Nixon Declared Americans Deserved To Know ‘Whether Their President Is A Crook’ – Trump Says The Opposite

BY BSPENCER GOIDEL

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF 

POLITICAL SCIEINCE

AUBURN UNIVERSITY

One of the four criminal trials of Donald Trump was slated to start in the next few days, but has been delayed on procedural grounds. There was a time when it appeared possible all of his trials could happen before the November election. Now it is unclear whether even one will begin in time. As a result, on Election Day, the voting public may not know a key fact about candidate Trump: whether a jury has found him guilty of one or more crimes.

Like Trump, scandal followed Richard Nixon throughout his political career. And, like Trump, Nixon always managed to claw his way back into the political forefront.

Until he didn’t.

As a scholar of American politics and public opinion, I believe the parallels between Trump and Nixon are clear.

Yet there is a telling difference between the two men. Nixon acknowledged the fundamental importance of accountability in a democracy. He went so far as to famously declare – during the height of the Watergate scandal – that “people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook.”

Trump, on the other hand, outright rejects the assertion that the American people should be able to find out what the justice system says about whether a prospective president is a crook.

In fact, he has gone so far as to assert that the “president of the United States must have full immunity, without which it would be impossible for him/her to properly function.”

Nixon made a similar statement in 1977, telling British journalist David Frost in 1977 that “when the president does it … that means that it is not illegal.” But Nixon hastened to add a crucial caveat that he was talking about war powers and national security, and specifically emphasized that he did not “mean to suggest the president is above the law.”

Afterward, Nixon responded to the backlash from the interview, writing a long-winded clarification that reiterated that the president is not above the law.

Similar, but quite different

Superficially, Nixon and Trump’s brands of politics share a lot of similarities.

Both men positioned themselves against allegedly crooked liberal elites and used the fact that they were being investigated as evidence that the people in power were trying to silence them and people like them.

As far back as 1952, Nixon was accused of keeping a secret stash of donor funds when he was a U.S. senator and a candidate for vice president. His fate as Dwight D. Eisenhower’s running mate in that year’s presidential election looked increasingly uncertain.

His instinct was to go public. On live TV, in what came to be known as the “Checkers speech,” Nixon took his case directly to the American people. He positioned himself – an ordinary American with two mortgages, a bank loan and a loan from his parents – against the political elite. That elite, Nixon said, believed only rich men should be in politics, and Nixon was just a regular guy.

More than two decades later, Nixon, again facing disgrace, took his case to the public. The Watergate scandal, in which Republican operatives sought to secretly listen in on Democratic Party business, broke in the summer of 1972. Even before that year’s election, Nixon’s White House aides and his campaign were linked to the effort. Nixon went on to win every state but Massachusetts in the Electoral College.

His popularity peaked at 67% in late January 1973 following the inauguration for his second term. However, as the Watergate scandal unfolded, Nixon’s personal involvement in the spying and attempts to cover it up became increasingly clear to the public. His popularity plummeted.

One year after a landslide Electoral College victory, only 27% of Americans approved of the job Nixon was doing as president. In that context, Nixon made a public plea of innocence and forthrightness, declaring that the “people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook.” And he immediately followed that statement with a lie: “Well, I’m not a crook.”

A contrast in support, and tactics

Nixon’s instinct to make his case to the American people in the face of political peril emphasizes a key difference from Trump.

Throughout his first term, Nixon enjoyed substantially higher approval than Trump. On average, 56% of Americans approved of the job Nixon was doing in his first term, compared with only 41% for Trump. Liberal elites may have decried Nixon’s claim that he had the support of a “silent majority” at the time, but from a historical perspective, his popularity is undeniable.

Trump’s approval tells a different story and illustrates the differences in the breadth and depth of their support. In February 1972, 52% of Americans approved of the job Nixon was doing: 80% of Republicans, 51% of independents and 36% of Democrats. Compare that with Trump’s approval in February 2020: 47% overall approval, 92% approval among Republicans, 42% with independents and 8% with Democrats.

While most recent polls show that Trump is leading in 2024’s apparent rematch of the 2020 election, he rarely eclipses the 50% threshold. Trump is president of a vocal minority, not the silent majority. Trump doesn’t have to appeal to Democrats, or the median voter for that matter, because he has the undying support of his faction. And the U.S. system of electing presidents is biased in a way that means his vocal minority can deliver victory.

READ ORIGINAL STORY HERE

Nixon Tapes Released On Resignation's Anniversary

And made available by Raiford Communications, Inc., former president Richard Nixon talks about his 1974 resignation in a series of interviews conducted by former White House aide Frank Gannon in New York City. The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and the privately held Nixon Foundation are co-releasing a trove of videotaped interviews with the former president to mark the 40th anniversary of his resignation following the Watergate scandal. The 28 minutes of tape, detailing Nixon's personal turmoil in his final week in office, were culled from more than 30 hours of tape recorded in 1983.

