Watergate Was a Coup? The Nixon Tapes, CIA Links & the Unelected President

Watergate wasn’t just a “third-rate burglary.” It may have been the most consequential power struggle in modern American history—one that ended with Richard Nixon resigning and Gerald Ford becoming the only unelected President in U.S. history.

In this episode, Jeremy Ryan Slate sits down with Tony Arterburn to dig into the hidden forces behind Watergate: the Plumbers, the Pentagon Papers aftershocks, Deep Throat (Mark Felt), intelligence-world overlaps, and why this story keeps resurfacing in the modern zeitgeist.

We trace Nixon’s rise (Hiss case, Checkers speech, Cold War ops), then follow the threads: E. Howard Hunt, the “Bay of Pigs” references on the tapes, and the question that still matters:
Was Watergate political incompetence… or a controlled demolition of a presidency?

👇 Drop your take in the comments: Was Watergate a scandal—or a coup?
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CHAPTERS:
00:00 Watergate: greatest coup against an elected president?
00:27 Introduction + why Watergate matters now
01:20 Who is Tony Arterburn? (history + intelligence focus)
02:05 Oliver Stone’s Nixon and the “humanizing” ending
04:35 Why everything became “___gate” after Watergate
05:20 The “silent coup” theory: Nixon vs. the deep state
06:10 Why Watergate resurfaced in the modern zeitgeist
08:20 Where to start: Nixon’s origin story and rise
11:20 Hiss, HUAC, anti-communism, and Nixon’s early power
13:40 The Checkers speech + becoming VP under Eisenhower
16:40 Birth of the modern security state (CIA/NSA era)
18:40 The Plumbers, leaks, and the Pentagon Papers fallout
20:05 “Howard Hunt?!” — why that name set off alarms
22:20 JFK Dallas overlap + intelligence-world proximity
26:20 “Bay of Pigs” references: what did Nixon fear revealing?
28:10 Opening China + SALT: policies that threatened institutions
29:20 The break-in: why it was so bizarre (and why it mattered)
31:20 The cover-up question: what did Nixon know and when?
33:40 Was Watergate designed to take Nixon down?
35:30 Agnew removed → Ford installed: succession implications
38:00 Gerald Ford’s unusual background + Warren Commission links
41:10 Nixon’s psychology: paranoia, isolation, losing control
44:20 The “wild animal” conversation: who really held power?
48:20 Nixon’s resignation + the speech that still haunts
53:20 Did Watergate reshape intelligence power permanently?
56:00 What Watergate teaches us now + the need for reform
58:45 Where to find Tony + closing
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