The replace-Biden Democratic coup fantasy

ON AUG 7, 1974, three senior Republicans – US senator Barry Goldwater from Arizona; US House minority leader John Rhodes, also from Arizona; and US Senate minority leader Hugh Scott from Pennsylvania – met then president Richard Nixon at the Old Executive Office Building of the White House and delivered a very blunt message.

They made it clear to the embattled president that he faced all-but-certain impeachment conviction in Congress and removal from office in connection with the Watergate scandal.

In his 1988 autobiography, Goldwater said that after hearing their grim assessment, Nixon “knew beyond any doubt that one way or another his presidency was finished”. “None of us doubted the outcome. He would resign,” Goldwater wrote.