Constitutional Crisis: Ford Assumes the Presidency and Pardons Nixon

Abstract

After a series of phone calls to Congressional leaders and Vice President-designate Nelson Rockefeller, President Gerald Ford entered the Oval Office to face a single camera and about a dozen hastily assembled reporters.¹ He was at peace with what he was about to do. As was his custom, he had gone to church earlier, and he would play a full round of golf at Burning Tree in Bethesda later, as he had the day before.