{"id":210,"date":"2026-06-27T10:40:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T10:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=210"},"modified":"2026-06-27T10:40:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T10:40:01","slug":"jd-vances-watergate-comments-werent-an-observation-he-was-boasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=210","title":{"rendered":"JD Vance\u2019s Watergate comments weren\u2019t an observation \u2014 he was boasting"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

For half a century, Watergate has been the quintessential American scandal, so much so that we frequently affix \u201c-gate\u201d to new episodes of official wrongdoing in an attempt to make it sound significant and sinister.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Lawsuit seeks to uncover information about alleged federal database on protesters<\/a><\/p>\n

But what if, asked Vice President JD Vance, we consider Watergate no big deal? Or even better, why not decide that former President Richard Nixon, our pre-Trump model of corruption and abuse of office, was not the perpetrator of Watergate but its victim?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m actually fascinated by Nixon as a character in history,\u201d Vance said at an appearance this week at the Nixon Library in California. \u201cI think that his historical legacy is enjoying a bit of a renaissance, but I think deservedly so. As I joked with Robert backstage, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vance continued: \u201cAnd by the way, if you look at the story of how the deep state took down Richard Nixon, it\u2019s not all that different from what the same groups of people, the same institutions tried to do to Donald Trump and the first Trump administration. There is a parallel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rewriting history is a longtime hobby of American conservatives, both to absolve them of their sins and reshape the American mind to align with their values. For instance, the \u201cLost Cause\u201d counternarrative of the Civil War, which portrays the Confederacy\u2019s treasonous slavery advocates into noble men simply defending their homes, continues to this day, with the Trump administration renaming military bases and erecting statues to honor those traitors. And Trump has convinced much of his party to believe that the 2020 election was stolen from him and that the Jan. 6 insurrection was merely a largely peaceful protest carried out by true patriots.<\/p>\n

Watergate has been part of this revisionist project since the day Nixon resigned the presidency. Nixon\u2019s legal arguments against having to hand over Oval Office tapes to investigators, though unsuccessful at the time, became crucial to the development of the unitary executive theory, championed by former Vice President Dick Cheney, and the Roberts court\u2019s conservative majority holds. Most recently, prominent figures on the right, including Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon and Christopher Rufo, have argued that Watergate was all a set-up by the \u201cdeep state\u201d to frame Nixon, who was innocent. Vance has now joined their number.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Remember: Watergate was far more than just a break-in at Democratic Party headquarters in the Washington office\/apartment complex that gave the scandal its name. The burglary merely led to the exposure of the rot within the Nixon administration: a mountain of criminal acts from money laundering to obstruction of justice to multiple additional break-ins to a shocking abuse of government power.<\/p>\n

At one point, White House counsel John Dean, who later located his conscience and told the public what he had seen and done, penned a memo for other White House officials exploring \u201chow we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.\u201d The White House tapes recorded Nixon personally committing criminal acts, including making a plan to order the CIA to quash the FBI\u2019s investigation of the break-in at the Watergate (the so-called \u201csmoking gun\u201d recording).<\/p>\n

Read more Texas Board of Education approves required K-12 reading list with Bible stories<\/a><\/p>\n

In the end, dozens of people in Nixon\u2019s administration and political orbit pled guilty or were convicted of crimes. Those sent to prison included the attorney general, the White House chief of staff and the president\u2019s chief domestic policy adviser.<\/p>\n

In a twisted sense, Vance is almost right about the \u201cdeep state,\u201d since he and other MAGA figures use that term to refer to civil servants who are loyal to the country rather than to whatever corrupt scheme President Donald Trump wants to recruit them for. But they didn\u2019t frame Nixon; they exposed him. During Watergate, the president and his top aides pressed multiple government officials, including some appointed by Nixon himself, to do things they knew were illegal or unethical. Those officials simply refused; some, like Dean, went public.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That is similar to what happened in Trump\u2019s first administration: Again and again, officials refused to go along with his corrupt schemes; some of them testified before Congress in his first impeachment or before the Jan. 6 committee. But in Trump\u2019s second administration, the president and his closest advisers have ensured that no one with any integrity will be around to object.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Congress passed a raft of post-Watergate laws and set up new systems intended to restrain the presidency and make government more transparent, less corrupt and more accountable. Trump has systematically set out to destroy them, firing inspectors general, weakening civil service protections, defying the laws he doesn\u2019t like and turning the Department of Justice into his personal machine of political revenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After Watergate, we were told that \u201cthe cover-up is worse than the crime.\u201d It wasn\u2019t actually true \u2014 the cover-up was appalling, but it was preceded by a whole series of atrocious crimes. \u00a0Trump, however, decided not to even bother with the cover-up. If you don\u2019t try to hide your corruption, lawmakers won\u2019t be as shocked. And if your own party controls Congress, they\u2019ll be too terrified of your voters to hold you accountable.<\/p>\n

