WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Tennessee Republican Howard Baker, a pivotal figure in the Senate Watergate inquiry that pushed U.S. President Richard Nixon toward resignation and who later helped salvage Ronald Reagan’s presidency amid the Iran-Contra scandal, died on Thursday. He was 88. Baker stood out during the Senate’s 1973 Watergate hearings by asking witnesses, “What did the president know and when did he know it?” He died at his home in Huntsville, Tennessee, from complications of a stroke suffered on Saturday, said Tom Griscom, a long-time Baker friend who served as his press secretary in the Senate.
