President Richard Nixon was flying high in June 1972, leading Democratic challenger George McGovern by 19 points in the Gallup poll. With such a commanding lead, Nixon could breathe easy, right? But campaign manager John Mitchell had other ideas. He had engineered Nixon’s political comeback after he lost the 1960 presidential election, and then the California governor’s race. In return, Nixon was fiercely loyal, letting Mitchell run his re-election campaign with minimal supervision.
Among other dirty tricks, the president’s men broke into the DNC headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. They bugged telephones and stole documents in search of illegal campaign donations by the Democrats. But the five burglars were foiled by a night watchman, eventually prompting Nixon’s resignation two years later.
For 50 years historians debated who was the highest-ranking official to approve the Watergate break-in. James Robenalt of the Washington Post answered definitively in 2022, honing-in on voice memos recorded by chief of staff H.R. Haldeman. White House Counsel John Dean told him John Mitchell admitted to signing-off on the break-in. In a different meeting, Mitchell confessed to Haldeman himself.
Why didn’t John Mitchell take the fall for Watergate? Nixon wouldn’t let him. Instead of firing him, the president joined the coverup, even finding hush money for the arrested burglars. Loyalty to Mitchell doomed his presidency, with the long-term impact of fomenting public distrust of government and an adversarial relationship between presidents and the press. All because Mr. Nixon was terrified that Watergate would send his friend to prison, which it did anyway. Did I mention his 19-point lead in the polls? Thanks to James Robenalt’s reporting, we can credit John Mitchell with saying “Why not?” to the dumbest idea in election-campaign history.
I’m Jeff Gentry
Best reference:
Robenalt, J.D. (2022, June 16). Who Approved the Illegal DNC Entry? Let’s Go to the Tapes. Washington Post, The. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/interactive/2022/haldeman-tapes-watergate-john-mitchell/
Dumb Ideas that Changed the World copyright 2025 by Jeff Gentry. All rights reserved
