Nixon v. Trump: Watergate v. 6 January 2021

Nixon v. Trump: Watergate v. 6 January 2021/3 March 2022/Lawrence S. DiCara

Some years ago, I co-authored a paper with a recent Boston Latin School graduate who was then at B.U.?We compared Nixon and Trump.?Although there were similarities, there were also significant differences, given that Nixon had served in government for so long and surrounded himself with people who were experienced, whereas Donald Trump was the exact opposite.?

Recent reading this winter has reminded me of the many horrors of Watergate, now all public, which I followed closely while serving on the Boston City Council.?One of the essential ongoing issues was the destruction of evidence, as Richard Nixon wanted to be sure that there was no paper trail [in those days, there was no such thing as an electronic trail, other than thin tapes of his conversations] linking him to anyone who had done anything wrong.

Now it appears that the National Archives have been securing documents which have been illegally sequestered by Donald Trump at Mar a Lago. Was the nation’s great huckster thinking he could sell/auction off these public documents, just as he does with MAGA paraphernalia? It has also been brought to light that Donald Trump would routinely shred public documents which belonged to the National Archives.?The Washington Post reports that he tore up briefings, schedules, articles, letters and memos both sensitive and mundane.?“He ripped paper into quarters with two big clean strokes or occasionally more vigorously into smaller scraps.”?All of this was done in violation of the Presidential Records Act. In my unprofessional opinion, both men have suffered from a definitive paranoia.

There is also some similarity between the Watergate break-in and all that surrounded the events of January?6, 2021.?Both of them posed a challenge to our nation and our Constitution. In one case, stonewalling by the President and those around him impeded and delayed criminals from coming to justice.?Now we have learned that trusted confidantes to the then President were strategizing while sitting in the Willard Hotel while armed men and women, and many who were not armed, assaulted the Capitol. In both cases, Nixon and Trump have violated the oath of office which all elected officials must take, by not defending the Constitution.

The American people have great tolerance. They have had leaders who were corrupt, leaders who were womanizers, leaders who drank too much, etc.?But, at a certain point, even those who are loyal must draw a line. In the case of Richard Nixon, the line was drawn in August of 1974 when he was told by Barry Goldwater that the votes were not there in the Senate, that in fact he would be removed from office.?At some point, during this current crisis, there may been a similar moment.?Perhaps Mike Pence’s courageous statement that “President Trump is wrong”, as well a statement by Mitch McConnell may begin the realignment of the Republican Party. There are many Republicans, arguably tens of millions of them, who believe in protecting and defending the Constitution. May they now insist on cleansing their ranks of those who do not.