"I brought myself down. I impeached myself by resigning"
About this Quote
A disgraced president trying to reclaim authorship of his own downfall is still, in a perverse way, doing politics. Nixon’s line reframes impeachment - the constitutional mechanism designed to remove a lawless executive - as something almost internal, a self-policing act. The verb choice matters: “brought myself down” casts the collapse as personal tragedy, not institutional judgment. “I impeached myself” is clever on its face and slippery underneath, borrowing the moral clarity of accountability while dodging the legal and historical reality that he resigned to stop Congress from doing it to him.
The context is Watergate’s endgame: a presidency cornered by the tape system Nixon built, a Justice Department and Congress closing in, party allies abandoning ship, the “smoking gun” tape making denial impossible. Resignation was not contrition so much as damage control, an attempt to preserve some sliver of dignity and prevent the spectacle of removal. By claiming self-impeachment, Nixon implies he acted out of principle, as if he preempted the nation’s punishment with his own.
The subtext is a familiar Nixonian blend of defiance and fatalism. He concedes the outcome while contesting the verdict. It’s the rhetoric of a man who wants history to see a fall that was chosen, not imposed - a final act of spin that treats constitutional crisis as personal narrative. In that move, the line reveals what made Watergate so corrosive: even at the moment of accountability, the language strains to make power answer only to itself.
The context is Watergate’s endgame: a presidency cornered by the tape system Nixon built, a Justice Department and Congress closing in, party allies abandoning ship, the “smoking gun” tape making denial impossible. Resignation was not contrition so much as damage control, an attempt to preserve some sliver of dignity and prevent the spectacle of removal. By claiming self-impeachment, Nixon implies he acted out of principle, as if he preempted the nation’s punishment with his own.
The subtext is a familiar Nixonian blend of defiance and fatalism. He concedes the outcome while contesting the verdict. It’s the rhetoric of a man who wants history to see a fall that was chosen, not imposed - a final act of spin that treats constitutional crisis as personal narrative. In that move, the line reveals what made Watergate so corrosive: even at the moment of accountability, the language strains to make power answer only to itself.
Quote Details
| Topic | Honesty & Integrity |
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