YORBA LINDA, CALIF. (AP) — Almost a decade after Richard Nixon resigned, the disgraced former president sat down with his one-time aide and told the tale of his fall from grace in his own words.

For three decades, that version of one of the nation's largest and most-dissected political scandals largely gathered dust — until this week. Starting Tuesday, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Nixon's resignation, portions of the tapes will be published each day by the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum and the private Richard Nixon Foundation. The postings begin with Nixon recalling the day he decided to resign and end Saturday — his last day in office — with the 37th president discussing his final day at the White House, when he signed the resignation agreement, gave a short speech and boarded a helicopter for San Clemente, California.

The segments were culled from more than 30 hours of interviews that Nixon did with former aide Frank Gannon in 1983. The sections on Watergate aired publicly once, on CBS News, before gathering dust at the University of Georgia for more than 30 years.

"This is as close to what anybody is going to experience sitting down and having a beer with Nixon, sitting down with him in his living room," said Gannon, now a writer and historian in Washington, D.C.

"Like him or not, whether you think that his resignation was a tragedy for the nation or that he got out of town one step ahead of the sheriff, he was a human being," he said. Nixon, who died in 1994, had hoped that providing his own narrative would help temper America's final judgment of him.

Perhaps with that in mind, he didn't shy away from the tough questions, commenting on everything from the threat of impeachment to the so-called "smoking gun" conversation that included evidence he participated in a Watergate cover-up.

"This was the final blow, the final nail in the coffin. Although you don't need another nail if you're already in the coffin — which we were," Nixon said in a segment about the June 23, 1972 tape. Nixon said when he decided to resign, he faced such strong resistance from his wife that he brought a transcript of the "smoking gun" tape to a family meeting to show her how bad it was.

"I'm a fighter, I just didn't want to quit. Also I thought it would be an admission of guilt, which of course it was," he said. "And, also, I felt it would set a terribly bad precedent for the future."

The tone of the tapes contrasts with the sometimes adversarial tone of the well-known series of Nixon interviews done in 1977 by British journalist David Frost. Nixon appears relaxed in the tapes. He smiles occasionally, speaks fondly about his two daughters and wife and seems emotional while recalling the final days of his fraught administration, as pressure mounted for his impeachment over a 1972 break-in at Democratic headquarters by burglars tied to the president's re-election committee who were trying to get dirt on his political adversaries.

The decision to release these friendly interviews now, years after the fact, might not be a coincidence, said Luke Nichter, a Nixon expert and professor at Texas A&M University. With the passage of time, he said, every former president sees their legacy re-examined and recast, and Nixon may be no different.

"Watergate's never going to go away," Nichter said. "Nixon's role in that and the cover-up is so well-documented. But I think what we're trying to say here, 40 years later, is Nixon doesn't have to be all bad or all good. He can be a combination of the good, bad and ugly."

Nixon denied knowing about plans for the break-in beforehand, but an 18 1/2 minute gap in a recording of a post-Watergate White House meeting led many to suspect a cover-up. Faced with impeachment and a possible criminal indictment, Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974, and retreated to his native California. The following month he was granted a pardon by President Gerald Ford.

In the final segment to be released Saturday, Nixon recalls his last day at the White House. After a fitful night, he awoke at 4 a.m. and went to the kitchen where he was surprised to find a kitchen staffer already there.

The staffer told Nixon it was 6 a.m., not two hours earlier — the president's watch had stopped overnight. "The battery had run out, wore out at 4 o'clock the last day I was in office," Nixon said ruefully. "By that day, I was worn out too."

Memorable Images and Time (Jesse Owens)

Heavyweight boxer Joe Louis puts his arm around Jesse Owens, Ohio State University track star and holder of three world's records. They were introduced during a boxing program sponsored by the Colored Elks. Washington, D.C., August 27, 1935.


Vice President Richard Nixon met with Illinois Republicans here 10/14/1958 to open a 6-day campaign tour in behald of GOP congressional candidates. With Nixon is famous track star Jesse Owens, left, now running for county commissioner. Nixon said the GOP campaign is picking up and "we have every chance to upset those who predict defeat." Date: October 14, 1958. Location: Chicago, Illinois


Jesse Owens, sensational track star of the Olympic games, waving to crowds during the "ticker-tape" parade up Manhattan in honor of the Olympic athletes. Fifty-two members of the Olympic squad, last of the 150 American athletes to return from Germany, arrived in New York, Sept. 3 on the liner Manhattan. Others of the squad who arrived last week joined them in the parade. Date: September 03, 1936.