The big problem with comparing Trump to Nixon — Transcript

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1. 0:00Nixon and Trump.
2. 0:01Both presidents faced major FBI investigations,
3. 0:04were accused of obstructing justice.
4. 0:06called their investigations "witch hunts,"
5. 0:08and oozed raw sexual charisma.
6. 0:11It's not a perfect analogy,
7. 0:12but the similarities have led some to argue that,
8. 0:15like Nixon, Trump's time is running out.
9. 0:17What's going on here is very Nixonian.
10. 0:20Having prosecuted the Watergate case,
11. 0:22we’re well on our way to impeachment.
12. 0:24I was in the Nixon administration, as you know.
13. 0:26I think we're in impeachment territory now.
14. 0:28But the truth is
15. 0:30these two are living in totally different worlds.
16. 0:31And that has less to do with
17. 0:33what's happening at the FBI
18. 0:34and more to do with what's happening
19. 0:36on Fox News.
20. 0:37The media and the Democrats have lied to you.
21. 0:40Trying to create a Watergate out of this.
22. 0:42Desperate to get back to the days of Watergate.
23. 0:45The elite media is part of the “deep state.”
24. 0:48You, the American people, should never trust
25. 0:50this “destroy Trump” corrupt media.
26. 0:52I know we're all trapped
27. 0:54in a flaming media hellscape right now.
28. 0:56But during Watergate, things were way different.
29. 0:59At the time,
30. 1:00there were three national nightly broadcast news shows,
31. 1:0230 minutes each.
32. 1:04Big cities typically had one or two major papers.
33. 1:07There were a couple of radio stations.
34. 1:09And that was about it.
35. 1:11No 24-hour cable news, no push notifications,
36. 1:14no Twitter, no blogs, no internet.
37. 1:17God, that sounds peaceful.
38. 1:18And that meant that, Democrat or Republican,
39. 1:21Americans were basically getting the same news.
40. 1:23This is the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.
41. 1:27People are basically reading and hearing
42. 1:29and watching the same things.
43. 1:32And they by and large believe the news that they hear.
44. 1:35This is Nicole Hemmer,
45. 1:36political historian and author of
46. 1:37Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media
47. 1:40and the Transformation of American Politics.
48. 1:42We'll get to that "transformation" in a second.
49. 1:44Hemmer says there is conservative media in 1970;
50. 1:47it just looks really different.
51. 1:49There is conservative talk radio.
52. 1:51There are conservative publications
53. 1:53like National Review and Human Events,
54. 1:55but they're so much smaller than they are today.
55. 1:59Like, when I talk about Human Events and National Review,
56. 2:02that's just about it when it comes to
57. 2:04weekly conservative publications.
58. 2:05And while that might seem like a supply problem,
59. 2:08it's actually a demand problem.
60. 2:10In the 1970s, Americans had incredible trust
61. 2:13in the news they were getting.
62. 2:1569 percent—
63. 2:16Nice.
64. 2:18Are you serious?
65. 2:1969 percent of Americans expressed
66. 2:21a great or fair amount of trust in the media.
67. 2:23And that trust meant there wasn't really an appetite
68. 2:26for right-wing news.
69. 2:27Most Americans have faith in the objectivity
70. 2:30of mainstream media.
71. 2:32They trust it.
72. 2:33If Walter Cronkite says something,
73. 2:34it's not seen as liberal propaganda.
74. 2:37It's seen as, here's this guy who knows something,
75. 2:39who's telling us something objective and true
76. 2:41about the world.
77. 2:42And that's the way it is.
78. 2:43That's the way it is.
79. 2:44That's the way it is.
80. 2:46That became a big deal during Watergate.
81. 2:48As the investigation turned into a national story,
82. 2:51Nixon lashed out, calling it a witch hunt
83. 2:53and attacking the media for covering it.
84. 2:55I have never heard or seen such outrageous reporting
85. 2:58in 27 years of public life.
86. 3:00And conservative outlets came to Nixon's defense.
87. 3:03One conservative radio personality said the press
88. 3:05had turned a prosecution into a persecution.
89. 3:12An article in National Review even suggested
90. 3:16that Watergate was a trap set up by the CIA.
91. 3:20They definitely didn't use the language of the “deep state,”
92. 3:22but that was kind of lurking there.
93. 3:25But despite their efforts,
94. 3:26conservative media just couldn't change people's minds
95. 3:29about what was going on.
96. 3:30They don't have the power to drive
97. 3:32or to shape the conversation about Watergate.
98. 3:35There's not really an alternative story
99. 3:37Republicans can credibly spin,
100. 3:39because they're not just going up against Democrats;
101. 3:42they're going up against all the networks,
102. 3:43all the newspapers.
103. 3:44And so having that uniting narrative,
104. 3:47that really matters.
105. 3:49To be under a constant barrage
106. 3:51on each of the three major networks
107. 3:53tends to raise some questions in the people's mind.
108. 3:56That's really too much for Republicans to resist.
109. 3:59My phone calls were 100 to 1 in favor of pursuing
110. 4:02the path of impeachment, which was rather shocking to me.
111. 4:07By 1974, Republicans in Congress begin
112. 4:09moving to impeach Nixon.
113. 4:11And by August, Nixon resigns.
114. 4:13Events have been rushing toward one seemingly
115. 4:15inevitable conclusion: removal from office.
116. 4:18There was kind of a cohesive message about
117. 4:21what Watergate was, what it meant.
