Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley appeared on Friday’s CNN News Central to discuss former President Trump’s latest indictment and blamed it on a curious suspect: Gerald Ford. Brinkley and host Sara Sidner also acted as if nothing has happened between Watergate and present day when wondering why Republicans do not urge Trump to step aside like they did with Richard Nixon.
Sidner claimed that Watergate represents the best comparison to Trump’s current situation, “but there is a key difference which you just mentioned now, which is that back then Republicans turned on their president because of the enormity of all of the evidence that was coming out about Nixon. That is not happening today. What's the difference? Why?”
That CNN could ask that question in a history segment without going through the history of Clinton family, whether it be Bill’s impeachment for perjuring himself or obstructing justice or Hillary’s e-mail server, and the lack of criminal charges and of Democrats urging them to step aside is remarkable.
As it was, Brinkley lamented “We just don't have moderate Republicans like Howard Baker of Tennessee or conservatives like Barry Goldwater of Arizona.”
After claiming Trump “has been able to hijack the Republican,” Brinkley turned to Ford:
It's a big debate in history, was Gerald Ford right to pardon Nixon? I've always thought Ford was right to heal the country, pardoning Nixon but in recent years I realized it was probably a mistake for the reason that it encourages the arrogance of President Trump. This feeling that he's above the law, that the Constitution doesn't matter. That you can have an authoritarian bent and do anything you want in the United States.
Circling back to today’s Republicans, Brinkley worried that they will use the situation to be critical of President Biden:
So, I find it encouraging that the Justice Department with all the noise going on now is focusing on this and telling Donald Trump he's not above the law and it's going to be a spring/summer of indictments, but we are in a strange political atmosphere right now because some Republicans will claim that Joe Biden, the president, is trying to put his chief GOP rival in jail.
That is not nearly as “strange” as CNN pretending the history of presidential criminal scandals stopped in 1974 and resumed with Trump.
This segment was sponsored by Subway.
Here is a transcript for the June 9 show:
CNN News Central
6/9/2023
9:34 PM ET
SARA SIDNER: I do want to speak to the history of all of this and the most notable case that a lot of people cite when they look at what’s happening now and what has happened in the past is the case of President Richard Nixon and Watergate, but there is a key difference which you just mentioned now, which is that back then Republicans turned on their president because of the enormity of all of the evidence that was coming out about Nixon. That is not happening today. What's the difference? Why?
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY: At least not at this moment. I was encouraged, Sara, by your comment that Mitch McConnell and some in the Senate are kind of holding back on fire. We just don't have moderate Republicans like Howard Baker of Tennessee or conservatives like Barry Goldwater of Arizona.
Back then, the fact that Nixon broke the law was enough to make them realize that wasn't the Republican Party. Donald Trump has been able to hijack the Republican Party and, you know, it's a big debate in history, was Gerald Ford right to pardon Nixon? I've always thought Ford was right to heal the country, pardoning Nixon but in recent years I realized it was probably a mistake for the reason that it encourages the arrogance of President Trump. This feeling that he's above the law, that the Constitution doesn't matter. That you can have an authoritarian bent and do anything you want in the United States.
So, I find it encouraging that the Justice Department with all the noise going on now is focusing on this and telling Donald Trump he's not above the law and it's going to be a spring/summer of indictments, but we are in a strange political atmosphere right now because some Republicans will claim that Joe Biden, the president, is trying to put his chief GOP rival in jail.
