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It was the scandal which ended the presidency of Richard Nixon in 1974, and in remarks made at the Richard Nixon Foundation on Thursday, US vice president JD Vance claimed Watergate would be a “12-hour news story” if it happened tomorrow.
Referencing the 1972 break-in at the Democrat National Committee by individuals linked to Nixon, the former Ohio senator said: “I think [Nixon’s] historical legacy is enjoying a bit of a renaissance, but I think deservedly so.
“As I joked with [Richard Nixon Foundation chairman] Robert [C. O’Brien] backstage, if Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story. The idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy.
“By the way, if you look at the story of how the deep state took down Richard Nixon, it’s not all that different from what the same groups of people, the same institutions tried to do to Donald Trump in the first Trump administration. There is a parallel.”
But this “parallel” pointed out by Vance has since seen the VP criticised on social media, with CNN’s chief political analyst David Axelrod branding the remarks “mind-boggling”:
Max Steele, of the gun violence prevention organisation Everytown, responded by sharing a meme claiming Vance was “bragging”:
“This is just not the thing you say in public holding a microphone,” tweeted Mikey Smith, US political editor at The Mirror:
And author Don Winslow said Vance’s comments were “so. F***ing. Revealing”:
Back in October, Trump raised eyebrows when he claimed his first impeachment – during his first presidential term – was a “far bigger illegal hoax than Watergate”.
“The Ukraine impeachment (of me!) Scam was a far bigger illegal Hoax than Watergate. I sincerely hope the necessary authorities, including CONGRESS, are looking into this,” he wrote on Truth Social at the time.
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