Short Stuff: The Gaslighting of Martha Mitchell | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the short stuff I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and uh it's just. us and that's okay because we're doing. short stuff so let's get started. everybody calm down it's short stuff. that's right uh we're going to talk. about Martha Mitchell who was the wife. of John Mitchell in the 1970s who was uh. Nixon's attorney general um for a time. and Martha Mitchell was from the south. she was a um some argue that she was one.

of the first sort of conservative. political pundits because she loved to. go on TV uh not like a lot of politician. spouses at the time that kept a lower. profile she loved to be on TV and talk. about things and she loved to call in. journalists maybe have a couple of. bourbons and call into journalist and. give quotes and you think like oh boy. this sounds like trouble um eventually. it could have been but they loved her. Nixon loved her cuz she went out there. and said the things not a lot of people.

were saying in public at the time that. he loved yeah I saw that she was known. as the mouth of the South she was from. Arkansas and um one of her quotes was I. don't believe in that no comment. business I always have a comment that. was yeah basically her guiding ethos her. ethos one of the two um and she was huge. at the time like she wasn't just like a. hey I really like what you have to say. to the papers way to go when you ran. into her at lunch like in 1970 during.

the election um if you went to a. republican fundraiser there was a really. good chance that she would be speaking. there like like you said people loved. her including Richard Nixon who was just. a fan essentially yeah for sure uh in. June of. 1972 uh the Watergate building was uh. burgled as everyone knows and uh Nixon. and his inner circle were like we didn't. have anything to do with this I don't. know what you guys are talking about and.

then one of them said hold on a minute. uh there is something that Martha knows. about this that could spell trouble for. us uh and this is that story because it. gets pretty crazy so crazy that there. was a series in. 2022 uh was it a series or a show I. think it was a series called gaslit uh. starring Julia Roberts as Martha. Mitchell uh Mitchell and a very uh. heavily makeup and balded and changed. sha and pin as John Mitchell yeah.

although Sean Penn has done so many. eight-balls it's possible he just looks. like that. now no Sean Pence looks good this guy he. looked like John Mitchell which is to. say old and bald and uh a little tubby. and well so just just as a spoiler John. Mitchell eventually went to prison he's. the first and only us attorney general. to go serve time in federal prison. that's how badly this went for him but. at the time after the Watergate break in. when the Nick campaign cuz he stopped.

being attorney general for Nixon and. became the uh head of Nixon's reelection. campaign he ran the committee to reelect. the president the CRP uh everyone else. on the planet called it creep instead um. and so he was running that so at the. time right after the Watergate break in. when they were still denying denying. denying you can't prove anything um and. he realized uh that his wife was would.

definitely call The Press if she got the. chance he hatched a plan to keep her. from doing that and like you said it. takes a crazy turn and it's about here. where it does because he and Martha John. and Martha were at a fundraiser in um. California at the time with Governor. Ronald Reagan uh and John Wayne and they. were. um that's when the news of Watergate. broke essentially so John Mitchell flew. back to DC.

but he said Martha stay here and then he. talked to some other guys and he said. essentially make sure Martha stays here. keep her away from the newspaper and do. not let her call anybody that's right. and the big big reason uh that they were. worried about her uh was not just. because she liked to talk to the Press. but it was because one of the people. caught in the Watergate burglary and. arrested was a guy named James McCord uh. he was a security director for the. reelection uh committee for Nixon and. had a very close tie to that family.

because when her husband uh quit uh the. Attorney General position to become head. of that committee for reelection she. lost her SE uh Secret Service protection. and he got none other than James McCord. to be her private personal bodyguard so. if you can add one and two together as. Martha Mitchell you would know if you. knew James McCord was caught breaking. into the Watergate that it probably had. something to do with a Nixon campaign. yeah so I say we take a bre can we come.

back and talk about Martha Mitchell's. ordeal let's do. it. y should. know. y should. [Music]. [Music].

okay Chuck so uh Martha Mitchell is. being held in a hotel in luxury of. course this isn't you know she's not. like in some rundown Hotel this is a. nice hotel I'm presuming I don't know. why that matters it does a little bit. but it's unnecessary to say well they. didn't take her to like a abandoned. warehouse and tired to a chair oh great. great thank you for saving me um and. apparently for a little while they did.

they were able to keep her away from the. news I mean this was a time when there. was no such thing as 24-hour news. networks and you had to physically get. your hands on a newspaper to read the. news a lot of times but eventually she. did get a newspaper and she did read. about the Watergate Breakin and she did. read that James McCord her former. bodyguard was one of the people arrested. and she did put two and two together and. say I can't believe this but my husband. and probably Richard Nixon directed The.

