Forty years ago today, Richard Nixon announced he was stepping down from the presidency amid threats of impeachment and the Watergate scandal.
In the years that followed, the former president fought to restore his reputation. NBC News’ Chuck Todd suggests it was another president – Bill Clinton – who truly began rebuilding the embattled leader’s legacy.
How did this bold visionary who opened the door to China also make choices that led his presidency to the brink? Former White House counsel and eventual Nixon whistleblower, John Dean, went back to the Nixon tapes to find out. His new book, “The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It,” describes the man he once reported to as an unpredictable leader with “no moral compass.”