On November 17, 1973, at the annual
Associated Press Managing Editors convention in
Orlando, Florida, Ungaro asked Nixon about his reported underpayment of
income taxes in 1970 and 1971. Nixon's famous declaration came after he answered a subsequent question about the
Watergate scandal, posed by then president of the association
Dick Smyser of
Oak Ridge, Tennessee's
The Oak Ridger. At the end of that reply, Nixon doubled back to Ungaro's question, saying: "I welcome this kind of examination because people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook." Nixon later agreed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. == Later career ==