Bob Woodward of The Washington Post accepts the 2019 W.M. Kiplinger Distinguished Contributions to Journalism Award at the 2020 NPF Awards Dinner.
Washington Post associate editor, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and famed Watergate investigative reporter Bob Woodward described a conversation he had with former President Gerald Ford in the late 1990's. In that interview, Woodward said he asked Ford for at least the 7th time why he pardoned President Richard Nixon for Watergate.
Woodward described Ford as "one of the most honest, forthright person I had ever dealt with in Washington." He said Ford described how Nixon Chief of Staff Al Haig on August 1st, 1974 offered Ford the opportunity to be President if he would agree to pardon Nixon. Ford said he refused that offer. But Nixon resigned 8 days later anyway. And after ultimately becoming President decided later for the good of the country to pardon Nixon, knowing it would likely end his own political career.
Woodward said, "Instead of being corrupt, what Ford did (issuing Nixon's pardon) was quite gutsy." Ford was later honored with the John F. Kennedy library Profiles in Courage Award, as Woodward describes, saying Caroline Kennedy told Woodward she and her uncle Senator Ted Kennedy read his book about Ford's story and agreed that the Nixon pardon was 'gutsy.'
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18 фев 2020
