[monkeyshine]

Nixon resigned when the GOP Senate leadership told him they didn’t have the votes to prevent his removal.

What role people like Whitehead played in lobbying the senators might be an area worth exploring.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Yep Baker and O’Neill went up to the Whitehouse and told Nixon he either had to resign or hee would be impeached.

[Rockingham]

Nixon held off resigning until he was assured of a pardon from Ford. Nixon Chief of Staff Alexander Haig was kept as Ford chief of staff in order to assure that Nixon got he pardon he wanted.

Until Nixon was undone by Watergate, he had planned a major housecleaning of the federal government, including the FBI and CIA. Moreover, Nixon was telling staffers that the Warren Report was a fraud and that Kennedy was killed by a plot set in motion by LBJ and using in part CIA connected Cuban exiles furious over Kennedy's betrayal at the Bay of Pigs.

Watergate Committee staffers privately warned their bosses that Nixon's actions had precedents in prior administrations. At trial in the Senate, Nixon could have mounted a persuasive defense on the merits that might have saved his Presidency. In any event, such a defense by Nixon would have spilled many secrets that official Washington did not want exposed.