In a controversial executive action, President Gerald Ford forgives his disgraced predecessor, Richard M. Nixon, for any crimes he may have committed or participated in during his tenure. Ford then defended the action before the House Judiciary Committee, explaining that he wanted to end the national divisions created by the Watergate scandal.
The Watergate scandal erupted after it was revealed that Nixon and his aides engaged in illegal activities during his re-election campaign – and then attempted to cover up evidence of wrongdoing. With impeachment proceedings underway against him in Congress, Nixon bowed to public pressure and became the first US president to resign. At noon on August 9, Nixon officially ended his tenure, leaving with his family in a helicopter from the White House lawn. Minutes later, Vice President Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the 38th President of the United States in the East Room of the White House. After taking the oath, President Ford addressed the nation in a televised address, declaring, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.
Ford, the first president to come to office by appointment rather than election, had replaced Spiro Agnew as vice president just eight months earlier. In an independent political scandal of wrongdoing by the Nixon administration in the Watergate affair, Agnew was forced to resign in disgrace after being accused of tax evasion and political corruption. Exactly one month after announcing Nixon’s resignation, Ford granted the former president “full, free and absolute” pardon for all the crimes he committed during his tenure. Grace was widely condemned at the time.
Decades later, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation presented its 2001 Profile in Courage Award to Gerald Ford for his 1974 pardon to Nixon. By forgiving Nixon, the foundation said, Ford put his love for the country ahead of his own political future and put an end to the controversial Watergate affair. Ford left politics after losing the 1976 presidential election to Democrat Jimmy Carter. Ford died on December 26, 2006, at the age of 93.
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