60 min Claims Former President Richard Nixon “tried to destroy” presidential tapes.

Verdict: Misleading

There is no evidence that Nixon “tried to destroy” the presidential tapes, and one historian has warned that while there is no evidence at present, there may be evidence in other records.

Fact check:

CBS News' “60 Minutes” aired a feature on the Presidential Records and the National Archives in which it claimed in a September 23 Facebook post that President Nixon “tried to destroy potentially incriminating audio tapes” in the aftermath of the Watergate Scandal.

Also, Reported“After the 1972 incident, when President Nixon asked for the destruction of audio tapes that could contain incriminating evidence, Congress acted to protect the presidential records. The Presidential Records Act was signed into law in 1978. This act also governs the official records of the vice president.”

This claim is misleading. Check Your Fact found no evidence in an Internet search that Nixon “tried to destroy the audio tapes,” as 60 Minutes claimed. Check Your Fact also Reviewed I checked the Nixon Library website and found no evidence to support this claim.

The National Archives of Japan has released a report on the Nixon Library's “Check Your Fact” Website About the Watergate tapes. (Related: Did J.D. Vance Track Trump Assassinations on Social Media?)

It reads:

“Nixon had access to the materials for his trial, and the tapes became government property on September 1, 1979. However, Nixon reserved the right to order the tapes destroyed at any time. Furthermore, the agreement provided that the tapes were to be destroyed on September 1, 1984, or Nixon's death, whichever came first. Lawsuits were quickly filed to invalidate the agreement. Congress stepped in and passed the Presidential Records and Materials Preservation Act (PRMPA). On December 19, 1974, President Gerald R. Ford signed the PRMPA.”

The website does not suggest that Nixon “tried to destroy” the tapes. The Richard Nixon Foundation, a nonprofit that helps run the Nixon Library, said: said In a Sept. 23 tweet, he said the allegations were false and that the former president “chose to preserve all of them upon discovery of their existence in July 1973.”

Last night @60 minutes The program incorrectly stated that President Nixon had “tried to destroy” the White House tapes.

Although President Nixon never attempted to destroy the White House tapes, he actually chose to preserve all of them when their existence was revealed in July 1973.

meanwhile… https://t.co/LK2CxrSrxY

— Richard Nixon Foundation (@nixonfoundation) September 23, 2024

“President Nixon's records were seized by Act of Congress after he left office, but not because he 'tried to destroy' the tapes. In a statement issued when President Ford signed the Presidential Records and Materials Preservation Act on December 19, 1974, which seized President Nixon's records, he said that '…the Watergate Special Counsel's interests in access to the tapes and materials were fully taken into consideration,'” the Nixon Foundation tweeted.

Ford's statement, in part, read“Since then, there has been much litigation and public attention surrounding this agreement. I do not feel it is appropriate to comment on the pending litigation or the constitutional and various other issues raised by the bill, but I would like to note that the interests of the Watergate special counsel regarding access to their tapes and materials were fully taken into consideration by the agreement entered into on November 9, 1974.”

The Washington Post Reported According to a new book published in 2021, Nixon's “advisers had urged him to destroy the secretly recorded tapes that could determine whether he was telling the truth about Watergate, but Nixon was reluctant to give up a weapon he believed he could use against his enemies. Two of the tapes requested by Congress were missing, and one had an 18-minute gap. Fox News.

Fox News reported:

“Seven tapes were subsequently released, but Nixon maintained that he would not comply with a subpoena for the remaining tapes from the special prosecutor investigating Watergate. The case eventually went to the Supreme Court, which ruled that Nixon was not immune from subpoenas and other legal action. led to his resignation After President Nixon left office, and the Nixon-Sampson Agreement he subsequently proposed, the government required that all administration documents be stored in locked federal facilities.”

Historians told Check Your Fact that while they cannot say for sure that Nixon did not try to destroy the tapes, CBS News has not presented any evidence that he did. (RELATED: Media claims Trump falsely accused Harris of wanting “sex reassignment surgery” for incarcerated “illegal immigrants”)

Luke Nichter“I'm surprised that, if CBS has evidence, they don't seem to have indicated what it is about their claim that Nixon tried to destroy the tapes,” the Chapman University history professor and director of the Presidential Studies Program told Check Your Facts.

“But if 60 Minutes has evidence that Nixon tried to destroy the tapes, I'd like to know what it is,” Nichter said, adding that “I'm not aware of any evidence” that Nixon tried to destroy the tapes.

“So I think he considered it, but that's not the same as saying he tried to consider it or even tried to consider it. I think there were multiple occasions where he considered it,” Nichter said.

Nichter added:

“When it comes to Nixon and Watergate, I have to be biased because even very recently new records have come forward that overturn things I didn't know and things I thought I knew. But for me, when it comes to such important allegations, I feel it's 60 Minutes' turn to present some evidence. I'm not biased. That was Nixon's intention. [to destroy the tapes]But there's nothing to indicate that he actually tried to do that.”

Mary C. BrennanIn an email to Check Your Fact, the Texas State University history professor and dean of the College of Liberal Arts said that while he is no expert on Watergate or the Nixon scandal, “I can safely say that Pat Nixon never understood why he didn't destroy the tapes.”

“The fact that she felt that way indicates that he never intended to destroy the tapes. He wanted to keep them secret. Again, I can't say with any certainty that he never intended to destroy them,” said Brennan, whose recent research focuses on modern conservatism and Richard Nixon's wife, Pat Nixon.

The Presidential Records Act of 1978, among other things,[e]Stabilize[d] According to “Public Ownership of Presidential Records and the Definition of the Term 'Presidential Records'”: National Archives of Japan.

“The American people are now understanding that much of what we've been told about Watergate and the end of Richard Nixon's presidency is the result of decades of misinformation,” Jim Brion, president and CEO of the Nixon Foundation, told Fox News.

“Today, misinformation is largely innocent, but there is certainly a complacent attitude towards false narratives. In this case, correcting the record was easy,” Bryan said.

Check Your Fact has reached out to CBS News and the Nixon Foundation for comment.

Update, Sept. 25, 2024: This story has been updated to reflect additional reporting and comment from the Richard Nixon Foundation to Fox News. Rating remains unchanged.