Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities - Opening statement from Senator Ed Gurney
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities - Opening statement from Senator Ed Gurney
Tape Part 1 Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities May 17,1973. Opening statement from Senator Ed Gurney (R - Florida). Senate Caucus Room, Washington DC
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities - Opening statement from Senator Ed Gurney
Senator Ed Gurney (R - Florida). Thank you, Mister Chairman. This committee begins today historic hearings. They may well turn out to be the most significant hearings ever conducted by any committee of the Congress. This fact should weigh heavily upon the work of both the Senators and the staff. The eyes and ears of the citizens of this nation are watching and listening. And so too are people around the world. Here at home there is desire that the wrong-doing be thoroughly exposed and the wrong-doers brought to justice. This is being done now. Already in recent weeks, fifteen key people have left this administration because of Watergate and allied scandals. Several have been indicted, two of these are former high cabinet officers. We can all take heart that our system of government is working and working well. And rapidly now even though a slow and faltering start was made in the beginning. Between the work of prosecutors, grand juries and excellent investigative reporting and this committee, Watergate is going to be cleaned up.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities - Opening statement from Senator Ed Gurney
However, there is another great overriding issue which will be present with us in these hearings. An issue which is troubling people not only all over this nation, but also people and leaders of other nations around the world. What will Watergate do? And what will these hearings do to the office and institution of the Presidency? That is the question that is upper most in people s minds and gnawing away in the pits of their stomachs. What is of great concern is the affect that Watergate may have on the American presidency. I see this concern in daily mail I receive. I hear this concern in my conversations with people. It is evident in the media reaction at home and abroad. The signs are in the stock market, in the price of gold and dollars. This concern is part and parson of foreign policy. In NATO, Southeast Asia, Middle East and its oil and in the trade in the SALT talks. The absence of comment from seats of government that power throughout the world brings to mind the old saying Don t rock the boat lest it capsize. And I think this is indicative of the international concern. Why is this? The world is intertwined today. Interdependent. No one nation can go it alone. Indeed, to a more or less degree we are in the same boat. Thus, the rocking of the boat by Watergate its catastrophic effect upon the institution of the Presidency is in indeed the object of serious concern of everyone. At home and abroad.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities - Opening statement from Senator Ed Gurney
What then must we do here in this committee room in the ensuing weeks? Someone once said and I quote, The present is great for the future. Close quote. And so it will be in these hearings. The future cannot be unaffected by what we say and do in this room. It becomes imperative that this committee and the committee staff and the press and public alike be continually aware that the Committee s task is to investigate and to present the facts of the investigation fairly. This committee was not created to try any individual. It was not created to pass judgment on any individual. Our purpose is to seek the truth. And our methods and motives must never be suspect or we will fail in our task.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities - Opening statement from Senator Ed Gurney
A sense of history certainly rides with these hearings. And this thought, should guide our work to the end that it is thorough, yes completely thorough. But always careful, deliberate, responsible, statesman-like to the end, that the system of government and justice with the free and democratic society of these United States will work its well in a fair, impartial and objective manner. By doing that the committee hopefully can make its greatest contribution. And that is regardless of the consequences, to reaffirm, to reassure to reestablish the faith of the people in their government and its leaders.