For a speech ostensibly about his own potential scandal, Nixon sure spends a lot of time criticizing his opponents and their weakness in the face of existential communist threats.

While there are bits thrown about early on, it's mostly towards the end of the speech that Nixon goes full-blown fear monger. He says "I think my country is in danger" (168) and goes on to elaborate just how dangerous it might be to have such a man as Stevenson as president; someone who "has pooh-poohed and ridiculed the Communist threat in the United States" (188).

Nixon's going way out of his way to drum up this kind of knee-jerk fear of a communist threat. This speech is supposed to be about his secret fund, not about Stevenson's record on communism. This mud-slinging at Stevenson is just gratuitous—a total distraction, but it played well in Peoria.