I’ve been hearing for weeks now how Trump and his associates have been comparing various conspiracy theories to the Watergate scandal of the 1970s. For instance, here’s Talking Points Memo:
President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign used his recent “demand” that the Justice Department investigate special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe in a fundraising email Monday.
“WORSE than Watergate,” the email’s subject line read.
“I hereby DEMAND that the Department of Justice investigate whether Obama’s FBI and DOJ infiltrated or surveilled our campaign for political purposes,” the email, signed by Trump, reads.
“THIS COULD BE THE GREATEST POLITICAL SCANDAL IN AMERICAN HISTORY.”
“I need you to sign your name right this second to join me in demanding this abuse of power gets investigated.”
And a few days ago, Steve Benen has compiled a list of them:
According to the current president, Uranium One, for example, is Watergate. So is the non-existent wiretapping of Trump Tower. Benghazi, Trump has assured us, is “bigger than Watergate.” What’s more, Joe Arpaio’s investigation into Barack Obama’s birth certificate, Trump wrote in 2012, “could dwarf Watergate.”
In March, the president said the Justice Department’s investigation into his campaign is “bigger than Watergate,” and yesterday, worked up by something he saw in conservative media, Trump added that the FBI had an “informant” in his political operation, which he said is – you guessed it – “bigger than Watergate!”
I have one question: President Trump does understand that Watergate involved an American President conspiring in a disgraceful action that resulted in his forced resignation, right? Every time he uses that comparison, it serves to remind Americans of a certain age of the abuses of another Republican President.
It may all be some literary foreshadowing.
