WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Martha Mitchell said Saturday that President Nixon should "resign" because of the Watergate bugging scandal.
"I think he should say goodbye," the wife of the former attorney general said in a telephone call to UPI reporter Helen Thomas.
Asked why she replied: "I think in order to give credibility to the Republican party and credibility to the United States."
Mrs Mitchell said that "if my husband knew anything about the Watergate break-in Mr Nixon also knew about it."
In her telephone conversation, Mrs Mitchell said that "Mr President should retire." She indicated that her reason for the suggestion was that Nixon was compromised by his aides thus hindering his ability to effectively govern.
"I think he let the country down," she said.
Mrs Mitchell said that before placing her telephone call to UPI she had attempted to call some of her friends in the administration through the White House switchboard Saturday but the operators refused to put her calls through.
"No one at the White House will allow me to speak to anyone," she said.
She said she realized that her husband "was in trouble" but added "we'll survive it."
She also said "I don't think he (Mitchell) going to get out of it."
Mrs Mitchell repeated her charge that she was severely pressured by the White House last year when she publicly demanded that her husband resign as Nixon's campaign manager.
"Those b---- at the White House tried at every chance they got to pass out rumors about me," she said. "You don't know what they put me through"
