The Real Takeaway From Your Nixon Library Remarks

During your recent appearance at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, you said that if Watergate happened today, "it would be like a 12-hour news story" and called the idea that it took down a presidency "crazy." But you didn't stop there. In the same conversation, you said Watergate was "not all that different from what the same groups of people, the same institutions tried to do to Donald Trump." That sentence is the real story here. You didn't just minimize a president using the FBI, CIA, and IRS to spy on and cover up crimes against his political opponents. You drew a direct line between Nixon's abuses and Trump's own documented lawbreaking, treating legitimate legal accountability as if it were nothing more than a political hit job. As a Yale Law graduate, you understand exactly what Watergate was: a president using federal law enforcement as a personal weapon and obstructing justice to hide it. Comparing that to what Trump has done is not an accident. It is a tell. There are only two ways to read what you actually said: - Option 1: You genuinely believe that ordering hush money payments, directing federal agencies to stonewall investigations, and using the machinery of government against political rivals are minor infractions undeserving of removal. If so, you demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of why executive abuse violates a president's oath of office. - Option 2: You understand precisely what Nixon did wrong and how it echoes Trump's conduct, but you simply do not care. You don't view Nixon's use of law enforcement as an abuse of power—you view it as a completely acceptable perk of winning an election. You are using his rehabilitation to tell the public that when your administration weaponizes the federal government to reward friends and target enemies, we should just get over it. Watergate didn't end a presidency because of bad press. It ended one because using the government to crush your political opponents is disqualifying, regardless of party or decade. By linking Nixon's conduct to Trump's, you didn't exonerate Trump—you inadvertently admitted that you think both abuses of power were totally fine. Which is it, Mr. Vice President: do you truly fail to see why using federal power against domestic rivals is disqualifying, or do you understand completely and just think you should be allowed to get away with it? We deserve an answer.