scandal in a century.

The Watergate scandal broke wide open today.

And so there is tonight a real, persistent and substantial question

of whether the president can, in fact, carry out his responsibilities.

Well, I voted for Nixon, and unfortunately, I think the whole thing has come up,

...