The Smithsonian is falsely claiming that President Richard Nixon was impeached in its new exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C.
The gallery’s “America’s Presidents” exhibit reopened to the public on May 15 and includes a portrait of the 37th president by acclaimed American artist Norman Rockwell. Jim Byron, president and CEO of the Richard Nixon Foundation, wrote a letter to the gallery’s acting director Elliot Gruber noting that the biography accompanying the portrait falsely states that Nixon was impeached on the charges of obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress.
“In fact, President Nixon was never impeached,” Byron wrote. “He resigned on August 9, 1974 before the House of Representatives had voted on any article(s) of impeachment.”
“I trust you will take immediate steps to correct this mistake, lest the many visitors to the handsome new gallery are misled about the 37th President,” the Richard Nixon Foundation’s CEO added.
This latest distortion is not an accident. It is part of the institutional smear campaign against Richard Nixon that has continued for more than half a century, long after his death. The same permanent government apparatus that hounded him from office has never stopped trying to delegitimize his record. They want the American people to remember only the popular media narrative behind Watergate and forget everything else. I will not let that happen.
Nixon was a friend and mentor I was blessed beyond belief to have known. Since his railroading and resignation, most Republicans have been content to treat his time in office, which saw Nixon consistently post record high approval ratingsamong the public, as a stain on our nation—too craven to fight for one of the greatest presidents our country has ever known.
After receiving a presidential pardon from his successor in the White House, Gerald Ford, Nixon released the following statement: “I was wrong in not acting more decisively and more forthrightly in dealing with Watergate, particularly when it reached the stage of judicial proceedings and grew from a political scandal into a national tragedy. No words can describe the depth of my regret and pain at the anguish my mistakes over Watergate have caused the nation and the presidency, a nation I so deeply love, and an institution I so greatly respect.”
Nixon had served a total of 2,026 days as the thirty-seventh president before he left the White House on August 9, 1974. While to most he was a former President, to me he was a friend and mentor. His brand of Republicanism was sharply different from the neoconservative orthodoxy that supplanted him. Nixon pursued peace through strength and put American interests first, serving as the template for Ronald Reagan to follow. The rehabilitation of his record is a necessity for the MAGA Right. We must understand the nature of the deep state to note that they had been in charge long before they were forced to reveal themselves in the coordinated effort to destroy President Trump. The same forces that targeted Nixon for threatening their power came after Trump for the same reason.
The truth about Watergate makes this clear. Former White House Counsel John Dean only decided to become a “whistleblower” when he realized that all of his own illegal acts would be exposed. The Watergate special prosecutors were partisans from the Kennedy Justice Department. Recently declassified documents prove the CIA was well aware of the planned break-in and infiltrated the burglar team with at least four of the burglars still actively on the CIA payroll. Special Counsel Nick Akerman knew of the CIA’s involvement but did nothing about it. Akerman retains the crown as the single biggest piece of shit I have met in my 45 years in politics.
Bob Woodward—a congenital liar and Navy intelligence asset with no prior journalistic experience—teamed up with Carl Bernstein on the Watergate scoop. Reporting shows Woodward’s primary source “Deep Throat” was likely General Alexander Haig. Newsmax reporter James Rosen revealed from declassified documents that the CIA infiltrated the burglar team with assets still doing the agency’s bidding. I exposed that Nixon was well-aware of the CIA’s role in John F. Kennedy’s murder—he was recorded telling former CIA Director Richard Helms, “I know who shot John.”
In an obscure post-presidency interview Nixon said he found it difficult to understand why the CIA, with advance knowledge and assets inside, never informed him of exactly what was taking place. Nixon noted the agency had ample motive to undermine his presidency because he was dissatisfied with their Soviet assessments and planned to cut a third of its personnel. “I was going to shape up that organization,” he said. The CIA feared him, and for good reason. This was the deep state at work shaping politics in the shadows long before it was forced to reveal itself against President Trump.
After leaving office, Nixon was plagued with lawsuits that dragged on almost throughout the rest of his life. He wrote his memoirs—which were later followed by 10 more books published following his presidency—to pay the bills. In 1986 Gallup ranked him among the ten most admired men in the world. Between 1984 and 1990 the Nixon Foundation raised $26 million privately to build the library and museum beside his birthplace. The library was dedicated on July 19, 1990 with three former presidents present. Nixon said visitors would see “a personal life” shaped by family and teachers, “a political life” of three presidential runs, and “the life of a great nation” with unprecedented progress.
The private Nixon Foundation originally ran the content. After the National Archives took control in 2007 the exhibits grew far more negative. The dispute over tone continues. The grounds include his childhood home and twenty-two informational galleries. The library holds millions of pages of records, photographs, films, and tapes. The Nixon Foundation remains essential to preserving the authentic legacy against institutional revisionism, making the truth accessible for all those dedicated to its pursuit.
Resilience defined Nixon. He plotted his comeback the day after losing to Kennedy and his redemption campaign the day after resigning. In 1960 I taped a Norman Rockwell portrait of him to my bedroom door. I wrote to him in 1967 urging him to run again. In 1968 I chaired Youth for Nixon in Connecticut and worked as a gofer for John Mitchell at the convention. In his post-presidential years I grew closer with Nixon and cherish those years as being a blessing in my life. I recall riding with him to his first post-resignation political event. Before opening the car door he looked at me and said, “I hope this isn’t too soon.” It wasn’t. The event was an overwhelming triumph.
Nixon died suddenly of a stroke in 1994 at eighty-one, fourteen months after his beloved wife, Pat, died of lung cancer. In his final middle finger to the elites, Nixon declined to lie in the Capitol Rotunda next to the remains of Johnson, Kennedy, Eisenhower, and Truman. He was buried in Yorba Linda beside Pat, where he was born and raised. He told me it felt fitting. I carry a grapefruit-sized tattoo of Nixon’s head on my back. Every morning it reminds me that when you get knocked down you must get back in the fight.
Nixon said: “The greatness comes not when things go always good for you. But the greatness comes when you’re really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes. Because only if you’ve been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.” He also said: “A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.” These are lessons that all conservatives must internalize if they are going to harden themselves for the grueling battle that lies ahead to renew America.
The same institutions lying about his impeachment at the Smithsonian spent decades reducing him to Watergate while ignoring his accomplishments. The Nixon Foundation is doing yeoman’s work fighting to preserve the real legacy against the negative framing of biased groups like the Smithsonian and National Archives. I pride myself on being his most stalwart and unwavering defender. Correcting smears is part of the larger battle to understand our history and to recognize that the America First movement stands on the shoulders of leaders like Nixon who refused to be broken by entrenched interests that still command power in Washington. Through understanding Nixon’s legacy, we can understand the nature of the political establishment, and how it cannot be reasoned with or reformed—only crushed and ushered into the ashbin of history where it belongs.
I will keep getting up off the mat because I learned from the best. Every American patriot should also learn from Nixon’s example because if each of us can maintain his iron resolve, our movement will be unstoppable.
