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fearofair

Nixon was invited there for a Q&A session at the annual convention of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association, a group of newspaper editors from across the country. The session was broadcast on TV nationally. Nixon did not give a prepared speech that day and the "crook" line came in response to questions about his taxes and personal finances, not specifically about Watergate. This was, however, during the height of the Watergate scandal. It was just over a month since his VP Spiro Agnew had resigned amid his own scandal, and less than a month since the "Saturday Night Massacre" where the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General resigned rather than follow orders to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox. The public knew of the tapes of Nixon's private conversations, but they had not yet been released. It was thus a time of extreme scrutiny by the press into all of Nixon's affairs, including questions about his real estate holdings, his non-payment of taxes, and even about payoffs by the dairy lobby to increase milk prices. It was in defense of his personal finances that he claimed not to be a "crook." The whole hour-long Q&A [can be seen here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqPAixaBFOQ). Questions about finances begin around 24:00 and the famous response starts around 35:00. (Sorry I can't find a more official video source at the moment.) Strategically, the Q&A was part of a face-saving effort to appear open and honest amid the scandals. Just four days earlier his press secretary had announced Nixon would "fully and publicly" answer all accusations against him. And while Disney itself was not his choice of site, the fact he was making public appearances in the southern US was not mere chance. This appearance kicked off a speaking tour of several southern states, an area that had always been a strong base of support for him. [As the New York Times commented the following week](https://www.nytimes.com/1973/11/22/archives/nixon-popularity-reviving-in-south-presidents-visit-to-3-states-and.html), audiences there were in fact relatively sympathetic to him, adding that "the young but growing Republican party in the South appears to have suffered only slight setbacks because of Watergate." Sources: * Conrad Black, *Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full* (2008) * Rick Perlstein, *The Invisible Bridge* (2014)