While speaking at the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum this week, Vice President JD Vance seemingly downplayed the Watergate scandal that led to former President Richard Nixon’s resignation.
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“If Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story. Like, the idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy,” said Vance, who told the crowd he had been joking about that backstage before his discussion at the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum.
Vance, who was at the Nixon Library to promote his new memoir, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” compared himself to the former president. He also said that Nixon and President Donald Trump, during his first term in office, were both targeted by the “deep state.”
“Young senator, vice president, writes some best-selling books, is hated by the media. It kind of sounds like JD Vance. I’ve always liked Richard Nixon,” he said.
“I’m actually fascinated by Nixon as a character in history. I think that his historical legacy is enjoying a bit of a renaissance, but I think deservedly so,” Vance said.
The vice president’s comment quickly garnered widespread media attention as well as criticism from Democrats.
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Rep. Mike Levin, D–San Juan Capistrano, said Vance “wants the bar that low” because he “works for the most corrupt president in American history.”
“Vance is telling us a president can break the law, lie about it, and turn federal agencies into weapons, and we should all just go along with it,” Levin said in a social media post. “When you serve an administration this corrupt, the only way to look clean is to convince the public that crimes no longer count.”
Democratic Reps. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, Kelly Morrison of Minnesota and Jamie Raskin of Maryland, as well as U.S. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, criticized Vance’s remarks on social media also.
Nixon resigned in 1974 over the Watergate scandal, two years after winning his reelection bid.
The Nixon Library contains a Watergate exhibition that was created in 2011; the information documented in the exhibit is available online.
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