Comparing Watergate Scandals Of President Richard Nixon And President Donald Trump

President Richard Nixon and President Donald Trump and their respective administrations have been rocked by scandals and hounded by controversies. While the Watergate Scandal and the Mueller investigation are distinctive from one another, they are parallel in certain aspects. In both administrations, both presidents have been accused of manipulation of their respective 1972 and 2016 elections in order to secure their presidential victories. Moreover, both scandals have reflected poorly on Nixon and Trump and have left blemishes on their legacy as presidents of the United States by generating suspicion and distrust of political processes. One key difference between both scandals is that Nixon has claimed executive privilege, while Trump hasn’t

Prior to the Watergate scandal, Nixon’s tight victory in the election of 1968 made him scared that he was going to lose this election; thus, he had a great incentive to sway public opinion, and through a means of infamy and misconduct, he was successful in securing his victory in the election of 1972. In the Watergate scandal, President Nixon was investigated because the burglars whom were arrested for infiltrating the office of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate complex of buildings, were connected to President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign . The goal of the robbery was to find the “nitty gritty” to get dirt on his enemies and use it to secure a republican victory. Similarly, President Trump is getting investigated for collusion in seeking aid of Russia to influence the outcome of the election. The Intelligence Community has stated with high confidence that the Russian government has sought to influence the outcome of the U.S Presidential election favoring Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton through disinformation campaigns, breaching election data, and hacking the Democratic National Committee to access their emails and releasing them to WikiLeaks. As a result, Trump is currently getting investigated for conspiracy with a foreign government. Although both presidents have been accused of meddling with their respective elections through dishonorable

With regard to the Watergate scandal, a handful of Nixon’s aides testified that Nixon had secretly taped every conversation that took place in the Oval Office, which became known as “Nixon’s tapes.” Soon, there was a subpoena issued for “all tapes and other electronic and/or mechanical recordings or reproductions, and any memoranda, papers, transcripts or other writings ,” yet Nixon refused to give them up by claiming “executive privilege,” the right to withhold information in the public interest. This trial became known as United States vs. Nixon, where the unanimous court forced him to hand the tapes over asserting that nobody, even the president, was above the laws of the Constitution. Nixon’s abuse of power in claiming executive privilege and refusal to obey the congressional subpoena brought his downfall and subsequent disgraceful resignation of the presidency. Contrastingly, up to this day, President Trump has not claimed executive power as a legal defense. Although Trump is currently getting investigated for Russian collusion and obstruction of justice, there is still no direct evidence tying Trump to the Russian conspiracy. President Trump has not been charged for these accusations yet, and he has not used executive privilege as a legal defense. While there is a lot of uncertainty