Longtime NBC anchor Tom Brokaw explained that the case against President Richard Nixon was different from the impeachment proceedings against President Trump, in part, because there was more evidence pointing toward Nixon’s guilt.
“His principal aides were on their way to prison; we had tape recordings of the attempt within the White House itself, including from the president, to try and cover up everything. So, the evidence was much harder at that point and much more obvious to everyone. Now, it’s become this kind of game, ‘he said, she said,’ ‘that’s not what we meant’ kind of thing,” he stated on Hardball With Chris Matthews on Monday night.
He also claimed that the country has become more divided in 2019 than it was during the Nixon scandal.
“The Republican Party at that time did not speak out in a way that they are speaking out now. Most of them stayed quietly in their offices and took in the evidence that was coming in on a daily basis,” Brokaw said of GOP lawmakers during the Nixon era. “They didn’t get out there and show their sharp elbows and say, ‘This is outrageous,’ about how the president’s being treated. They waited until they saw things.”
Brokaw, 79, also noted the difference in demeanor among the two presidents amid the investigations into their conduct and that of people close to them. “Nixon was always aware of being presidential and the way he spoke, and the way he responded to me there,” he explained. “Trump, you know, plays from the gutter, frankly. It’s ready, draw, shoot, whatever you need to do. So, it’s a different time.”
