What was important about the “smoking gun” recording? the tape revealed president nixon’s involvement in the watergate scandal. the tape repudiated the fbi investigations into the watergate break-in. the tape disclosed the reason for white house firings. the tape uncovered the identity of deep throat.

 The tape revealed President Nixon's involvement in the Watergate scandal.

Context/details:

The first break-in by burglars was in May, 1972, as persons connected to the Nixon reelection campaign broke into the Democratic National Committee office in the Watergate complex of buildings in Washington, DC.  They were planting wire-taps on the Democrats' phone lines, and also stole copies of documents.  When the wire-taps didn't work properly, they broke in again (in June) to try to fix the surveillance devices, but they were caught.

Nixon's role in Watergate was especially in his efforts and those of members of his staff to cover up what had happened.

In July 1974, the White House was compelled to turn over subpoenaed tapes over to Special Prosecutor Ron Jaworski. As reported by Politico in an article (8/5/2018) remembering the release of the tapes:

Ultimately, the Watergate affair brought down the Nixon presidency.  He resigned in order to avoid impeachment.  And the whole affair made Americans more distrusting of government.

ummm? is that supposed to be a question or a but this is a reason he won re-election

explanation:

"despite progress in the war, lincoln and most political pundits were convinced that he would lose his bid for reelection in 1864. the country was war weary and the democratic party's nominee, george mcclellan, was likely to negotiate a peace treaty with the confederacy if elected." - loc.gov

what are the choices?