(Adnkronos) – “As I jokingly said before going on stage, if Watergate happened tomorrow, the news would disappear from the media after 12 hours. The idea that it brought down a presidency is crazy.” Thus Jd Vance, presenting his book at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library Museum, half-seriously and half-jokingly questioned the legitimacy of one of the most important pages in American history of the last century, the scandal that forced Richard Nixon to resign in 1974.
Not only that. The vice president, who during the meeting repeatedly expressed his admiration for Nixon, stating that the 37th president’s legacy “is experiencing a certain renaissance,” did not hesitate to draw a parallel between him and Donald Trump, both targeted by the forces of the ‘deep state,’ a term used by Trump supporters and Maga to indicate the governmental and bureaucratic structures that would oppose their force for change.
“If we look at how the deep state brought down Richard Nixon, it’s not very different from the same group of people, the same institutions that tried to do the same to Donald Trump during his first administration,” he stated, referring to the two impeachment trials faced by Trump.
But the comparisons didn’t stop there; the vice president, who is increasingly eyeing a run for the White House in 2028, did not hesitate to highlight the profile similarities between himself and Nixon. “Young senator, vice president, writes some bestsellers, is hated by the media – he said – sounds a lot like JD Vance, I’ve always liked Richard Nixon.”
The Watergate scandal, which began in 1972 with the failed break-in attempt at the Democratic campaign offices located in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, first developed into the famous journalistic investigation by the Washington Post, followed by that of Congress which revealed that Nixon was aware of the break-in and tried to sabotage and cover up the FBI investigations. Once audio recordings proving Nixon’s direct involvement came to light, the House approved three articles of impeachment, and at this point, on August 9, 1974, the president resigned to avoid facing a trial whose outcome seemed a foregone conclusion.
