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@JillWineBanks Between our freshman and sophomore years of college, three friends and I rented a two-bedroom apartment. We were nineteen. We waitressed & took summer courses. The Watergate hearings, watched on my tiny, black & white set with rabbit ears and bad reception, was our entertainment
@JillWineBanks Nixon’s approval rating was 67% in early 1973. The hearings began on May 18th, just as we moved into the apartment. Nobody had air conditioning then and summer in Hartford, CT is hot. 2/
@JillWineBanks Miniseries hadn’t really been invented. As the investigations continued, every day we’d move all our fans into the living room to watch.
@JillWineBanks I worked the breakfast and lunch shift at a nicely chilly, air-conditioned Friendly’s Ice Cream on New Britain Ave., but I’d pass up extra hours to rush home to watch Sen. Ervin & his committee. 4/
@JillWineBanks There was in-depth cross-examination of each witness. There was no five-minute limit on the time a questioner had to try to get to the truth. 5/
@JillWineBanks As witness after witness spoke before the special Senate Committee, Nixon’s approval ratings fell. Those special hearings weren’t a quick process, but across the country people began to understand exactly what had happened. 6/
@JillWineBanks That fall, late one Saturday night in the student union basement, I was working on my true college major, playing pinball. Jim, a senior who planned to be a lawyer, came in looking shocked. “Archibald Cox has been fired,” he said. “This is the same as a coup.” 7/
@JillWineBanks Nixon trying to override the law shocked us. College kids, we weren’t sure how we could support the democracy we believed in. Should we take to the streets? Would this lead to an uncivil war? Impeachment hearings began in the House. Nixon’s approval rating plummeted below 30%. 8/
@JillWineBanks The House passed three of the five proposed articles of impeachment. The Senate did not hold a trial, for Nixon resigned. The Democrats won the 1974 midterms by over 16% of the vote, and they held both the Senate and the House in 1976. 9/
@JillWineBanks What House Democrats must remember is this. Nixon’s Watergate crimes were relatively small, compared to the misuse of power for personal gain and the obstruction of justice by Donald Trump. 10/
@JillWineBanks Nixon did not agree to change American foreign policy to favor those who bankrolled him. While dirty election tricks were played on Ed Muskie, there was not an attack on the American electoral system by a foreign power who favored Nixon. 11/
@JillWineBanks Democrats must find courage, and renew their belief in the American people. In-depth hearings of ALL Mueller’s witnesses are needed, in House Committees and then in impeachment hearings. The story must be told at length. 12/
@JillWineBanks Five minute diatribes to show worthiness should not be allowed. Questioning should not be curtailed but should go as long as needed. New witnesses may need to be called, and subpoenas issued quickly to those who are unwilling. Nothing less than our democracy is at stake. 13
