“We’ve seen this movie before”, McCain said, according to CNN’s Ana Navarro. [Image by Henry Burroughs/AP Images] Tape recorders were discovered in Nixon’s office, and it soon became evident that the president had been spying on, among others, the DNC.
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There’s certainly a concern in the market that Trump’s policy agenda of tax cuts and deregulation could be derailed by these controversies, Cashin said. Nixon directed his attorney general (Elliott Richardson if I recall correctly) to fire the special prosecutor (Archibald Cox). When Nixon was moved against, it was by a congress controlled by the Democrats. Shortly after the news broke, House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffez (R-Utah) requested the Federal Bureau of Investigation hand over any documents detailing communications between Trump and Comey.
Mr Bernstein said the decision was part of a willful effort by Mr Trump to stop the public “knowing the facts” about his alleged links with Russian Federation.
Echoing the same slactivism which led to a Trump presidency in the first place, Republicans who talk a semi-large game but still back the President when push comes to shove help to ensure that nothing will come of this news, nor any other news from the Trump administration. “I think it’s the biggest story since Watergate”.
Carl Bernstein, who reported on Watergate alongside Wallace, offered a more ominous take on CNN. It was then discovered that Nixon had taped conversations in the Oval Office and these tapes were retained. President Trump will do everything in his power to make that happen with more outrageous statements and actions.
Much like there was a Trump rally after the real estate magnate’s surprise November election, there was a Nixon rally after he was reelected. Last week, he abruptly fired former FBI Director James Comey, which concerned some because of the agency’s investigation into Russian Federation and his campaign. Who knows, at this point Trump may be evil or he may be the greatest president ever. “You don’t find people who mentioned they worked at the Nixon White House unless they were high enough and conspicuous and had to admit it”.
Nixon “had trouble with his desk drawer”, Dean said.
The claims of White House involvement in the Watergate cover-up remained there until July 1974, when, after a year-long battle for access to the tapes Nixon recorded of his conversations resulted in the release of the June 23, 1972, “smoking gun” tape of the conversation between Haldeman and Nixon in which the president signed off on having the Central Intelligence Agency block the investigation. If most party leaders in the House and Senate hold firm in defense of the President, Trump understands that – at least until the 2018 midterm elections – party discipline would curtail the scale and scope of any congressional investigation.
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Perhaps I’ve been reading too many dystopian novels lately – I’ve finished a re-read of George Orwell’s classic “1984”, I’m now absorbed by Omar El Akkad’s brilliant and frightening “American War”, and a re-read of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” is next up – but the firing of FBI Director James Comey has the feel of a slide into tyranny. Any Trump loyalist abandoning the president in that way would “certainly remind everybody” about Nixon, Cashin said.
