Q: At this point in watergate, who defended Nixon publicly? Anyone remember?

[onenote]

5. It's hard to compare timelines but the vast majority still supported Nixon

Last edited Wed May 17, 2017, 12:23 PM - Edit history (1)

prior to the "smoking gun"

Put it this way, we're not at the point where the Judiciary Committee has been directed to conduct an impeachment inquiry, where impeachment articles have been proposed and debated and put to a vote. At that point in the Watergate scandal, there were 17 repubs on the Judiciary Committee. There were five articles of impeachment. No republicans voted of two of them (which were defeated when 9 of 21 Democrats voted against them). Of the three that passed (with unanimous Democratic support), one got two repub votes, one got six and one got seven.

In other words, a majority of repubs in Congress were still sticking by Nixon even when the impeachment resolutions were being voted on in committee.

Also, keep in mind that the Democrats could have passed them all without a single republican vote.