Press Conference on the White House Lawn after the visit to President Nixon by congressmen...

House Minority Leader. John Rhodes, at the microphone and L to R: Gerald Warren, deputy press secretary; Senate Minority Leader, Hugh Scott; Senator Barry Goldwater; this visit by members of Congress was the catalytic agent that persuaded Nixon that as he was unable to win the votes for acquittal, his best option was to resign; the Watergate scandal was a political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s as a result of the June 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement. The scandal eventually led to the resignation of Richard Nixon, the President of the United States, on August 9, 1974, the only resignation of a U.S. President. The scandal also resulted in the indictment, trial, conviction and incarceration of 43 people, including dozens of Nixon's top administration officials.