So when Vance says Watergate would be a one-day story today, he isn\u2019t just observing; he\u2019s boasting<\/em>. He\u2019s saying: Look what MAGA has done to American politics and media. Look how we have normalized corruption and degraded systems of accountability. We can do whatever we want.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For now, they can. Which is why we\u2019ll need a raft of post-Trump reforms beyond even what Congress passed after Nixon slinked away in disgrace. The most corrupt president in history and his contemptible cronies are trying to justify their own misdeeds by rehabilitating the image of the second-most corrupt president in history. We can\u2019t allow it to succeed.<\/p>\n

Read more Deadline: Legal Blog<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a reason Donald Trump\u2019s allies take issue with the exposing of rot in a presidential administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\nJD Vance\u2019s Watergate comments weren\u2019t an observation \u2014 he was boasting - Long Distance Movers USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=210\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"JD Vance\u2019s Watergate comments weren\u2019t an observation \u2014 he was boasting - Long Distance Movers USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There\u2019s a reason Donald Trump\u2019s allies take issue with the exposing of rot in a presidential administration.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=210\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Long Distance Movers USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-27T10:40:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=210#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=210\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0206dfa2bde56a4792f75b5b97027e43\"},\"headline\":\"JD Vance\u2019s Watergate comments weren\u2019t an observation \u2014 he was boasting\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-27T10:40:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=210\"},\"wordCount\":1034,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=210#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/6067bb0ee1cec841741fff3e9af2b171.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"US\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=210#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=210\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=210\",\"name\":\"JD Vance\u2019s Watergate comments weren\u2019t an observation \u2014 he was boasting - Long Distance Movers USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=210#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=210#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/6067bb0ee1cec841741fff3e9af2b171.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-27T10:40:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0206dfa2bde56a4792f75b5b97027e43\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=210#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=210\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=210#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/6067bb0ee1cec841741fff3e9af2b171.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/6067bb0ee1cec841741fff3e9af2b171.webp\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=210#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"JD Vance\u2019s Watergate comments weren\u2019t an observation \u2014 he was boasting\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Long Distance Movers USA\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0206dfa2bde56a4792f75b5b97027e43\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"JD Vance\u2019s Watergate comments weren\u2019t an observation \u2014 he was boasting - Long Distance Movers USA","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=210","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"JD Vance\u2019s Watergate comments weren\u2019t an observation \u2014 he was boasting - Long Distance Movers USA","og_description":"There\u2019s a reason Donald Trump\u2019s allies take issue with the exposing of rot in a presidential administration.","og_url":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=210","og_site_name":"Long Distance Movers USA","article_published_time":"2026-06-27T10:40:01+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=210#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=210"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0206dfa2bde56a4792f75b5b97027e43"},"headline":"JD Vance\u2019s Watergate comments weren\u2019t an observation \u2014 he was boasting","datePublished":"2026-06-27T10:40:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=210"},"wordCount":1034,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=210#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/6067bb0ee1cec841741fff3e9af2b171.webp","articleSection":["US"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=210#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=210","url":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=210","name":"JD Vance\u2019s Watergate comments weren\u2019t an observation \u2014 he was boasting - Long Distance Movers USA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=210#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=210#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/6067bb0ee1cec841741fff3e9af2b171.webp","datePublished":"2026-06-27T10:40:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0206dfa2bde56a4792f75b5b97027e43"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=210#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=210"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=210#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/6067bb0ee1cec841741fff3e9af2b171.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/6067bb0ee1cec841741fff3e9af2b171.webp","width":1200,"height":630},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=210#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"JD Vance\u2019s Watergate comments weren\u2019t an observation \u2014 he was boasting"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/","name":"Long Distance Movers USA","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0206dfa2bde56a4792f75b5b97027e43","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com"],"url":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}