U.S. Vice President JD Vance said it was “crazy” that the Watergate scandal toppled Richard Nixon’s presidency, claiming it would barely register in today’s political environment. Speaking at the Nixon presidential library in California while promoting his new book, Vance argued the scandal would have been a 12-hour news story.
Vance Compares Nixon and Trump
“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,” Vance said Thursday. He drew parallels between Nixon and President Donald Trump, saying both were targeted by “deep state” forces.
“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,” Vance added.
Watergate: A Scandal That Changed America
Watergate was one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history. In 1972, five men hired by Nixon’s re-election campaign were arrested while breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., to surveil the office. The resulting investigations consumed Nixon’s presidency, leading to his resignation in August 1974 rather than face impeachment. The scandal deeply eroded Americans’ trust in government.
Vance’s Personal Connection to Nixon
Vance, who entered politics by winning a Senate seat in Ohio and is expected to run for president in 2028, said he shares several things in common with Nixon “at a personal level.” He joked, “Young senator, vice president, write some best-selling books, is hated by the media. It kind of sounds like JD Vance.” Nixon served as a U.S. senator from California and vice president under Dwight Eisenhower before being elected president in 1968.
