G. Gordon Liddy, the Republican adviser who was convicted for his role in the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon, died on Tuesday.

The 90-year-old died at his daughter’s house in Virginia, his son Thomas P. Liddy told The Associated Press. He did not give a cause of death.

Liddy was convicted in 1973 and sentenced to 20 years in jail for conspiracy, burglary and illegally wiretapping the Democratic Party’s headquarters at the Watergate office complex. He served as Nixon’s general counsel on his reelection committee at the time.

Liddy was part of a small group of operatives known as the “White House plumbers,” whose mission was to identify anyone who had leaked information that made the Nixon administration look bad.

Prior to the Watergate break-in, he helped to illegally enter the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist. Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers, proving that the Johnson administration had lied to the public about the military’s role in the Vietnam War.

Despite spending more than four years in prison for his Watergate crimes, including more than 100 days in solitary confinement, he later said, “I’d do it again for my president.”

He refused to testify during the Watergate hearings as well as his own trial, later telling the Los Angeles Times, “My father didn’t raise a snitch or a rat.”

President Carter, a Democrat, commuted Liddy’s sentence, and he was released after serving 52 months in prison.

Liddy was born in Hoboken, N.J., on Nov. 30, 1930. He described himself as a frail child who was deeply fearful.

In a 1980 interview with NPR’s Fresh Air Host Terry Gross to promote his autobiography, Will, Liddy explained his unorthodox attempts to conquer his fears as a child and into adulthood.

He said that to overcome his fear of rats he emulated the traditions of Native American and Zulu tribes, who would “consume the heart, the brains and the genitalia” of their enemies.

“I cooked and consumed part of the rat. And thereafter, I had no fear of rats,” he claimed.

Liddy served in the Army and earned a law degree from Fordham University Law School before joining the FBI. He ran for a New York congressional seat, but after he lost the race, Liddy joined the U.S. Treasury Department and eventually the White House.

While he had taken great pride in remaining silent throughout the Watergate investigation and his own criminal trial, Liddy seemed to relish the notoriety the scandal brought him and he delighted in talking about it.

During the early 1990s, when he hosted one of the nation’s most popular conservative talk shows, Liddy openly discussed the botched burglary that led Nixon to resign in disgrace — absent any remorse except that he was caught.

He also took on numerous TV roles, acting as a villain in popular shows, including Miami Vice. And he became a regular on the college speaking circuit alongside LSD evangelist Timothy Leary.

Liddy is survived by five children.

As more Americans get vaccinated, the desire to get back out into the world and enjoy activities again is strong. The idea of so-called vaccine passports is increasingly discussed as a way for those who are vaccinated or negative for the coronavirus to prove they are virus-free, and return to something approaching normalcy.

But there is skepticism in some circles, particularly on the right, about the use of such tools, even though they largely don’t exist yet in the United States.

Among the opponents is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who rejects the notion of vaccine passports being used to restrict admissions to sites including movie theaters, sporting events, theme parks and airplanes.

“It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply be able to participate in normal society,” he said at a press conference Monday.

DeSantis said such passes were unnecessary, and he expressed privacy concerns over large corporations’ handling of vaccine data. “You want the fox to guard the henhouse?” he said. “Give me a break.”

He said he will issue emergency rules this week that will prevent businesses from requiring proof of vaccination, and will work with the Legislature on a permanent ban. The ban would be specific to COVID-19 vaccines used under the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization, he said, as all the vaccines currently administered in the United States are.

Schools’ and universities’ typical vaccination requirements against measles and the like are different, he said, and would be unaffected.

The NBA’s Miami Heat had already announced last week that it would have special sections at this Thursday’s game reserved for fully vaccinated fans. Masks will still be required, but social distancing will be relaxed in those sections.

The White House has repeatedly said that the federal government will not administer vaccine passports, in part because it’s clear that a federally run vaccine passport might cause some Americans to avoid getting vaccinated.

“We do know that there is a segment of the population that is concerned that the government will play too heavy-handed of a role in monitoring their vaccinations,” White House senior adviser Andy Slavitt said on Monday morning. “In point of fact, it would discourage people, to feel like that was the role we’re playing.”

Instead, Slavitt said, the federal government will issue guidelines and requirements to the private sector, which it anticipates will develop a “marketplace of solutions.”

DeSantis is taking a far different tack from New York state, where embattled Gov. Andrew Cuomo has already announced a voluntary digital pass that can demonstrate a person’s vaccination status or negative test result.

Cuomo described the digital passes as a way to get the state’s economy back on track and help venues open to larger groups. “It’s time to turn the page,” he said.

DeSantis also took issue with the somber warnings of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky on Monday, when she described feeling “impending doom” while watching U.S. coronavirus case numbers rise once more, and urged states not to open too soon.

