We passed the Nixon analogies a while back but some things still need to percolate to achieve peak Trump. The RW media has already tried to normalize his culpability and now rationalize ways to have him to admit guilt, yet stay in office. Trump has always seen the presidency as a lark, and secondary to his main hobbies, so his sense of Nixonness will be that he and his wealth will survive and even thrive after the disaster he’s wrought.
Trump thinks he is the target of a 'witch hunt.' ... Former president Richard Nixon also used that phrase when speaking about the Senate Watergate hearings looking into the scandal that eventually led to his resignation…
As a naval officer during WWII, Nixon sailed the logistical prairie in Iowa, and Senator Blumenthal served as a Marine reservist during Vietnam.
During that time, Trump served in the trenches of Studio 54, wearing raincoats and being grabby.
Richard Nixon, New York Times interview with David Frost, 1977
“Oh, when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.”
Barry Goldwater, Goldwater, 1988
“He was the most dishonest individual I ever met in my life. President Nixon lied to his wife, his family, his friends, longtime colleagues in the US Congress, lifetime members of his own political party, the American people and the world.”
Eric Hoffer, Before the Sabbath, 1979
“The Nixon tragedy: A man of unsurpassed courage and outstanding intelligence but without vision. An opportunist who missed his greatest opportunity.”
Richard Nixon, televised press conference, 1973
“I want to say this to the television audience. I made my mistakes, but in all of my years of public life, I have never profited, never profited from public service. I have earned every cent. And in all of my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I can say that in my years of public life, that I welcome this kind of examination because people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook. I’ve earned everything I’ve got.”
Richard Nixon, as quoted by John Dean in The Rehnquist Choice, 2001
“I’m not for women, frankly, in any job. I don’t want any of them around. Thank God we don’t have any in the Cabinet.”
Hunter S. Thompson, He Was A Crook, 1994
“He could shake your hand and stab you in the back at the same time. If the right people had been in charge of Nixon’s funeral, his casket would have been launched into one of those open-sewage canals that empty into the ocean just south of Los Angeles. He was a swine of a man and a jabbering dupe of a president. Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning. Even his funeral was illegal. He was queer in the deepest way. His body should have been burned in a trash bin.”
Richard Nixon, resignation address, 1974
“I have never been a quitter.”
Richard Nixon, letter to John Dean, 1973
“If you are going to lie, you go to jail for the lie rather than the crime. So believe me, don’t ever lie.”
www.signature-reads.com/...
Congress is taking it seriously. Republican-led committees in the Senate and the House are leading parallel investigations into Russia's meddling in the U.S. election and have said they'll go wherever the facts lead.
Outside those committees, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Congress are writing legislation to give Mueller room to do his investigation and make sure that Trump can't fire him. It's yet another example of Congress putting its faith somewhere besides with Trump. They forced Trump to sign a Russia sanctions bill into law last week, and the Senate left town but technically stayed in session so that Trump can't fire, then self-replace, his attorney general and reshape the special counsel investigation…
Congress, the judicial branch and Trump's own administration have all played a role in expanding the investigation and taking it seriously. If this were a “witch hunt,” as Trump claims, then it's a “witch hunt” the entire political and judicial system is in on. Even the most cynical person has to acknowledge that would be an extraordinary conspiracy the likes of which the United States has never seen…
Now, just because an investigation is indeed very real doesn't mean we know its conclusion. It could take months, even years, to finish, much less come to a conclusion about whether Trump colluded with Russia to win the White House. But with each passing day, it's increasingly clear this investigation is neither made up nor built on fake news.