Checkers speech

Common card · No. 227494

The Checkers speech or Fund speech was an address made on September 23, 1952, by then-Senator Richard Nixon, six weeks before the 1952 United States presidential election in which he was the Republican nominee for Vice President. Nixon had been accused of improprieties relating to a fund established by his backers to reimburse him for his political expenses. His place was in doubt on the Republican ticket, so he flew to Los Angeles and delivered a half-hour television address in which he defended himself, attacked his opponents, and urged the audience to contact the Republican National Committee (RNC) to tell them whether he should remain on the ticket. During the speech, he stated that he intended to keep one gift, regardless of the outcome: a black-and-white Cocker Spaniel that his children had named Checkers, thus giving the address its popular name. Nixon came from a family of modest means, as he related in the address, and he had spent his time after law school in the military, campaigning...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Richard Nixon; program paid for by Republican National Committee. Uploaded by Wehwalt at en.wikipedia, Public domain