Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities - Opening statement from Senator Joseph Montoya
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities - Opening statement from Senator Joseph Montoya
Tape Part 1 Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities May 17,1973. Opening statement from Senator Joseph Montoya (D - New Mexico). Senate Caucus Room, Washington DC Senator Joseph Montoya (D - New Mexico). Thank you Mr. Chairman. Briefly, I want to say that we bare a heavy responsibility to conduct this inquiry fairly, justly, and most judiciously. I am confident that we will pass this test and assume this challenge. While our legislative inquiry is different from a court proceeding, I know that we will be respectful of the rights of individuals. But at the same time we will be intent of searching out the truth of all evidentiary components, which ostensibly have posed a threat to our Constitutional processes, in particular our concept of freedom and our electoral process. With these facts we hope to alert the conscience and the vigilance of our citizenry and restore their faith in our electoral process. We hope that this concern of all Americans will harbor over all of us as a mandate for legislation and other remedies to insure against any future sinister invasions of the sanctity of our democratic institutions.