Nixon Foundation demands correction from '60 Minutes' after segment says he 'sought to destroy' WH tapes
The Richard Nixon Foundation demanded a correction from CBS News on Monday after a "60 Minutes" segment stated the 37th U.S. president "sought to destroy" audio tapes that might have implicated him during the Watergate scandal.
The "60 Minutes" segment that aired on Sunday examined the National Archives storage systems and the Presidential Records Act, passed in 1978, which barred presidents from destroying records during their presidency and no longer allowed them to be claimed as personal possession.
"Before the Watergate scandal, records belonged to the presidents who created them. But after President Nixon sought to destroy audio tapes with evidence of potential crimes, Congress took action," CBS's Norah O'Donnell said in the segment.
The Nixon Foundation issued a statement hours later demanding a correction to the show's characterization of what transpired as it relates to the infamous audio tapes.
"Last night’s @60Minutes segment incorrectly stated that President Nixon ‘sought to’ destroy White House tapes. President Nixon never ‘sought to’ destroy any White House tapes, but in fact chose to preserve all of them when their existence became known in July 1973," the foundation wrote on X.
"While President Nixon’s records were seized by Act of Congress after he resigned, it was not because he ever ‘sought to’ destroy the tapes…"
"We hope that @60Minutes will correct this error," they added.
Prior to the Presidential Records Act, Congress passed the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act (PRMPA) in 1974 to federally protect the audio tapes recorded in the White House under the Nixon presidency. Nixon believed the tapes were protected by executive privilege and separation of powers and tried to avoid turning them over to Congress. Congress subpoenaed the tapes, arguing that they could possess critical information relating to the Watergate scandal, but Nixon did not comply.
Upon further investigation, two tapes requested were reported missing, and one tape had an 18-minute gap, according to the National Archives website. The Nixon Administration asserted the erasure was the fault of Nixon's personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, who said she accidentally erased that portion of tape when she was transcribing it.
Seven tapes were later released, but Nixon maintained that he would not comply when the remaining tapes were subpoenaed by the special prosecutors investigating the Watergate scandal.
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The case ultimately made it to the Supreme Court, who ruled that Nixon was not immune to subpoenas or other legal actions. The ruling led to his resignation from office and the subsequent Nixon-Sampson Agreement, proposed by Nixon, which required the government to keep all materials from his administration in a locked federal facility.
The agreement allowed the former president the right to have the tapes to be destroyed at any time and stipulated that the tapes should be destroyed on September 1, 1984, or upon Nixon’s death, whichever happened first, according to the National Archives' account.
In response, Congress passed the PRMPA, signed by President Gerald R. Ford, to preserve all records and materials under Nixon's presidency in the National Archives.
In their statement rebuking "60 Minutes" for accusing Nixon of trying to "destroy" the tapes, the Nixon Foundation quoted the statement given by President Ford at the time.
"President Ford —in a statement issued while signing the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act on December 19, 1974, which seized President Nixon’s records— said: ‘…The interests of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force for access to the tapes and materials were fully accommodated,'" the Foundation wrote.
When reached for comment, Jim Byron, President and CEO of the Richard Nixon Foundation told Fox News Digital, "Americans are now seeing that much of what they’ve been told about Watergate and the end of Richard Nixon’s presidency is the result of misreporting that has gone on for decades.
"Today, the misreporting occurs largely without malice, but there certainly exists a casual obedience to a false narrative. In this case, the record was easy to correct."
"60 Minutes" did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.