Nixon challenges Congress

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33448, 1 February 1974, Page 17

Nixon challenges Congress

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

W ASHINGTON, January 31.

Crying “one year of Watergate is enough,” President Nixon has bluntly challenged Congress to impeach him or swiftly clear him of corruption allegations.

Mr Nixon, buoyant and smiling during most of a State-of-the-Union address he read to Congress last night, turned bitter as he spoke of the personal ordeal and agony he suffered from the taint of Watergate last year.

He said that he was determined to stay in office and called for an end to the Watergate investigations into his conduct, while pledging to co-operate with the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, which is conducting an impeachment probe.

It was a crucial address for the President — probably as important as his Checkers speech in 1952 when he denied he was corrupt, as he is doing again now—and the initial reaction was warm and sympathetic. Last minutes Mr Nixon raised the Watergate affair in the last few minutes of his 45-minute speech, declaring yet again that he would not resign and that he intended to finish the job he was re-elected to do in 1972. Almost everyone in the packed chamber thought that he had finished speaking; then he signalled his audience back to its seats and launched into what appeared to be off-the-cuff remarks on the Watergate scandal. Republicans leapt to their feet roaring approval as he said that it was time to end the Watergate investigation and “prosecute the guilty and clear the innocent.” Mr Nixon declared: “I believe the time has come to bring that investigation, and the other investigations to an end. Great issues “One year of Watergate is enough. And the itme has come, not only for the President but the members of Congress, for all of us to join together in devoting our full energies to the great issues I have discussed tonight.” He was cheered and

applauded, as he was when he discussed his record of the last five years, and Congressmen and Government officials gave him a standing ovation at least twice as he looked on with a broad smile. Some observers said that his reception as he spoke was so friendly that if it was any guide they doubted he would be impeached. But others spoke of it as “first night applause” and said that the President probably could not emerge from the shadows of Watergate until he had produced unchallengeable proof that he was totally innocent of involvement in the scandal or its cover-up. Later views Some of the rapport that the President thought he had established appeared to weaken when Congressmen expressed considered judgments on what he had to say.

recording of a key conversation he held about Watergate and which, according to a panel of experts, resulted from five and possibly as many as nine separate erasures. Senator Sam Ervin (Democrat, North Carolina), chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee, denied subpoenaed documents by Mr Nixon, said: “If the President had not spent so much time withholding information from the committee, the committee would have completed its investigation months ago.” A member of the House of Representatives, Mr Peter Rodino (Democrat, New Jersey), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, declined comment apart from noting that the President had qualified his promise to co-operate with the panel. Senator Jacob Javits (Republican, New York), declared that the President’s speech required an early vote on impeachment. He said it was Mr Nixon’s duty to supply all the answers that the Judiciary Committee wanted. The President pleaded for an end to Watergate, hours after the White House announced that he was turning down a California court order calling on him to testify for Mr John Ehrlichman, a former top aide, in the “plumbers” burglary trial in Los Angeles.

Republican leaders praised his handling of the issue, but key Democrats and some Republicans expressed scepticism and dissatisfaction, especially with the way the President said that he would limit his co-operation with the Judiciary Committee’s impeachment probe.

Mr Nixon had said — without explaining exactly what he meant — that he would not volunteer to do anything that weakened the office of the Presidency. And he did not offer any explanation for the mysterious 18-minute gap on a tape-