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President Gerald Ford testified before Congress about his pardon of Richard Nixon.
Ford gave unsworn testimony to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Criminal Justice on October 17, 1974, just five weeks after granting the pardon to Nixon.
He was the first US president to appear before a congressional committee.
A month after taking office, President Gerald Ford, addressed the nation on television to announce that he had decided to pardon Richard Nixon.
Listen to Ford read the pardon proclamation (1m)
Watch Ford’s Address (10m)
Note: The proclamation granted Nixon a pardon for all offences from January 20, 1969, the day he was first inaugurated as president. In reading the proclamation on national television, Ford inadvertently said ‘July 20’. The text of the proclamation takes precedence.
Text of President Ford’s Address to the Nation announcing Nixon’s pardon.
Ladies and gentlemen:
I have come to a decision which I felt I should tell you and all of my fellow American citizens, as soon as I was certain in my own mind and in my own conscience that it is the right thing to do.
I have learned already in this office that the difficult decisions always come to this desk. I must admit that many of them do not look at all the same as the hypothetical questions that I have answered freely and perhaps too fast on previous occasions.
My customary policy is to try and get all the facts and to consider the opinions of my countrymen and to take counsel with my most valued friends. But these seldom agree, and in the end, the decision is mine. To procrastinate, to agonize, and to wait for a more favorable turn of events that may never come or more compelling external pressures that may as well be wrong as right, is itself a decision of sorts and a weak and potentially dangerous course for a President to follow. [Read more…]