Nixon’s impeachment goes to full House, and removal by two-thirds of Senate.

OTL — merely the House Judiciary Committee recommended impeachment, 27-11 on the obstruction of justice charge, a similar vote on a second charge that he violated the Constitutional rights of citizens, and a lesser majority on a third article of impeachment.

Senator Goldwater and we few other friendly Republicans visited Nixon, and told him he could count on no more than 15 votes in the Senate.

Nixon decided to anticipate the process. He announced his resignation the night of Thurs. August 8, 1974, effective at noon the next day.
 
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ATL — Nixon decides to see the process through. Like he’s said in his resignation speech, he has never been a quitter. Plus, he might decide the country as well as Vice President Ford need a transition. And maybe there’s even a certain peace in accepting the decision of someone else (in this case, multiple someone elses).

Let’s say mid-October is long enough for the Senate to complete a full trial, and vote to remove President Nixon as they presumably will.
 
Honestly, not much would be different. Nixon still leaves for California and Ford most likely pardons him. The only difference is that the pardon either occurs right before the 1974 midterms or right after, which could mean the Democrats get an even bigger majority or a smaller one depending on the timing of Ford's decision.
 
. . . The only difference is that the pardon either occurs right before the 1974 midterms or right after, . . .
Probably won’t be before, because everything’s been pushed forward two months.

And Ford might reconsider, correctly perceiving that a lot of average citizens will feel pissed off and cheated if a pardon comes soon after the midterms.
 
Honestly, not much would be different. Nixon still leaves for California and Ford most likely pardons him. The only difference is that the pardon either occurs right before the 1974 midterms or right after, which could mean the Democrats get an even bigger majority or a smaller one depending on the timing of Ford's decision.

I actually wonder about the pardon. If you take Ford’s reason for the pardon, that the country shouldn’t be dragged through a damaging trial, (which, you certainly don’t have to accept) then that reason is gone if we do a full impeachment trial and removal. At the very least, I think the pardon would be way more politically costly, even though it was quite so IOTL.
 
At the very least, I think the pardon would be way more politically costly, even though it was quite so IOTL.

Ford may lose quite a few Republican Congressional allies, and he'd earn the outright hatred of the Democratic leadership. They just went through a conviction trial, a pardon would make a lot of their work look pointless. That said I agree a Senate trial may butterfly the pardon, however Ford might still want to pardon Nixon for any other crimes he wasn't tried for in the Senate.
 
I wonder if Nixon would have just meekly accepted his removal. OK, OK, I'm probably being paranoid, probably letting myself get too affected by current political developments(& that, I promise, is the first & last mention I will make re THAT)but still---

In Louis Rossetti, Jr's chilling novel, TAKE-OVER(1974)Mr Nixon, also beleaguered by Watergate, decides to stage a coup & make himself dictator of the US- & he is successful. In the novel's scary(with a capital S)conclusion, Nixon reflects: "...he had the country too. He was happy. Really happy. It was all over. He was safe at last. They couldn't kick Dick Nixon around anymore...and he
exclaimed again, 'And that's that!'"*

Rossetti was far from the only person who had these worries. In the aftermath of the Saturday Night Massacre, the prominent Democratic Senator Harold Hughes of Iowa mused to a friend about Nixon: "Ed, you just can't tell about this guy...you could have tanks in your front yard."**
And in the very last days of Nixon's presidency, Defense Secretary James Schlesinger informed
the Pentagon that any orders they got from Nixon had to be cleared by him- just in case.

Anyway, just something to think about---

*- See p. 262.
**- Quoted in Kim McQuaid, THE ANXIOUS YEARS(1989), p. 245.
 
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. . . And in the very last days of Nixon's presidency, Defense Secretary James Schlesinger informed
the Pentagon that any orders they got from Nixon had to be cleared by him- just in case. . .
Thank goodness. :) In other words, James Schlesinger was acting as the adult in the room.

And I think this would be accepted by the senior officers at the Pentagon.
 
Thank goodness. :) In other words, James Schlesinger was acting as the adult in the room.

And I think this would be accepted by the senior officers at the Pentagon.

