Word: mccord
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When the Watergate hearings finally opened under the glare of TV lights in the palatial Senate Caucus Room, the question-and-answer ritual seemed half-remembered from past confrontations. Then, with unexpected suddenness, James McCord Jr., one of the convicted Watergate burglars, tried to tie the scandal to former Attorney General John Mitchell and to Richard Nixon: "I felt the President of the United States had set into motion this operation." It was, admittedly, only hearsay testimony, and Nixon, through his press secretary, once again vigorously denied his involvement. Even before the hearings started, however, the week had brought news...
...klieg lights of the crowded Senate Caucus Room and thrust into the living rooms of America. Figuratively, the testimony represented at least half a dozen sticks of dynamite that could blow the scandal skyhigh. The fuses were lit, and the first reached flash point as Convicted Wiretapper James W. McCord Jr. directly accused Richard Nixon of participating in attempts to conceal the involvement of his closest political associates in the sordid and still-spreading affair...
...Forum. Although he had been quizzed repeatedly by Justice Department investigators and a federal grand jury in Washington, McCord, who is fighting to stave off a long prison sentence, saved his charges against the President for a new and formidable forum: the hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. McCord did not claim that he had had any direct communication with the President before or after the bugging and burglarizing of Democratic National Headquarters at the Water gate last June 17. Always, McCord's allegations of presidential concern involved word from an intermediary...
...Even as McCord was trying to forge new links between Nixon and the conspiracy to conceal the scandal, new revelations made it increasingly difficult to believe that the President could have remained totally unaware of the cover-up attempts. They were so pervasive, involving the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department, that if he did not know about them, he was guilty of neglect bordering on incompetence-an accusation few have ever leveled at the superbly organized Chief Executive...
However damaging to the White House those developments may be, it was the testimony of James McCord before the Ervin committee that created the most controversy last week. Five of the seven men arrested in the Watergate break-in pleaded guilty and have never had to face public questioning...