Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities - Opening statement from Senator Daniel Inouye
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities - Opening statement from Senator Daniel Inouye
Tape Part 1 Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities May 17,1973. Opening statement from Senator Daniel Inouye (D - Hawaii). Senate Caucus Room, Washington DC Senate Committee Chairman, Senator Sam Ervin (D -North Carolina). Senator Inouye. Senator Daniel Inouye (D - Hawaii). Mr. Chairman, the hearings which we begin today may be the most important held in this century. At stake is the very integrity of the election process. Unless we can safeguard that process from fraud, manipulation, deception and other illegal or unethical activities, one of our most precious rights, the right to vote will be without meaning. Democracy will have been subverted. Mr. Chairman as I see it, our mission is twofold. First, to thoroughly investigate all allegations of improper activities in the 1972 presidential election so that the full truth will be known. And second, to take steps to prevent future occurrences of such activities. Our efforts should not be directed towards punishing the guilty, judicial processes without aim are underway in at least four cities, but to incite a nationwide public debate on our elections, and how they work or fail to work. Like most Americans, I ve been truly shocked by the revelations and allegations of this scandal which is unparalleled in our country s history. The sins of the spies and the saboteurs, the manipulators and the moneymen, the burglars and the buggers must be purged from the very heart and soul of our election processes. Mr. Chairman I must add a word of caution. We have heard many sensational charges in the past several months and undoubtedly we will hear many more in the weeks and months ahead. It is vital that hasty judgments not be made before we have all the facts. This country will be ill served by another period of McCarthyism. These hearings should serve to enlighten and to reform. They should lay the groundwork for reaffirmation of faith in our American system.