United States vice presidential selection, 1973 Gerald Ford of Michigan, who was popular among the members of Congress and who was good friends with Nixon. Ford won the approval of both houses by huge margins, and was sworn in as the 40th Vice President of the United States on December 6, 1973. In 1974, Ford ascended to the presidency after the Watergate scandal led to the resignation of President Nixon. United States vice presidential selection, 1973 In 1973, Republican Vice President Spiro Agnew was forced to resign following a controversy over his personal taxes. Under the terms of the 25th Amendment, a vice presidential vacancy is
Spiro Agnew attacking their political opponents. In New Orleans on October 19, Agnew blamed liberal elites for condoning violence by demonstrators, "a spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals". The following day, in Jackson, Mississippi, Agnew told a Republican dinner, "for too long the South has been the punching bag for those who characterize themselves as liberal intellectuals ... their course is a course that will ultimately weaken and erode the very fiber of America." Agnew, though he denied Republicans had a Southern Strategy, stressed that the administration and Southern whites