Richard M. Nixon: “Checkers” Speech
(1952)Document Text
My Fellow Americans,
I come before you tonight as a candidate for the Vice-presidency and as a man whose honesty and integrity has been questioned.…
I am sure that you have read the charges, and you have heard it, that I, Senator Nixon, took $18,000 from a group of my supporters.…
It was not a secret fund.… Well, then, some of you will say, and rightly, “Well, what did you use the fund for, Senator?…
Do you think that when I or any other Senator makes a political speech, has it printed, [we] should charge the printing of that speech and the mailing of that speech to the taxpayers?
Do you think, for example, when I or any other Senator makes a trip to his home state to make a purely political speech that the cost of that trip should be charged to the taxpayers?
Do you think when a Senator makes political broadcasts or political television broadcasts, radio or television, that the expense of those broadcasts should be charged to the taxpayers?
I know what your answer is. It is...
