Question

After he appointed Gerald Ford as vice president, President Nixon ______.

a. was arrested by Washington, D.C. police

b. was impeached by Congress

c. claimed he was ill and could no longer serve as president

d. voluntarily resigned as president

Answer 1

After appointing Gerald Ford as vice president, President Nixon voluntarily resigned as president.

Step-by-step explanation:

After President Nixon appointed Gerald Ford as vice president, he voluntarily resigned as president.

When Nixon resigned from office, it was the unelected Gerald Ford who became president.

One of Ford's first actions as president was to grant Richard Nixon a full pardon, preventing Nixon from being indicted for any crimes he may have committed in office.

Answer 2

d. voluntarily resigned as president

Even before the final release of the unedited tapes, the House Judiciary Committee had initiated impeachment proceedings against the president. Earlier in the process, many Democrats in Congress would have been reluctant to push for Nixon's resignation, out of fear that the succession of Vice President Spiro Agnew, the administration's conservative attack dog, would be far worse than leaving a politically hobbled Nixon in office. In October 1973, however, Agnew himself resigned after pleading no contest to tax-evasion charges as part of a plea bargain to avoid conviction on more serious counts of accepting bribes. Nixon appointed the less controversial and more politically moderate Gerald Ford to replace Agnew, a move that effectively cleared a path for Nixon's own departure.

Facing certain impeachment and likely removal from office, Nixon announced his resignation on August 8, becoming the only American president to leave office alive before the end of his term. He had left a powerful stamp on U.S. foreign policy and a host of new domestic initiatives. His more immediate legacy, however, was broad cynicism about crooked politicians and deep disapproval of the Republican Party. In the November 1974 elections, Democrats added significantly to their majorities in both houses of Congress.