How The Watergate Scandal Opened The Floodgates To Transparency Of America's Wrongdoing - Majority Report
Sep 17, 2023
Sam and Emma host
Jefferson Morley, editor of the
JFKFacts blog, to discuss his recent book
Scorpions Dance: The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate.
They then dive into what Nixons plan for this group of Plumbers was, originating from his paranoia around government leaks and the anti-war movement, and coming to fruition via recommendations from Richard Helms, director of the CIA, who helped provide 4 of the 7 members of the team. Next, they jump back to the actual developments of the Watergate investigation, with the slow release of tapes in the weeks following, despite Nixons constant pressuring of Helms to stop the FBI investigation, and how this led the public to focus not on the CIAs role in Watergate, but their other abuses, from foreign assassinations to spying on Americans, as the Church Committee in charge of the senate investigation of the CIA wanted to keep it Bipartisan and away from the Nixon investigation. Morley then dives deep into Nixons relationship with his intelligence agencies, working as a lawless president alongside a lawless CIA, as he couldnt convince Hoover to dig into domestic surveillance, making his relationship with Helms CIA central to his power, working closely in Nixons assassination attempts on Salvador Allendes cabinet, and providing Nixon with a relationship that he could leverage not with the knowledge of their foreign interventions but with a threat over hidden information with the Bay of Pigs. After an extensive conversation on what this hidden information likely entailed, that being the CIAs role in the assassination of JFK, and the internal spy games being played against each other by the White House, CIA, FBI, and Joint Chiefs of Staff, Morley, Sam, and Emma wrap up the conversation by exploring the lasting lessons we can learn about the dangers of a lawless president that is supported by a lawless CIA.
Note: This was an excerpt from Morley's ~45-min. interview on the June 13, 2022
Majority Report daily show. Watch it below from the 33:13 to 1:19:31 mark.