Word: pardon
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Credibility Question. By taking such sweeping action so soon, Ford damaged his efforts to restore confidence in the U.S. presidency and opened his own credibility gap. When asked during his vice-presidential confirmation hearings about the possibility of his granting a pardon should Nixon need one, Ford replied: "I don't think the public would stand for it." On the day that Ford was inaugurated as President, his press secretary, J.F. terHorst, reiterated that statement to reporters. On Sunday, immediately before Ford's speech, terHorst resigned in protest against the pardon. At his first press conference on Aug. 28, Ford...
...down as soon as the second week of September?this week?although Jaworski in fact did not intend to obtain them until after the Watergate cover-up jury was sequestered in October. Still, it was clear that Nixon could be spared only by one act by one man: a pardon from Gerald Ford...
...unanimous finding that Nixon should be impeached because he obstructed justice, it would take a year or even longer "before the selection of a jury is begun." All during this agonizing period, Ford reasoned, he would be dogged by public questions about his views on Nixon and on a pardon. Said one of Ford's aides: "The longer it went on, the less candid it would compel him to be. He did not like not giving a straight answer just because it would be impolitic, and he knew he would have to do that...
...Ford's direction, Buchen worked throughout the Labor Day weekend to provide legal grounds for a pardon. He found precedents to establish that a pardon need not await an indictment or conviction. For example, he cited the case of a reporter who had been pardoned before testifying in a criminal action involving the customs department ?during the Wilson Administration...
From Labor Day onward, intense, highly secret discussions went on in the White House. Some of Ford's closest advisers warned him that granting a pardon would greatly damage him in the eyes of the public. Aides pointed to the Gallup poll released last week showing that 56% of the public believed that Nixon should be tried for possible criminal charges arising from Watergate, while only 37% opposed such action. But the President said, with an edge to his voice, "I don't need to read the polls to tell me whether I'm right...