Watergate 50 Years Later: What Have We Learned?

President Richard Nixon resigned as president of the United States on August 9, 1974, after the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment again him. The charges stemmed from Nixon's actions to cover up his administration's involvement in the 1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office Building in Washington, D.C. The political and public pressure forced Nixon to leave office. Fifty years later, impeachment has become a weapon both major political parties have used against each other. This panel will explore the lessons we learned as a society during the Watergate hearings, how the use of impeachment has changed 50 years later, and the impact of the recent Supreme Court decision expanding Presidential immunity.

Before the panel discussion, there will be a brief refresher video about the break-in and its consequences, produced by B&G Productions.

Panelists

Ed Mezvinsky, an Ames native, served as a member of the Iowa House of Representatives from 1969 to 1971 and then as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1973 to 1977, representing Iowa's 1st congressional district. While in Congress, Mezvinsky served on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon in 1974. His Congressional papers include records of all the closed sessions of the House Judiciary Committee during Watergate. They are now part of the Mezvinsky papers at the ISU Parks Library Collections. and open to the public after being sealed by the Government for 50 years. Ed also served as U.S. Representative to the United Nations Human Rights Commission from 1977-79. He is currently President of Global Advocacy, Ltd. and Patient Advocate for Jericho Road Community Health Center in Buffalo New York and globally in Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nepal.  

Jonathan R. Yarowsky entered public service  in 1982 as chief counsel of the U.S. House Judiciary Eco­nomic and Commercial Law Subcommittee. Soon after, he became general counsel of the House Committee on the Judiciary, where he oversaw 40 lawyers in six different subcom­mittees. From 1995 to 1998, he served as special counsel to the President (Clinton), whom he advised on antitrust, telecommunications and crime. When he re-entered private practice in 1998 he was appointed by the President and Congress to serve as a member of the National Commission on Crime. Yarowsky was also named in May 2024 by  the Washingto­nian magazine as one of Washington DC’s nine “Most Influential People Shaping Policy” in Anti-Trust -- for the third consecutive year.

Jeff Ubiois has collaborated with Mezvinsky on his collection of Watergate papers since 2016. He is Vice President, Knowledge Management Lever for Change for the MacArthur Foundation. He also works in the Foundation’s American Democracy, Philanthropy and 100&Change programs. Ubois is also on the board of Better World Libraries -- a mission-driven for-profit bookseller that has donated almost $29 million and more than 26.5 million books to global literacy programs during the past two decades.

Kathie Obradovich (moderator) has been Editor-in-Chief of the Iowa Capital Dispatch since its inception in January 2020 as a free, online, not-for-profit, news organization dedicated to connecting Iowans to their state government and its impact on their lives. She has 37 years of reporting experience in Iowa. She covered the Iowa Statehouse for 16 years for  Lee Enterprise newspapers. Obradovich then spent 16 years with the Des Moines Register as a political columnist and opinion editor before joining the Capital Dispatch, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news organization with operations in every state capital.

This lecture will be recorded and ready to view on the Available Recordings page approximately 24-36 hours after the conclusion of the event.