in april of 1974 nixon released edited
transcripts of the tapes with key
passages missing
he blamed the lapses on his secretary's
error so you can see her in the photo
here she's got a transcription pedal
under her desk which i used to have when
i worked my way through school as a
secretary and the petals do different
things so she can
play the tape and then lift up her foot
it'll back up a few seconds so that when
she you know is done typing it'll pick
back up she can rewind the tape she can
fast forward the tape and apparently her
pedal had a record button on it so nixon
claimed that she was typing up the tapes
and then her phone rang and she reached
back for her phone and that yoga stretch
move she's doing there and that her foot
slipped over to the record button and
she accidentally recorded over those
bits of the tape oops
even though that would require a massive
yoga type stretch there to do when it's
not how any secretary would have
actually carried out that action
on july 24th 1974 the supreme court
ruled unanimously that nixon had to
deliver the 64 original tapes to the new
special prosecutor
the next day texas representative
barbara jordan gave an opening statement
before the house judiciary committee
which was considering these bills of
impeachment for president nixon
let's listen to what barbara jordan had
