Ex-White House counsel John Dean believes history will view former President Richard Nixon’s protracted Watergate scandal as “a brief idyllic daydream” following President Trump’s “evil” administration.
“Trump’s is making the long nightmare of Nixon’s Watergate seem like a brief idyllic daydream,” Dean tweeted late Saturday night. “History will treat Nixon’s moral failures as relatively less troubling than Trump’s sustained and growing decadence, deviousness and self-delusive behavior. Nixon=corrupt; Trump=evil.”
Trump’s is making the long nightmare of Nixon’s Watergate seem like a brief idyllic daydream. History will treat Nixon’s moral failures as relatively less troubling than Trump’s sustained and growing decadence, deviousness and self-delusive behavior. Nixon=corrupt; Trump=evil.
— John Dean (@JohnWDean) November 4, 2018
Dean was White House counsel from 1970 to 1973. He agreed to cooperate with Senate Watergate investigators and federal prosecutors after Nixon refused to grant him immunity for his role before the 1972 break-in of the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters, conducted as part of a series of dirty campaign tactics to help the then-president, as well as the ensuing cover-up. Dean served time in prison following a guilty plea to obstructing justice.
Dean has been a vocal critic of Trump, especially amid reports that former Trump White House counsel Don McGahn has cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller’s federal Russia investigation. McGahn sat down with Mueller’s team and reportedly gave dozens of hours of testimony. Trump has called Dean “a rat” on Twitter in response to his scrutiny.
In a scathing interview with Rolling Stone published during the summer, Dean called Trump “shameless” while predicting Trump’s presidency will survive the Russia controversy and Mueller’s investigation.
