Rufus Edmisten cut his teeth in the political world as counsel to former U.S. Sen. Samuel Ervin Jr. Ervin was the chairman of what is commonly known as the Watergate Committee, and Edmisten played a key role in that committee’s work as well.
He personally served the subpoena to President Richard Nixon for the Watergate tapes, which was the first-ever Congressional subpoena of a sitting president. Edmisten went on to to serve in North Carolina as attorney general and secretary of state. His new memoir “That’s Rufus: A Memoir of Tar Heel Politics, Watergate and Public Life” (McFarland and Company/2019) chronicles his political career.
Host Frank Stasio talks to Edmisten about the memoir, his experience in the Watergate investigation and about how that scandal compares to the political climate of today. Edmisten will be at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh on Thursday, May 30 at 6 p.m.
