A member of former President Richard Nixon’s family has spoken publicly for the first time about the president’s disgraced resignation following the Watergate scandal, saying it’s a reminder of how unfairly Donald Trump is currently being treated.
Ed Cox, Mr. Nixon’s son-in-law and now chairman of the New York Republican Party, argued Sunday that his late father-in-law was treated unfairly by a robust Democratic-run Congress and a far more centralized, liberal-dominated media at the time.
Cox — Asked on 770 WABC “Cat’s Round Table” Asked if the effort to oust Nixon was similar to Democrats’ prosecution of Trump, he said, “Absolutely.”
“[Trump’s] “Two impeachments, of course, with legal warfare,” Cox, who married Nixon’s daughter Trish in 1971, said of the partisan prosecution.
Nixon was involved in the infamous Watergate hotel break-in carried out by Republican operatives against his Democratic opponents in 1972 and its eventual cover-up.
He resigned from office on August 8, 1974, in the midst of the famous impeachment hearings against him that were supposed to lead to his removal from the White House. He died on April 22, 1994.
Trump has been impeached twice before: in 2019 for allegedly trying to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into announcing an investigation into President-elect Joe Biden that would boost Trump’s campaign, and in 2021 for his role in the storming of the Capitol.
Cox said Republican strength in the Senate will ultimately lead to Trump’s acquittal and defeat other partisan political crime charges against him, who is the GOP candidate seeking a return to the White House.
“It’s happening again, but this time it’s not working,” he said of Democrats’ efforts to thwart Trump’s plans.
“We control one house of Congress, the House, because of New York,” he said, referring to Republican gains in the 2022 elections. [Democrats] “With President Trump, he’s going to be successful. He has the tools that President Nixon didn’t have.”
Cox recalled that Trump told him and his wife, Trisha, that Nixon could have saved his presidency if he had opposed impeachment.
“Trisha and I were at Trump’s Bedminster estate here in New Jersey, and President Trump was there,” Cox recalled. “He looked at Trisha and said, ‘If your dad had run, he would have won.’
“I said, ‘But Mr. President, the Democrats had total control of both houses of Congress.’ And he said, ‘Uh huh.'”
“[Trump] Cox noted that Republicans controlled both houses of Congress during his first two years in the Senate. [under Nixon] “They’ve been a minority, a Republican minority, for 40 years. They’ve developed Stockholm syndrome.”
“They had no power as a minority in the House and the Senate. They couldn’t stand up to the majority. And the national newspapers were monolithically pro-Democrat. … There was no Fox News then. There was no other media that would support a Republican president.”
“[Trump] He has tools that President Nixon didn’t have.”
Cox said it was heartbreaking to see his father-in-law step down.
He and his wife, Trisha, stood behind Nixon during his televised resignation speech and rode aboard Marine One as he departed the White House.
“[Nixon[ saw it as a Greek tragedy because he didn’t understand … forces that were bigger than him were at work. But he knew, for the good of the country, he had to resign,” Cox said.
“[Nixon] “Impeachment was not expected. Impeachment has never resulted in a president resigning or leaving office.”
Cox said she tried to keep her father-in-law in high spirits during the helicopter ride away from the White House.
“The helicopter took off and I was sitting across from President Nixon. As we passed by the Washington Monument, I was thinking, ‘What can I say to the president in a situation like this?’ And I realized this was a man who always wanted to do more for his country. He still had a lot of power. So I said, ‘Mr. President, in 10 years you’ll be back.'”
Twelve years later, Nixon On the cover of “He’s Back,” read the Newsweek headline.
He became a frequent consultant to presidents and world leaders, with President Nixon meeting with several of his top officials at his Trisha House in Manhattan, Cox noted.
A foreign policy hawk, Nixon was not afraid to take risks: as president, he shocked the political establishment by visiting Communist China.
He also signed the “Clean Air” bill into law to combat pollution and passed liberal legislation.
Cox said some of Nixon’s decisions cost him support within the Republican Party but that Nixon believed they were the right decisions.
