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Trump Is Trying to Pick His Opponent Just Like Nixon Did
Nixon’s ‘dirty tricks’ campaign on Ed Muskie got him a landslide victory in 1972. The president’s attack on Biden is eerily similar.
As the House begins to move its two articles of impeachment against President Trump, there’s been much chatter about how President Trump’s dire political situation parallels President Nixon’s Watergate scandal in 1974. There’s less mention, however, about how Trump’s political tactics mirror Nixon’s — and that’s a shame because deeper knowledge of the 37th president’s deceptions have a thing or two to teach us about our present political morass.
The House’s decision to act now — and not wait for lengthy court battles over documents, witnesses, and assertions of executive privilege — is largely a reflection of its acknowledgment that Trump will use the awesome powers of his office to cheat in the 2020 elections. It’s also an acknowledgment that such a scenario has happened before, although few seem to remember it. Like Trump, Nixon sought not only to turn the apparatus of the state to his advantage, but to tarnish his potential competitors and pick the person he would ultimately run against in his reelection campaign.
