“Obviously, we’re looking at a preface to the Watergate scandal. This is just a beginning.”

Rufus Edmisten: Deputy Counsel, Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (Wategate Committee)

Former deputy counsel Rufus Edmisten discusses Senator Sam Ervin’s investigative and oversight work on two subcommittees in the years before the Watergate scandal unfolded.

“…the Committee didn't want the public to think that the Senate had made a foregone conclusion that there was going to be an impeachment.”

Floyd M. Riddick: Senate Parliamentarian

Former Senate parliamentarian Floyd Riddick discusses the closed sessions of the Senate Rules Committee during the Summer of 1974 in anticipation of a Senate impeachment trial of President Richard Nixon.

“Oh, he would have lost…. Scott went down and told them that he couldn't see any more than ten to twelve votes in the Senate against impeachment.”

William F. Hildenbrand : Secretary of the Senate

Interviewed by Senate Historian Donald Ritchie, former Republican Secretary William F. Hildenbrand describes the atmosphere in the Senate during the final days of the Nixon presidency.