Comparing Trump & Nixon — Transcript

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1. 0:00Mr farl John if I may can you just talk
2. 0:02about what some of the uh what the
3. 0:05qualities were that Richard Nixon had
4. 0:08that led him on the path to this near
5. 0:10impeachment and to the resignation the
6. 0:12original title for the book The Working
7. 0:13title was Richard Nixon an American
8. 0:16Tragedy because I was struck as I did
9. 0:18the research that people like Henry
10. 0:20Kissinger or Elliot Richardson would be
11. 0:23writing in their Diaries or talking to
12. 0:24people during Watergate and saying you
13. 0:27know this just reeks of uh classic Greek
14. 0:30tragedy or
15. 0:31Shakespearean tragedy if you talk to
16. 0:35those who have profiled Donald Trump in
17. 0:37today's era president Trump you often
18. 0:40hear similar descriptions is that so and
19. 0:42do you see parallels between their two
20. 0:44characters there are some parallels uh
21. 0:46Trump certainly tried to take advantage
22. 0:48of of the Nixon comparison during the
23. 0:50fall when he purposely used words like
24. 0:53silent majority and Law and Order which
25. 0:55are associated with Nixon from the 1968
26. 0:58campaign they both have an ability to
27. 1:01see in their audience and to reach out
28. 1:03and tap In Their audience uh feelings of
29. 1:06grievance and resentment what about this
30. 1:09idea that the media is our enemy one of
31. 1:11the things that you describe in the book
32. 1:14is that Richard Nixon says that the
33. 1:16media is not to be trusted and basically
34. 1:18says you know they're against me it
35. 1:20certainly seems like Donald Trump feels
36. 1:22the same way well both of them it's
37. 1:24ironic in that both of them use the
38. 1:26media to climb up to positions of great
39. 1:29influence and then when the media turned
40. 1:31on them the sort of feeling of
41. 1:33bitterness and betrayal was twice as
42. 1:36searing and led them both then to engage
43. 1:39in these wars with the Press uh right
44. 1:42down to the the famous phrase of Nixon
45. 1:44which was in the middle of the uh
46. 1:46Christmas bombing of North Vietnam he he
47. 1:49takes time out in the tapes you can hear
48. 1:50him giving kenry Henry Kissinger this
49. 1:52lesson which is um the Press is the
50. 1:54enemy The Press is the enemy write it on
51. 1:56your Blackboard Henry the Press is the
52. 1:57enemy and uh of course the very similar
53. 2:00to the words that Trump used when he
54. 2:02said that the Press is the enemy of the
55. 2:04people talk of similarities really grew
56. 2:07When Donald Trump fired the FBI director
57. 2:11Comey is there a parallel to that and
58. 2:14the Saturday night Massacre the whole
59. 2:16scandal in both cases begins with a a
60. 2:18Breakin at the Democratic party
61. 2:20headquarters in Trump's case it's a
62. 2:23electronic break-in in Nixon's case it's
63. 2:25a physical Breakin so there are many
64. 2:27many similarities but the the thing that
65. 2:29could get Trump in trouble past you and
66. 2:32I talking about all these coincidences
67. 2:35um is the firing of the FBI director who
68. 2:38was directing the investigation into
69. 2:41whether or not the Russians tampered in
70. 2:43our election last fall and this was this
71. 2:45was very comparable to um the firing of
72. 2:48Archer bcox the special prosecutor in
73. 2:511973 by Richard Nixon I still think that
74. 2:55even after all this if he could get his
75. 2:57ship in order that he could have a very
76. 2:59successful
77. 3:00um Administration even at this at this
78. 3:02point what advice do you think Richard
79. 3:04Nixon would give to Donald Trump
80. 3:06especially since Nixon did have a chance
81. 3:08to see uh Ronald Reagan operate that uh
82. 3:13he would tell Trump to get a staff led
83. 3:15by something somebody like James Baker
84. 3:18who was um a great adviser to Reagan and
85. 3:22George uh Herbert Walker Bush and who
86. 3:25had a rule which is you cut these
87. 3:27scandals off in 48 hours an allegation
88. 3:29comes comes up you stand in front of a
89. 3:31camera you say yes it happened or you
90. 3:33provide the proof that it didn't happen
91. 3:35and you end it fast John farl the author
92. 3:38of Richard Nixon the life a terrific
93. 3:40book pick it up uh I read it uh it's
94. 3:42fantastic thanks so much for joining us
95. 3:45thanks Evan take care