118. 4:23It would have been nearly impossible for
119. 4:25the Nixon administration to muddy the waters.
120. 4:28That's not the case today.
121. 4:29Right.
122. 4:30Today.
123. 4:30The flaming hellscape.
124. 4:32Or as Hemmer might call it: the transformation.
125. 4:34In the past 50 years,
126. 4:36trust in traditional media has plummeted,
127. 4:38with all Americans but especially with Republicans.
128. 4:41And the demand for conservative media has exploded.
129. 4:44What started off as a few rinky-dink conservative magazines
130. 4:47has become an entire ecosystem
131. 4:49of right-wing TV, talk radio, and websites.
132. 4:53You can now exist within a comprehensive,
133. 4:56closed conservative media ecosystem.
134. 4:58Whether it's having Fox News on all the day or talk radio on all day,
135. 5:02you don't need to really ever step out of that bubble,
136. 5:04which is something you couldn't have done before.
137. 5:05Republicans aren't getting their news from Cronkite anymore.
138. 5:09They're getting it from Fox.
139. 5:10And that's a huge deal when it comes
140. 5:12to the Mueller investigation.
141. 5:13Republicans during Watergate were
142. 5:14turning on their TV and seeing this:
143. 5:16The country tonight is in the midst of what may be
144. 5:19the most serious constitutional crisis in its history.
145. 5:23Now they're seeing this:
146. 5:24Biggest non-story ever being hyped by the liberal media.
147. 5:27Greatest political hoax.
148. 5:29Farce and a witch hunt.
149. 5:30It's a sham.
150. 5:31It is a house of cards.
151. 5:33The American people will put up with a great deal,
152. 5:35but they will not put up with anyone
153. 5:37who claims to be above the law.
154. 5:39The president says it's fake news.
155. 5:40Do you even care?
156. 5:41How can anyone trust the Mueller office?
157. 5:45Bunch of Trump-hating, Hillary-loving partisan hacks.
158. 5:46A grave and profound crisis
159. 5:48in which the president has set himself against
160. 5:51his own attorney general and the Department of Justice.
161. 5:54It's one giant, huge web of corruption.
162. 5:57The FBI has become America's secret police.
163. 6:00The FBI needs a complete cleansing.
164. 6:03Mueller is, frankly, a disgrace to the American justice system.
165. 6:06These people need to be taken out in cuffs.
166. 6:10That uniting narrative we had during Watergate —
167. 6:13it's gone.
168. 6:14And without it, Republicans in Congress
169. 6:16have a strong incentive to turn their backs
170. 6:19on the Mueller investigation.
171. 6:20They know that the Republican base is tuned in
172. 6:23to conservative media and hearing these messages
173. 6:25that the Mueller investigation is a sham,
174. 6:27that this is a project of the “deep state” to bring down the president.
175. 6:29Mueller is out to get the president, it appears, at any cost.
176. 6:33And so if a Republican politician breaks with that,
177. 6:36then all of a sudden, it looks like he's siding with the enemy.
178. 6:38And siding with the enemy could be a political death sentence.
179. 6:41A 2017 study found that watching Fox News
180. 6:44had a significant effect on elections,
181. 6:47shifting 6 percent of voters
182. 6:48toward the Republican presidential candidate in 2008.
183. 6:51In that environment, politicians have to choose sides.
184. 6:54And if you're a Republican,
185. 6:55do you choose to side with the media that
186. 6:57all your base listens to,
187. 6:58or do you choose to side with the ones they all oppose?
188. 7:00House Republicans have already released a report
189. 7:02attempting to undermine the Mueller investigation.
190. 7:05There's no reason to continue this.
191. 7:06We've turned up nothing.
192. 7:07And some have begun echoing Fox News's talking points.
193. 7:10Mueller is desperate.
194. 7:11He doesn’t have a case he can make.
195. 7:14This Mueller investigation is built on a false premise
196. 7:17and rotten to the core, Tucker.
197. 7:18Is the integrity of the agency in question then, now?
198. 7:22Of course it is.
199. 7:23We know there's bias; we know there's a conflict.
200. 7:24I agree with you, Sean.
201. 7:25They're trying to manufacture a process crime.
202. 7:28This is increasingly becoming scary stuff.
203. 7:31Do you agree?
204. 7:32Yes, I do agree with that.
205. 7:34Of course, we don't know if Trump will fire Mueller
206. 7:36or if Mueller will actually dig up any dirt on Trump.
207. 7:39But if either of those things do happen,
208. 7:41it'll be up to Republicans in Congress to do something about it.
209. 7:44And right now, Hemmer isn't confident they will.
210. 7:46It's very hard to imagine a future in which all of a sudden
211. 7:52they're going to say, "Oh, wait, we now need to listen
212. 7:53to this independent counsel who
213. 7:56most of the conservative media have been
214. 8:00undermining and delegitimizing for months now."
215. 8:02And before you call me dramatic,
216. 8:04listen to how actual Fox News hosts
217. 8:06are talking about this stuff.
218. 8:07Nixon never would have been forced to resign
219. 8:09if you existed back in 1972, ’73, ’74.
220. 8:12I was literally 11 years old.
221. 8:14It's too bad for Nixon because nobody like you existed then.
222. 8:17Our prime responsibility now
223. 8:19is to unshackle the 45th president of the United States.
224. 8:23These investigations might be really similar,
225. 8:26but on TV, they could not look more different.
226. 8:28And for Republicans in Congress,
227. 8:30that might be all that matters.
228. 8:32That's the way it is.