FORD GRANTS "FULL & UNCONDITIONAL" PARDON TO NIXON
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On September 8, 1974, President Gerald R. Ford granted a "full and unconditional" pardon to his predecessor, President Richard M. Nixon. The pardon covers any crime the 37th POTUS "may have committed while in office."
In an address nationally broadcast on radio and television, President Ford said he granted the pardon "in the best interests of the country."
Richard Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974 as a result of the Watergate scandal. Gerald Ford was sworn in as the new president on that date. He had been appointed VPOTUS by Mr. Nixon after the resignation of Spiro T. Agnew.
Gerald R. Ford is the only person in United States history to have been both president and vice-president without having been elected to either office.
In announcing the pardon, the President said...
"I feel that Richard Nixon and his loved ones have suffered enough and will continue to suffer, no matter what I do, no matter what we...can do together to make his goal of peace come true."
The New York Times described the pardon as "unwise, divisive and unjust." Although President Ford may have done a favor for President Nixon, he did no favor for himself as the pardon may well have been the deciding factor in his defeat in 1976 at the hands of Jimmy Carter.
SOURCE
"President Gerald R. Ford's Remarks on Signing Proclamation Granting Pardon to Richard Nixon," Gerald R. Ford Library and Museum, www.fordlibrarymuseum.org/
