The Coup Attempt and Watergate Have a Great Many Differences, But a Few Similiarities
Most people are pointing out the sharp contrasts between Watergate and the coup attempt. Select Committee member Jamie Raskin said that the insurrection “made Watergate look like a Cub Scout meeting.”
Having said that, there actually are certain similarities.
As shown at left, one of the president’s tactics was his attempt to stack the deck in the Justice Department.
What Nixon tried to do in this regard was a bit more complicated, and it ultimately resulted in his leaving office. Here’s the Wikipedia page covering the Saturday Night Massacre.
The Saturday Night Massacre was a series of events that took place in the United States on the evening of Saturday, October 20, 1973, during the Watergate scandal. U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox; Richardson refused and resigned effective immediately. Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox; Ruckelshaus refused, and also resigned. Nixon then ordered the third-most-senior official at the Justice Department, Solicitor General Robert Bork, to fire Cox. Bork carried out the dismissal as Nixon asked. Bork stated that he intended to resign afterward, but was persuaded by Richardson and Ruckelshaus to stay on for the good of the Justice Department.
The political and public reactions to Nixon’s actions were negative and highly damaging to the president. (This) marked the turning point of the Watergate scandal as the public, while increasingly uncertain about Nixon’s actions in Watergate, were incensed by Nixon’s seemingly blatant attempt to end the Watergate probe, while Congress, having largely taken a wait-and-see policy regarding Nixon’s role in the scandal, quickly turned on Nixon and initiated impeachment proceedings that would end in Nixon’s resignation.
At this point, I’m going to predict that Jeffrey Clark will go to prison, but will ultimately be fairly inconsequential in bringing the justice machine down on Trump.
