The Watergate scandal in 1972 exposed illegal corporate campaign contributions and abuse of power, leading to campaign finance reforms aimed at limiting money's influence in politics. However, subsequent legal interpretations and loopholes have allowed record amounts of money, including "soft money" and "dark money," to flow into the political system, raising concerns about accountability and the undue influence of wealthy donors.
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over the weekend five men were nabbed in
the democratic national headquarters
here in washington seemingly preparing
to tap or bug the place it was the
scandal to end all political scandals
and while it may have started as a
burglary it soon led to a secret money
trail illegal contributions to president
nixon's re-election campaign the secret
two hundred thousand dollar contribution
putting the us government on the block
for sale like a side of beef and a law
that was to limit the influence of money
in politics forever we're never never
never gone back to the old corrupt way
of doing things but money found its way
back in soft money secret money dark
money and decades later there are record
amounts of money flowing through the
political system a system some say is
less accountable than ever
we can do legally
everything nixon had to do illegally [Music]
it was 1972 and president richard nixon
was on his way to a landslide
re-election victory backed by one of the
most successful fundraising efforts in
history if it takes money and
organization to elect a president the
republicans are ready with both
but that victory would soon unravel
after five men with ties to the nixon
campaign were arrested for breaking into
the democratic national headquarters at
the watergate hotel
the ensuing cover-up and widespread
abuse of power would eventually bring
down nixon's presidency i shall resign
the presidency effective at noon tomorrow
tomorrow
but right after the break-in the
administration was concerned that
campaign contributions had been tied to
one of the burglars
john dean who was later implicated in
the cover-up was white house counsel
when watergate occurs it's immediately a
problem for the white house
it raised the whole issue of what their
campaign committee is doing and the fact
that they've raised a lot of money
watergate investigators learned that
right before a disclosure deadline the
nixon campaign had received tens of
millions in confidential donations they had
had literally
literally
stacks and stacks of cash sitting around
and they couldn't count it as fast as it
was coming in
the source of the money was revealed
when a watchdog group common cause sued
the nixon campaign and discovered a
secret white house list of donors it
included corporations which were legally
barred from any political giving
that list had the names of all these
corporations and the amounts of money
they had
given some people were buying influence
and some people thought that if they
didn't put the money up they would get
punished american airlines has admitted
it made an illegal corporate
contributions to president nixon's
re-election campaign american discharge
that was a victim of a shakedown your
two aspects would you get something if
you gave it or would you
be prevented from getting something if
you didn't give it but this money
bought results
the president of the united states was
exchanging government policy for money
after the dairy industry pledged two
million dollars to his re-election
campaign nixon approved an increase in
the price of milk former head of the
country's biggest dairy cooperative
pleaded guilty today to conspiring the
scandals led to the convictions of some
of america's biggest corporations and to
an overhaul of the campaign finance
system the law would now limit how much
individuals could give to candidates and
how much they could spend in elections
while corporate contributions would
remain illegal the federal campaign act
of 1974
is going to change american politics
forever and hopefully for the better
we thought that we got what we needed
i felt we had achieved
a very very historic reform
thank you for your generosity thank you
very very much
but by the 1988 presidential campaign it
was clear there was a major loophole
while donations to candidates were
limited to one thousand dollars
individuals and corporations could give
any amount to political parties campaign
handlers like to call it soft money soft
money can be raised in any amount all
perfectly legal the campaigns insist
since they don't spend the money
directly you've already done 25 000 so
if you could i've always believed the
campaign finance reform
creates a blueprint
for how to game the system
robert farmer broke fundraising records
for democratic nominee michael dukakis
by being the first to capitalize on soft money
money
it can't be coordinated with the
campaign but it's certainly it's going
to be spent to help the candidate that's
well known
farmer convinced big donors and their
friends to become trustees
by asking them to donate one hundred
thousand dollars to the democratic party
it was a strategy his opponents quickly adopted
adopted
we took such abuse from the republicans
for this program that went on for about
45 days and they instituted the exact
mirror image of our trustee program
any campaign is competition
if you don't have the resources towards
a credible campaign you're out of it you
can't imagine
how important you are to this campaign
when president bill clinton needed money
for his 1996 re-election campaign he
invited supporters and some of his
party's biggest soft money donors for
coffee and sleepovers at the white house
it's called the lincoln bedroom and
while lincoln never actually slept there
a lot of other people did including big
money contributors to the democratic
party the president's overnight guests
