Howard Henry Baker Jr. dies at 88; key player in Watergate hearings

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U.S. President Ronald Reagan laughs during a meeting in Senate Minority Leader Howard Baker’s office on Capitol Hill in 1983. Sens. Strom Thurmond and John Tower joined Baker in sharing a laugh with the President. (David Hume Kennerly / Getty Images)

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Sen. Howard Baker reacting to story told on steps of courthouse in Huntsville, Tenn. (Associated Press / Associated Press)

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Former Sen. Howard Baker died Thursday at age 88. (Knoxville News Sentinel / AP)

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This 1980 file photo shows President-elect Ronald Reagan, center, talking with Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, right, and Sen. Howard Baker, R-Tenn., during a luncheon at Blair House in Washington. Baker, who asked what President Richard Nixon knew about Watergate, has died. (Bob Daugherty / AP)

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This Nov. 9, 1979 file photo shows three members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, from left, Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., Sen. Howard Baker, R-Tenn., and Sen. Charles Percy, R-Ill., discussing the vote in favor of the SALT II treaty. (Charles W. Harrity / AP)

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This Dec. 4, 1980 file photo shows Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd of W.Va., right, talking to the man who will replace him, Sen. Howard Baker. Baker served 18 years in the Senate. He earned the respect of Republicans and Democrats alike and rose to the post of majority leader. He served as White House chief of staff at the end of the Reagan administration and was U.S. ambassador to Japan during President George W. Bush’s first term. (Chick Harrity / AP)

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Former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker, left, looks on as former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander casts his electoral college vote for president in the Tennessee House of Representatives chamber in Nashville on Dec. 18, 2000. (Mark Humphrey / Associated Press)

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Howard Baker and Sen. Nancy Kassebaum (R-Kan.) pose after their wedding at St. Alban’s Church in Washington in 1996. (Dennis Reggie / Associated Press)

By Johanna Neuman, Lauren Raab

June 26, 2014 10:54 AM PT

Howard Henry Baker Jr., a respected Washington insider who played a pivotal role in the Watergate hearings in 1973, has died. He was 88.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the death on the Senate floor.

The former Republican senator from Tennessee had many leading roles in his long career in government, including White House chief of staff for President Ronald Reagan and U.S. ambassador to Japan.

But Baker, who forged a life of consensus in a capital known for contention, is best remembered for the one question he asked of witnesses during the Watergate hearings: “What did the president know, and when did he know it?”

The answers doomed the presidency of Richard M. Nixon and sealed Baker’s reputation as that rare find: a thoughtful politician who, as one reporter suggested, “had nothing at heart but the interests of our country.”

Baker later revealed that, at first, he believed in Nixon’s innocence, but changed his mind as evidence accumulated of White House involvement in the June 17, 1972, break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington.

News of Baker’s death drew immediate reaction from colleagues, many of whom also knew and served with his wife, a former senator from Kansas.

“It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of one of the Senate’s most towering figures: Senator Howard Baker,” McConnell (R-Ky.) said in prepared remarks. “In particular, we wish to pass along our deep sympathies to his wife, Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker. Many of us served alongside Nancy here in the Senate. We know this must be a most difficult moment for her.”

Sen. Lamar Alexander, a fellow Republican from Tennessee and former legislative assistant to Baker, called him “Tennessee’s favorite son, one of America’s finest leaders.” He said his former boss had been an “an indispensable friend” to Alexander and his wife.

For more news, follow @raablauren on Twitter.

Howard Henry Baker Jr. dies at 88; key player in Watergate hearings

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