In response, Ford took a step that supporters of presidential power and prerogative bemoan to this day. On October 17, 1974, Ford voluntarily testified before the House Judiciary Committee’s Criminal Justice Subcommittee. He was only the third sitting president, after Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson, to testify before Congress. To backers of executive branch power, a president answering questions from members of the legislative branch demeaned the presidency. To members of Congress, it was the embodiment of the founders’ vision of three coequal branches of government acting as checks and
...more
