the last book I ever read (Gerald R. Ford: The American Presidents Series: The 38th President, 1974-1977, excerpt five)

from Gerald R. Ford: The American Presidents Series: The 38th President, 1974-1977 by Douglas Brinkley:

In truth, the vice president did not want to hear the tapes in Nixon’s possession, and scrupulously avoided every opportunity to do so. If he did hear the evidence, after all, he could hardly keep waging the campaign he had taken up, which he summarized in a remark at Harvard University in March 1974: “I don’t happen to believe on the basis of the evidence I am familiar with—and I think I’m familiar with most of it—that the President was involved in Watergate per se or involved in the cover-up, but time will tell.” As Nixon began to fall, Ford thus kept himself carefully positioned on the sidelines, where his view of Watergate looked not much closer than that of the American public. To many observers, the new vice president looked an outright fool for continuing to proclaim Nixon’s innocence.