McGovern Alleges Nixon Effort To Make the People His Jury

Sen. George McGovern (D-S.D.) said Friday night that President Nixon's release of edited Watergate transcripts is unsatisfactory, and called it "an effort to appeal over the head of the impeachment process to the American people."

McGovern, speaking at a dinner in Lehman Hall, said Nixon is attempting to "make the people the jury, instead of their elected representatives."

He said he had read only portions of the transcripts but that he was "considerably more worried about deleted evidence than I am about deleted expletives." He added that the overall tone of the transcripts "is not the kind of thing that encourages confidence in the president's integrity."

McGovern had harsh words for his 1972 presidential opponent, saying that "I have felt that this man is not qualified to be in public life for 25 years."

But he added that he does not believe Nixon should resign. "I do not favor resignation. If the president is innocent, there are no grounds for urging him to resign."

"I don't expect him to resign," McGovern said, "and I think Congress has to stand up and have the courage to pursue this inquiry and make a finding under the impeachment clause."

McGovern said the major obstacle to pursuing the inquiry has been "foot-dragging" by the White House in turning over evidence to the House Judiciary Committee, and said the committee is "proceeding the right way" in its attempts to obtain the original Watergate tapes from the president.

Enough Votes

Although the Senator said he believed there are enough votes in the House to bring impeachment proceedings in the Senate, McGovern said he has "no idea what the Senate is going to do if confronted with the question of removing the president from office."

McGovern told the students and Faculty members assembled at Lehman Hall that the Nixon administration lacks a "moral rudder" to guide its value judgments.

"We have a real leadership crisis," he said. "We have the most severe leadership crisis in our history." And the crisis "extends far beyond the evidence we have on the Watergate incident," he added.

"To restore some measure of confidence and faith in the political system," McGovern said, "we have to restore the habit of truth to the conduct of public business."