Chotiner dropped by Nixon’s seat. He noted that all the Democrats except the presidential candidate, Governor Adlai Stevenson, were attacking Nixon. “I smell a rat,” said Chotiner. “I’ll bet he has something to hide.” Chotiner’s typically base and shrewd instinct was confirmed when they arrived in Los Angeles, where Nixon was to go on national television the next day. Stevenson confirmed that he had his own private fund for campaign expenses, just like Nixon. But he refused to take reporters’ questions, and—gallingly to Nixon—the press “treated him with kid gloves.”
