Jules Witcover: Why the Trump era is worse than Nixon and Watergate

By Jules Witcover, Tribune Content Agency on Aug 21, 2018

Thus, the Grand Old Party, which had successfully survived the Watergate scandal that drove Nixon from the Oval Office in disgrace, finds itself now with another beleaguered president whose tenure is imperiled by various allegations of political and personal misconduct. On Tuesday, his personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to having paid for the silence of porn actress Stormy Daniels and of Playboy model Karen McDougal, both of whom Trump had had sex with. The payments -- made, according to Cohen's plea, "at the direction of the candidate" -- violated campaign finance law.

Also on Tuesday, Trump's campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted of eight counts of financial fraud.

Unlike in 1974, today there seems to be no Barry Goldwater figure of sufficient political or moral stature willing or able to go to Donald Trump to tell him the jig is up. Indeed, his loud and intense base of support around the country seems sufficient at this stage of the Mueller investigation against him to give him hope of political survival in the end.

Meanwhile, the president and his defense lawyers led by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani continue to argue there was "no collusion" by the Trump organization or administration with the Russian elections meddling, amid speculation Trump may eventually resort to firing Mueller.

Such a step certainly would be widely seen as obstruction of justice and grounds for the impeachment Nixon in 1974 escaped only by resignation.

So the party finds itself potentially facing a re-run of that destructive episode, recovery from which might not be so easy with much of the party so hollowed out by the Trump phenomenon.

Hence the November midterm elections loom as much more important than usual, with turnout in both parties key to whether the Trump reign of chaos and mutual animosity will be halted, slowed or licensed to continue on its merry way for another two years.

(Jules Witcover's latest book is "The American Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power," published by Smithsonian Books. You can respond to this column at juleswitcover@comcast.net.)