“When you start talking about doom, what you’re saying is that the vaccines must not work, because we’ve had millions and millions of people around the country vaccinated,” DeSantis said.

He argued that the rise in cases is instead a seasonal pattern that will decline in April and May, and that many of the new cases are in young people who are not getting severe COVID-19, as many in the older population are now vaccinated.

“There’s a lot of people that have been protected by getting those vaccines out. So I think things are going well,” DeSantis said.

A 65-year-old Asian American woman was physically and verbally attacked by an unidentified man in midtown Manhattan on Monday, in an incident police say they are investigating as a hate crime.

Apartment building surveillance video of the assault, which appears to show security guards failing to intervene and then closing the door on the woman, has drawn horror and fury across social media.

The incident comes amidst a dramatic rise in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans, and is not the only high-profile attack to have taken place in New York City in recent days — or on Monday alone. At a daily briefing on Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio called the video “absolutely disgusting and outrageous,” and urged New Yorkers to take a more active role in combating anti-Asian hate.

“This is something where we all have to be part of the solution,” he said. “We can’t just stand back and watch a heinous act happening.”

The assault took place just before noon on West 43rd Street, the New York City Police Department said in a tweet accompanied by the surveillance footage. The graphic video shows a man approaching the woman, kicking her aggressively to the sidewalk, stomping on her head and upper body three times and slowly walking away.

Meanwhile, a worker is seen standing in the apartment building’s entrance and watching the attack in its entirety. As the woman tries to get up from the sidewalk, two other personnel enter the camera’s frame and one of them moves to shut the door.

The video does not capture sound, but police said the suspect “made anti-Asian statements” as he kicked the woman. CeFaan Kim, a reporter for Channel 7 Eyewitness News, wrote on Twitter that the man had said “F*** you, you don’t belong here.” He said that the woman, who was on her way to church at the time, was hospitalized with swelling to the face and pain in her left leg.

The woman suffered “a fractured pelvis and contusion to the head,” according to the station.

Kim shared additional video of the incident on Tuesday and said, citing a witness, that a man had chased down the assailant to confront him but the suspect pulled out a knife. Monday’s attack has gained widespread attention on social media, with many critics slamming the seeming inaction on the part of several bystanders.

“We’ve gone from being invisible to being seen as sub-human,” wrote Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y. “We just want to be seen as American like everyone else.”

The Brodsky Organization, which manages the apartment building, said in a statement that the staff who witnessed the attack had been suspended “pending an investigation in conjunction with their union,” adding that they condemned all forms of discrimination, racism and xenophobia against Asian Americans.

“The Brodsky Organization is also working to identify a third-party delivery vendor present during the incident so that appropriate action can be taken,” it added.

Kyle Bragg, president of Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, said in a statement on Tuesday the incident remains under investigation but current information shows that the door staff — members of the union — “called for help immediately.”

“Our union is working to get further details for a more complete account, and urge the public to avoid a rush to judgment while the facts are determined,” Bragg said.

The NYPD Hate Crimes Unit is asking for the public’s help in identifying the perpetrator.

On Tuesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he had directed the New York State Police’s Hate Crimes Task Force to investigate the incident as well so that the “individual responsible for this despicable act can be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

“Violence against our Asian American community is unfortunately becoming an epidemic in our state and across this nation, and it must stop now,” Cuomo said.

NYPD is also investigating another high-profile attack that took place on Monday, in which a person repeatedly punched an Asian man in the head on the subway as other passengers cried for help and called on him to stop. The suspect choked the man, leaving him unconscious on the floor before stepping off the train. Video of the incident circulated widely on social media.

The NYPD said last week that it had recorded 26 anti-Asian incidents this year, including 12 assaults, the AP reported. Those include a 68-year-old man punched on a subway train, a 37-year-old woman assaulted en route to an anti-Asian violence protest and a 54-year-old woman hit in the face with a metal pipe.

Physical and verbal attacks against Asian Americans have increased significantly since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, something that many experts attribute in large part to xenophobic rhetoric, including from former President Donald Trump.

Stop AAPI Hate, which tracks incidents of violence and harassment against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S., reported nearly 3,800 instances of discrimination against Asians between mid-March 2020 and the end of February, though advocates say many more attacks are likely going unreported.

At his Tuesday briefing, de Blasio said the city would use every available tool to bring an end to what he described as a “horrible trend.”

“We know very painfully it started in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “But it has to end here in New York City.”

Also on Tuesday, the White House announced a spate of new actions in response to the rise in attacks and harassment. Initiatives include funding for AAPI survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, a COVID-19 Equity Task Force committee for addressing xenophobia against Asian Americans and funding National Science Foundation research on discrimination and xenophobia.