50 years ago last week, Richard Nixon Resigned He left office as president. His resignation came amid the imminent release of the infamous White House tapes and the Supreme Court case As I have argued, they have just ordered disclosure.
The subpoenaed tapes included: “Conclusive tape evidence” This proves that Nixon himself was the mastermind behind a criminal attempt to cover up responsibility for the break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters.
For a moment, the nation breathed a sigh of relief. The Republic was safe. Nixon headed to California and immediately Pardon from his successorPresident Gerald Ford declared that he would never hold public office again.
According to vain commentary, Watergate showed that “the system works” and America would never again have to worry about criminals taking over the White House, or trying to do so.
Faith in institutions and the belief that the presidency had become off-limits to criminals both proved misjudged. The contrast with our current times could not be stark or unsettling.
Watergate proved that the system is not self-sustaining or autonomous: it works only if the right people are in the right institutions at the right time and commit themselves energetically and courageously to playing their proper roles.
From my perspective as an adviser to the Watergate special counsel, I tend to focus on the two special counsels I worked with. Archibald Cox and Leon JaworskiCox was a man of extraordinary integrity and courage, and he took seriously his commitment to pursue all available evidence and pursue it wherever it led, even at the risk of being fired. And he ultimately made the game-changing “Saturday Night MassacreJaworski, a tough, determined Texas trial lawyer, picked up the ball, relentlessly charged down the field, and approved the indictment of Nixon’s chief of staff and named Nixon himself as a criminal conspirator.
But during the most recent administration of President Donald Trump, the two key figures charged with reining in a rogue president were Attorney General William Barr and Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Supreme Defender It has tarnished the president’s reputation at the expense of his own professional integrity, and Mueller has proven to be an ineffectual coward, content only with suggesting possible Trump wrongdoing and then incriminating himself. I can’t do anything about it.
During the Watergate scandal, a special Senate committee Sam Irvin We held vigorous public hearings to ensure that voters had a full and fair understanding of the facts. Participated In the House, Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter Rodino led such an effort. A careful and honorable impeachmentMetersinquiry Even some Republicans were planning to vote for impeaching President Nixon. Republican Leaders Senators and House members called on Nixon, their party leader, to resign.
The House of Representatives twice Impeached Donald Trump, but both times nearly every Republican in the Senate acquitted him as a matter of party loyalty. Accept responsibilityEspecially in relation to the January 6th insurrection.
The Supreme Court took responsibility for Watergate and unanimously ruled that President Nixon must turn over the controversial tapes. Above the LawEven the president. Thanks to President Trump’s restructuring of the Supreme Court according to the concept of presidential supremacy, Chief Justice John Roberts recently Presidential special immunity Commit a federal crime.
This idea would never have been taken seriously as recently as a decade ago, and I am sure that before the current Court was created, no justice who served over the past two centuries, including the justices who ruled unanimously in the Watergate tapes case, would have considered this claim arguable or even remotely responsible.
Outside of the formal institutions of government, the media and the public played key roles in ensuring Nixon was held accountable. Bob Woodward-Carl Bernstein A combination of the Washington Post, all the major newspapers, and the few TV stations that existed at the time. Continued to attract attention Based on facts uncovered by government investigations and our own investigations.
National outrage after Saturday night’s massacre helped galvanize the impeachment inquiry, and it was crucial. weakening Nixon’s political support The hostile public reaction both in and outside of Congress wasFirestormThis public outrage led to Nixon being held accountable.
Donald Trump’s world is very different now. His base remains Very loyalDespite inciting the January 6th attack on the Capitol, Trump’s actual Indictment Complicity in these incidents (and other efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election) has only strengthened the faith of its supporters.
Trump said:Mainstream Media” is treated as an insult and slander. His supporters have access to unfiltered social media sources that didn’t exist 50 years ago. These media outlets areAlternative FactsIt promotes a revisionist view of both the past and the present.
Without an informed and responsive national electorate to oversee the activities of government agencies, the American system would not function — in fact, it cannot function.
While I remain optimistic that the system will improve itself over time, but only if a majority of reasonable people are willing to demand it, I can’t help but lament how far we’ve come since the frenetic days after Nixon’s resignation.
Philip Allen Lacovara is a former counsel to the Watergate special counsel, a former assistant U.S. attorney general, and president of the District of Columbia Bar.