Of course instead of being the only President to resign, Nixon would be the only President to be removed from office. Also he'd look pretty silly fighting impeachment and conviction during those last two months when it's clear from the outset that he doesn't have enough support to survive.
 
I actually wonder about the pardon. If you take Ford’s reason for the pardon, that the country shouldn’t be dragged through a damaging trial, (which, you certainly don’t have to accept) then that reason is gone if we do a full impeachment trial and removal. At the very least, I think the pardon would be way more politically costly, even though it was quite so IOTL.

? Ford's pardon was to prevent a possible criminal trial after Nixon resigned or was impeached; and would have been even more important for the GOP if Nixon were impeached.

If Ford doesn't take one for the team and issue a pardon, causing Former President Nixon to be indicted for bribery and obstruction of justice, Ford's gonna get primaried by Reagan.
 
If Ford doesn't take one for the team and issue a pardon, causing Former President Nixon to be indicted for bribery and obstruction of justice, Ford's gonna get primaried by Reagan.

That depends on whether or not Nixon's Senate trial would preclude a subsequent criminal trial in a federal court. If he is convicted of obstruction by the Senate, then the immediate consequence is removal from office. It wouldn't be legal for the justice department or a federal court to try him again for the same crime, due to the double jeopardy clause. However he could be tried for an additional crime he wasn't charged with by Congress.
 
That depends on whether or not Nixon's Senate trial would preclude a subsequent criminal trial in a federal court. If he is convicted of obstruction by the Senate, then the immediate consequence is removal from office. It wouldn't be legal for the justice department or a federal court to try him again for the same crime, due to the double jeopardy clause. However he could be tried for an additional crime he wasn't charged with by Congress.

1. He wasn't at risk of life, limb, or imprisonment from the Senate trial, so I don't think it forecloses criminal prosecution afterwards. The SCOTUS might have to rule.

2. He's on tape taking a $2 million dollar bribe from American Dairy Producers, Inc.
 
That depends on whether or not Nixon's Senate trial would preclude a subsequent criminal trial in a federal court. If he is convicted of obstruction by the Senate, then the immediate consequence is removal from office. It wouldn't be legal for the justice department or a federal court to try him again for the same crime, due to the double jeopardy clause. However he could be tried for an additional crime he wasn't charged with by Congress.
I don't believe impeachment is covered by double jeopardy given that it is not a normal criminal trial, but a tribunal to remove someone who would ordinarily have qualified immunity from prosecution or political means to thwart it.
 
? Ford's pardon was to prevent a possible criminal trial after Nixon resigned or was impeached; and would have been even more important for the GOP if Nixon were impeached.

If Ford doesn't take one for the team and issue a pardon, causing Former President Nixon to be indicted for bribery and obstruction of justice, Ford's gonna get primaried by Reagan.

Yeah, I realize impeachment isn't a criminal trial. What I'm saying is the nation would be already dragged into a long and unwinding detail filled proceeding, so it would be harder for Ford to turn around after Nixon got removed once all that is laid out. He wouldn't be able to credibly claim that he was doing this to spare the nation from that drama.

Also, Reagan primaried Ford OTL.
 
Also Dick would be facing a feeling of "Oh, yeah? Well, fuck you too!" from many on the GOP for dragging them through that when they gave him a chance to leave with dignity.
 
From what I have read, Jim Schlesinger is one of those unsung politicians who you do not read much about in history. He probably saved America through his actions in the final days of Watergate. Indeed, he told Nixon biographer Anthony Summers that he was only doing his job at the time-protecting and defending the Constitution and the country.
 
If Ford doesn't take one for the team and issue a pardon, causing Former President Nixon to be indicted for bribery and obstruction of justice, Ford's gonna get primaried by Reagan.
On the theory that history often turns on small things, one reason Reagan did run against Ford in the ‘76 primary, is that Ford had neglected to give Reagan a simple courtesy phone call telling him that he had decided to go with Nelson Rockefeller as vice president.
https://books.google.com/books?id=f... the news from a White House staffer"&f=false

In the reroll provided by a different timeline, maybe Ford doesn’t make this same mistake.
 
youtube: Nixon before resignation and full speech, August 8, 1974

Yes, including a few minutes before in which Nixon is looser and freer than he’s usually given credit for.
 
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