Vance peddles Watergate nonsense as White House tries to rewrite Nixon-era scandal
By: Steve Benen (MS NOW)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
For those who support the integrity of the historical record, especially as it relates to Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal, it has been an unfortunate week. In fact, it was earlier this week when Ed Martin, Donald Trump's highly controversial U.S. pardon attorney, published a bizarre item to social media, arguing that the scandal was a "hoax" orchestrated in part by the CIA.
Martin added, "The only thing worse than the lying CIA is the two-faced liar John Dean [who served as Nixon's White House counsel] and the fiction-writer [Bob] Woodward. May they suffer in eternity."
The Republican activist's claims were ridiculous, but hours later they were nevertheless endorsed by Monica Crowley, a former Fox News personality who currently serves as the Trump administration's chief of protocol. "President Nixon was the target of a Deep State hoax," Crowley wrote online while referencing Martin's tweet. "He will be vindicated."
Days later, JD Vance appeared at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in California, where the vice president kept the rhetorical campaign going.
JD Vance: "I think Nixon's historical legacy is enjoying a bit of a renaissance, and deservedly so. I joked that if Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12 hours news story. The idea that it took down a presidency is crazy."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)2026-06-25T21:03:32.010Z
After arguing that Nixon's legacy is "enjoying a bit of a renaissance," the Ohio Republican said, "As I joked … 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."
As part of the same comments, Vance argued in apparent seriousness, "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 are a few ways to look at comments like these.
First, the idea that Watergate wouldn't have endured as a major political scandal may very well be true. In 1973 and 1974, there were still a significant number of congressional Republicans willing to turn against a corrupt Republican president in the face of overwhelming evidence; major media outlets aligned with the White House didn't really exist; and it was an era in which there was greater accountability for political wrongdoing.
But what the vice president described was more an indictment of our twisted political culture and less a credible effort to downplay the seriousness of Watergate.
Second, the idea that Nixon was brought down by nefarious government insiders who plotted against him is plainly bonkers. We have, after all, heard the tapes. Nixon chose to engage in systemic abuses. His crimes were his own, not the fault of "the deep state," whether Vance chooses to acknowledge reality or not.
Historian and journalist Garrett Graff, who wrote one of the defining books about Watergate, described Vance's comments as "shockingly a-historical" and an "immature understanding of what Watergate was and wasn't."
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Compared to the scandals and abuses of the corrupt, traitorous Trumpist regime, Nixon almost does look less villainous, but not by much.
Vance is a deviant.
you'd think it would be easier for them to vilify nixon vs trump, and I'm afraid jd's only hope of gaining higher office is to inherit it ...
The good news is that the smarmy creep Vance has no chance of ever being elected President.
I hope he and his family enjoy their new lives in india ...
They don't want him there.
If he does inherit the Presidency and stands for election, I am thinking that he will make moves towards declaring election results invalid, tainted and /or otherwise spoiled in an attempt to remain in power, per his mentor.
I dont see independents going for Vance.
We do not really appreciate him here, either.
Not in the least.
When Trump is done that's the end of Vance's political career. He is completely ruined by his close association with the worst, least popular President ever, and he's done plenty on his own to make himself unacceptable.
maga sycophants seem to have learned to excel at not only breaking the law, and also for a large part, to successfully obstruct the legal processes to punish them for it ...
and most of maga can't stand him ...
They want to normalize the Trump crowd's criminal behavior.
That is exactly what it is. A PR stunt.
it seems that immunity from prosecution and jail time for criminal activities is a long standing perk of imperial presidencies ...
Exactly. And to do that, they have to try and make Nixon the victim of the fantasy bogey man "deep state" that some incredibly stupid people apparently still believe in. I mean, these folk aren't just stupid, they're total lunatic conspiracy theory believers that are a danger to themselves and others. But you can't really expect them to stay sane after having their heads shoved up Trumps ass for so long.
My most favourite Canadian Prime MInister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau,despised Nixon. But then, to be fair, I suppose we shouldn't forget Monica Lewinsky, eh?
With all due respect, Buzz, I fail to see the connection between proven criminal actions and a blow job.
there isn't one ...
With all due respect, Thomas, neither Nixon nor Clinton were charged with committing a criminal act, but what each did was scandalous. The point of my comment is that it is hypocritical and prejudicial to name a President of one party for committing a scandalous act when Presidents of BOTH parties did so.
Nixon was saved from criminal prosecution by Ford's pardon.
So are you trying to derail the article with a whataboutism? I don't recall Clinton being mentioned.
The article was about the VP trying to whitewash what Nixon did by blaming it on some hallucinatory and bogus deep-state conspiracy. Clinton does not enter into the discussion of the conspiracy theory Vance was trying to push. Clinton at the time of the Watergate break-in was at Yale Law School.
If you have information connecting Clinton to the Watergate break-in, cover-up, subsequent investigation and resignation to avoid impeachment, then by all means, post it.
Well, somehow I thought corruption by an American President was the topic. My not being an American might explain why I'm not quite so biased as an American might be on an American political topic.
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Good thing I'm not the author of this seed. I don't put up with derails
we'll probably be dealing with the fallout from a recent public humiliation for awhile ...
Watching this weenie get publicly shunned by other foreign dignitaries is hilarious. (sorry buzz, it’s YouTube)
Sorry, I'm afraid to thank you for being considerate, cause it will probably be deleted for being off topic or no value.
please stay on topic and take your meta elsewhere if you wish to participate in this group.
I hope Trump watches the Daily Show.
It would tie him in knots
You have to be deeply ignorant or insane to think “the deep state” took down Richard Nixon.
These are the depths that the current administration has dived to. Actually, they started out pretty low to begin with....
"We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated," - Donald Trump
The most important take of this seed. 55 years ago, character mattered