Video: 'SYND 16/10/73 SPIRO AGNEW EXPLAINS HIS RESIGNATION'

(Monday, October 15, 1973, 7:30 p.m. EDT) — Former U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew declared tonight that he had resigned five days ago and pleaded no contest to criminal charges of tax evasion (he was fined $10,000 and put on three years’ probation) solely to permit President Richard Nixon, embattled by the unrelated Watergate scandal, to restore “unimpaired confidence and implicit trust” in that high office.

Agnew, his eyes moist but his bearing composed, told a nationwide television audience that he was innocent of any wrongdoing, but that he accepted a conviction of income tax evasion, part of a negotiated resolution to a scheme wherein he was accused of accepting more than $100,000 in bribes during his tenure as governor of Maryland, to spare the nation further agony.

Video: 'Spiro Agnew Resignation Address'

He hailed Nixon, declaring the nominee to be his successor as vice president, Gerald R. Ford, was an “excellent choice.”

Agnew’s resignation automatically set in motion, for the first time, the provisions of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution. Ford would be subject to confirmation by a majority vote in both houses of Congress, where Democrats predominate.

Until Ford is confirmed and sworn in, the Speaker of the House, Carl Albert Democrat of Oklahoma, was first in line of succession to the presidency.