Watergate Breakin who can I call that's. right uh she was pretty mad about the. fact that uh she was being kept in the. dark um obviously very frustrated uh. just watched that that trailer at least. with Julia Roberts and it got kind of. hairy in there so she starts fuming a. little bit and causing a bit of a. commotion um I'm not sure if it happened. exactly this way but in the TV show she. called from a a bathroom phone like. hotels have bathroom phone sometimes.

right there by the toilet and one of. these guys uh you know quote unquote. safeguarding her was an ex FBI agent. named Steve King uh burst into the. bathroom ripped the phone out of the. wall uh she was talking to Helen Thomas. of UPI one of her favorite reporters. that she liked to talk to and Helen. Thomas hears the line go dead uh tries. to get back in touch and then eventually. um calls John the husband who said that. little sweetheart I love her so much she. gets a little upset about politics but.

she loves me and I love her and that's. what counts when all along what had. happened is that Martha was physically. tackled and injected with a. tranquilizer Yeah by by a doctor but. still she was being held down and. sedated against her will which is nuts. again under the direction of her. husband yeah I mean it's better than. some FBI agent doing it but sure a. little I guess so I do have a huge. criticism of this operation though Chuck.

um I don't condone what they did to her. but if they were going to do it there. was a huge step that they missed which. is rent a second hotel room uh and get. rid of all of the phones in the hotel. room that Martha Mitchell's being kept. in and if John Mitchell wanted to get in. touch with her he could call the other. hotel room and then they could relay. whatever message they needed that was. just Bush League amateur stuff leaving. any phone in there if one of the. directives was to keep her away from the.

phone yeah and the and when they checked. in when they said well would you like. the paper slit under your door every. morning sir and they were like oh yeah. for sure right that sounds great is it. is it free because I don't want to pay. for it but if it's free definitely can. we get. two oh boy yeah they didn't do it right. uh Martha and we should say we're we're. kind of joking here because Martha was. not um injured or anything like that but. she was held against her will. essentially kidnapped held against her. will and then gaslit like nobody's ever.

been gaslit before uh because she. eventually was set free she went right. to the press and said I you know I was. detained I was forced into sedation and. the New York Times ran out on page. 25 and the Nixon Administration painted. her as a uh kind of a a crazy lady with. a drinking problem yeah I mean very much. so uh as a matter of fact they they. they're campaign was so far-reaching.

that when John Mitchell resigned from. being um the head of Nixon's re-election. committee he said that he needed to. spend or wanted to spend more time with. his wife and daughter the Nixon campaign. leaked to the press that the real reason. he left was because Martha had a. drinking problem and was unstable and. needed basically constant attention from. her husband which just supported the. whole idea that she was just off her. rocker talking about being held against. her will and sedated what is this lady.

even saying and yeah like who would do. that what kind of administration would. do that what kind of husband would do. that too even you know and I saw that. the stuff the articles that they did run. were run in the women's pages I made. scare quotes but that's what they were. at the time like women's interest stuff. and the way that they ran it was. essentially not like can you believe. what happened to this woman it's hey get. a load of this these two are a famous. married couple and there's trouble in. Paradise right like gossip yeah yeah so. this poor lady got dragged through the.

mud and we know for a fact that this. actually happened because later on James. McCord her former bodyguard who was. involved in the Watergate break-in he. confirmed it he said this absolutely. happened to her uh in 1975 he confirmed. it but one of the first things she did. was to call on Nixon to resign she's. like you were involved in Watergate you. need to step down and all Nixon did was. turn the heat up on the smear campaign. against her yeah I mean she seemed like. a like a very like she may have been. into gossip but she seemed like a very.

principled. conservative uh because she you know she. didn't like this dirty business from. Nixon no that was huge she was also a. very loyal spouse to the end she refused. to believe that her husband had you know. dreamed this up and that he essentially. was dragged into it and had been LED. astray into dirty politics like you said. so much so that she testified on his. behalf at his federal trial uh and yet. he still was like thanks a lot Martha. see you I'm walking out on you and if.

you weren't like wow this guy's a real. jerk already he gave a quote to the. Press after he was sentenced to 17 or 18. months in prison and he said hey it. could have been worse they could have. sentenced me to the rest of my life with. Martha oh. God can you imagine and she's this. lady's alive for to hear this to hear. her husband say this about her after. being that loyal to him you know and. mistaking who he was for so long yeah. let's just just go ahead and call him a.

real scumbag yeah let's I feel good. about that um so Martha um like you said. her husband served 19 months in prison. uh after walking out on uh Martha and. their do their daughter in. 1973 and later on Martha uh this. gaslighting would actually become a term. uh the Martha Mitchell effect uh because. of what happened to her which is um a. misinterpretation of a person's. Justified belief as a delusion. uh very sadly she died of cancer in 1976.

uh just a couple of years after Nixon. left office and uh yeah they and Julia. Roberts made a TV show about her so at. least her her story got out there in a. in a pretty major way you know yeah and. a few years after Nixon resigned he gave. an interview and he tried to drag her. through the mud a little more but. ultimately he he showed his hand and and. he kind of paid backhanded tribute to. her by saying if it hadn't been for. Martha there never would have been a.

Watergate like he never would have been. caught cuz he could have just kept. denying denying denying if you do that. enough you can get away with anything um. and that was Nixon's plan and Martha. under undermined that big time we. couldn't keep her sedated forever way to. go man who can you who can't you. do well anybody very. good all right well Chuck's saying that. and I don't know what to say so short. stuff's out. stuff you should know is a production of.

iHeart radio for more podcasts from. iHeart Radio visit the iHeart Radio app. Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to. your favorite shows. [Music].