contributed at least seven million
dollars to the democrats the president
united states took the lincoln bedroom
treated it like motel 6 and he was the bellhop
bellhop
senator john mccain who was criticized
years earlier for his role in the
keating 5 campaign finance scandal went
on to introduce legislation to close the
soft money loophole
there was too much money that was
washing around
unattributed and unaccounted for the
system had become corrupted
it took an enormous amount of public pressure
pressure
to bring about the passage of the
legislation tonight the first
significant reform since watergate is
headed to the president's desk
it took seven years but in 2002 congress
passed the mccain feingold bipartisan
campaign reform act congress finally
cleaned up the system outlawing huge
unlimited contributions from business
labor unions and the wealthy known as
soft money
we felt very good we knew there were
going to be challenges we knew they were
out there but i was very surprised and
deeply disappointed when the united
states supreme court
made fundamental decisions such as
corporations are the same as people a
blockbuster decision from the supreme
court today
just eight years after congress passed
those major reforms the supreme court
ruled that putting campaign spending
limits on corporations and labor unions
was unconstitutional
the sharply divided justices declared
that the law violates the first
amendment's guarantee of free speech for
all even corporations in a case known as
citizens united versus federal election
commission the court said that political
donations were a form of free speech and
that corporations and unions have the
same first amendment rights as people
the first amendment says congress shall
make no law a bridging speech
it doesn't give the right to speak to
certain people it gives it to everyone
attorney james bob brought the citizens
united case and has since brought others
in pursuit of his goal more money and
more speech in elections we need a lot
more money spent because people are
woefully uninformed most people can't
even name their congressman
the rulings in citizens united and other
recent cases mean that individuals
corporations and unions can now give
unlimited money to outside political
groups non-stop negative tv ads from
super pacs big money groups outside the campaigns
campaigns
and while super pacs have to disclose
their donors other outside groups known
as 501cs can accept what critics call
dark money contributions from donors who
don't have to disclose who they are
all this means that in the decade after
citizens united record amounts of cash
flowed into u.s elections outside groups
spent 7.3 billion dollars with the bulk
of the money coming from a few big
donors from both parties
i don't think the problem is the speech
i think the problem is the fundraising
harvard law professor lawrence lesig has
written about the influence of the super
rich in politics we've given this tiny
tiny fraction the power to do
effectively the nominating they choose
who can have the money to be able to run
in the elections to be able to compete
effectively against the other side and
it's absolutely clear that candidates
bend themselves contort themselves to
keep those funders happy if money is
free speech
then the wealthiest people in america
are those that get to speak the most freely
freely
and it's not just high-profile national elections
elections
big outside money is also pouring into
state and local contests even judicial races
races
we want judges to protect us and funding
attack ads like this
which ran during the primary race for
the north carolina supreme court
justice robin hudson not tough on child
molesters not fair to victims i was
horrified when i saw it the very idea
that i or anyone else on the court would
quote side with child molesters is just
completely ridiculous
if they were coming in here spending
money to actually educate voters that
would be one thing but that's not what
they're doing
the ad was paid for by
justiceforallnc whose address was a p.o
box at this raleigh ups store
most of its money came from the
republican state leadership committee an
outside political group based in washington
washington
we look to find the best return on our
investment for our dollars in the most
effective way
to convey a message to the general public
public
the committee takes donations from
corporations and other contributors and
funnels them into state-level organizations
organizations
those groups then spend that money to
influence elections from the courts to
state houses
the money is a means to convey a message
about which direction you want the
country to go anybody that
thinks that there should be less money
in politics
is essentially at odds with the united
states supreme court that said that this
is one of our fundamental freedoms
i think we're well on the way to see all
of the major legal justifications for
campaign finance laws to be overturned
overturned
for years secretive dark money
overwhelmingly flowed to republican
candidates and causes but by 2020
democrats took the lead as liberal
groups outspent conservative ones by
over two to one in the most expensive
election ever
nobody looks at this political system
and likes it this is overwhelmingly
despised by the american public there's
no reason for them to worry about
politics because they don't matter they
don't count they don't have the dollars
that have a role
what was at the core of the watergate
campaign finance scandals
corporate money
secret money unlimited contributions
from individuals
what do we have today
corporate money
secret money
unlimited contributions from individuals
we are full circle to the days prior to
watergate are not people walking around
the streets of washington dc with
briefcases full of money but
but
[Music] you
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