Editing Checkers speech (section)

=== Introduction and office expenses ===
The speech opened with Nixon sitting at the desk. He began, "My fellow Americans, I come before you tonight as a candidate for the Vice Presidency, and as a man whose honesty and integrity has{{Sic|}} been questioned."{{sfn|Morris|1990|p=827}} Nixon indicated that he would not follow the example of the [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]] Administration and ignore charges, and that the best response to a smear "is to tell the truth".{{sfn|Black|2007|pp=247–248}}

Nixon mentioned the $18,000 Fund, and that he was accused of taking money from a group of his supporters.{{sfn|PBS, ''speech text''}} After stating that the Fund was wrong if he had profited from it, if it had been conducted in secret, or if the contributors received special favors, he continued,

{{blockquote |
Not one cent of the $18,000 or any other money of that type ever went to me for my personal use. Every penny of it was used to pay for political expenses that I did not think should be charged to the taxpayers of the United States. It was not a secret fund. As a matter of fact, when I was on ''[[Meet the Press]]'', some of you may have seen it last Sunday—Peter Edson came up to me after the program and he said, "Dick, what about this fund we hear about?" And I said, "Well, there's no secret about it. Go out and see Dana Smith, who was the administrator of the fund."{{sfn|PBS, ''speech text''}}
}}

[[File:Patnixoncheckers.JPG|thumb|[[Pat Nixon]] watches her husband deliver the Checkers speech.]]

Nixon stated that no contributor to the fund got any service that an ordinary constituent would not have received, and then anticipated the skeptical questions, "Well, what did you use the fund for, Senator? Why did you have to have it?"{{sfn|PBS, ''speech text''}} In response to his rhetorical question, he explained salary and office allowances for senators. He went through different ways that political expenses could be met. One way was to be rich, but he stated that he was not rich. Another way was to put one's spouse on the Congressional office payroll, as, he stated, his Democratic rival, Senator [[John Sparkman]], had done. Nixon did not feel comfortable doing that himself with so many deserving stenographers in Washington needing work, though Pat Nixon was a "wonderful stenographer" and sometimes helped out in the office as a volunteer. At this point, the camera turned from Nixon for the first time to reveal Pat Nixon sitting alongside the desk.{{sfn|Black|2007|p=248}}{{sfn|Morris|1990|pp=828–829}} Nixon indicated he could not continue his law practice, as some Congressmen did, due to the distance to California, and in any event he felt that practicing law while a lawmaker was a conflict of interest. Thus, he indicated, he had found that the best way to pay for political expenses not within his means was to allow contributors to do so. Nixon proffered the legal and accounting opinions as proof of his statements.{{sfn|PBS, ''speech text''}}