In an interview aired on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi argued that President Donald Trump’s actions regarding Ukraine and the impeachment inquiry are “so much worse” than those of former President Richard Nixon. Pelosi suggested Nixon’s decision to resign made him morally superior to Trump, showing that the former president would put the country before his self-interest.
“It’s really a sad thing. I mean what the president did was so much worse than even what Richard Nixon did,” Pelosi told Margaret Brennan. “At some point, Richard Nixon cared about the country enough to recognize that this could not continue.”
Pelosi’s statement is absurd on multiple levels. First, the Democrat narrative — that Trump’s call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky proves a corrupt quid pro quo using military funding to muscle Ukraine into opening an investigation into Hunter Biden because Joe Biden is running against Trump — is far from certain. It is more likely Trump’s request for a Hunter Biden investigation had more to do with probing whether or not Zelensky was committed to stopping corruption, and he held up the funding — without Ukraine’s knowledge — because he was hesitant about funding Zelensky until he could confirm the Ukrainian’s position.
Second, even if Democrats were correct that Trump abused his power to pressure Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden as a political tool to weaken Joe Biden, that would not come close to Nixon’s snooping on Watergate and his persistent cover-up of this wrongdoing. Senate Democrats had sent Ukrainian officials a letter, threatening to oppose the military funding unless the Ukrainians continued to help the Mueller probe. If Trump’s actions were worse than Watergate, these Democrats should also be impeached.
Finally, the Republican Nixon did not resign merely out of the goodness of his heart. When the House voted to approve an impeachment inquiry against him, many Republicans voted for it, and it was clear that the U.S. Senate would vote to remove Nixon in the case of a trial.
Jenna Ellis, senior legal advisor to the Trump campaign, responded to Pelosi’s remarks in an interview Monday.
“The Democrats’ whole narrative has devolved into absurdity,” Ellis told PJ Media. “She has no basis to say that, and I question if she’s even read the Constitution or cares what it says.”
It seems Pelosi isn’t content with the liberal narrative that Trump’s presidency is as bad as Watergate. She’s trying to say Trump is worse than Nixon. Ironically, Pelosi’s own party was involved in the closest modern analogy to Watergate: the Obama administration’s disgusting investigation of Trump-Russia based on extremely flimsy pretenses.
Follow Tyler O’Neil, the author of this article, on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member