Watergate vs 1/6: “There wasn’t really the cult of Nixon as there it the cult of Trump”

The 50th anniversary of the Watergate scandal comes as the House Select January 6th committee prepares for another whirlwind week of public hearings. Although these two major political scandals are nearly half a century apart, the investigation into the Watergate scandal has been widely hailed as a potential model of how the January 6th committee could approach its inquiry into the insurrection. However, two people who participated in the Watergate hearings tell Sam Stein a few key differences should be noted. Elizabeth Holtzman, who served on the House Judiciary Committee and voted to impeach Richard Nixon, says “it’s not that Republicans are following facts – they make up their own facts – and there’s no way our democracy can function if people make up their own facts. And that’s the danger.” Michael Conway, who served as the Judiciary Committee’s Counsel in the Impeachment Inquiry of President Nixon, adds that “410 members voted in favor of starting the inquiry...you would never get that level of bipartisanship today.”