Romney Rhetoric
Why put the country through all this angst? Why doesn’t he just give up the documents?
-Sen. Mitch Romney (R. Utah), June 14, “Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” MSNBC.
Perhaps the relevant follow-up question to ‘why put the country through all this angst,’ is why doesn’t the Republican Party just give up Trump?
A recent bit of political revanchism is gripping America’s liberal media. Out of nowhere, it seems, there are comparisons between Nixon’s never-served federal indictments and Trump’s recently served federal indictments.
The two events couldn’t be further apart.
Consider, the Federal Grand Jury charges:
Nixon:
Bribery, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, obstruction of a criminal investigation (1)
Trump
Willful Retention of National Defense Information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a Federal Investigation, scheme to conceal, false statements and representation (2)
Such were the indictments by Federal Grand Juries. Both defendants defended their acts. Both claimed protection by a constructed doctrine, called “executive privilege.” Both indictments beyond the circumstantial — Nixon was never arraigned — have political consequences.
Here is where the comparison configuration takes a distinct turn: political consequences. And here is where to fully appreciate the difference, one appreciates as well the fragility of the American political system, specifically the ‘chaos-at-the-door-knocking’ reluctance of a two-party system of governing to govern.
Why? Mr. Romney asks.
Consider that the unspoken reason, Mr. Romney is bellowing into the abyss, is to preserve the two-party system of governing.
Nixon resigned from the Office of the President before he was arraigned. America was robbed of a conviction. For Trump, a former President who has eluded two impeachment attempts, America may be robbed of a conviction. Already legal pundits are parsing the conviction scenarios —will Judge Cannon provide Trump with an “I am exonerated,” false sentencing, how much time will Nauta serve, how will Trump schedule campaign appearances during multiple appeals?
The difference between these two political moments resides with the visit to the White House by Republican Party leaders on August 7, 1974 and their request that Nixon would probably be impeached and that therefore Nixon must resign from the Office of the President.
Why?
Because, as the party leaders reasoned, with a sitting President facing trial, these stewards of democracy would be unable to — drum roll, please — govern. Furthermore, based on these potential handcuffs on their ability to govern, these stewards were convinced they would be unable to get re-elected. It was a congressional election year after all.
It was Nixon versus — not the American people — but Nixon versus the Republican Party.
It wasn’t “party over politics.” It was “party over Nixon.”
Thirty days after the meeting with the President, according to Bob Woodward who interviewed now President Gerald Ford, Ford pardoned former President Nixon because Nixon and Ford were ‘friends.’ (3)
Well, that was what he told me, Woodward reported.
Not what President Ford told the American people,
“In a televised broadcast to the nation, Ford… explained that he felt the pardon was in the best interests of the country and that the Nixon family’s situation was a ‘tragedy in which we have all played a part. It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only I can do that, and if I can, I must.’” (4)
In summary, I pardoned Nixon so the country could move on. I defended “executive privilege,” by invoking ‘executive privilege.’ It was a surprising moment of utter public disdain: Ford could claim his friendship of Nixon, not what was “good for the country.”
But let’s be fair, as the liberal pundits like to qualify, the differences between Nixon’s indictment moment and now:
The Republican Party in 1974 demonstrated respect for the law;
Like all bromides, the country did move on;
The divisions harming the country, based on a collective practice of ‘party over governing,’ had yet to calcify.
And instead of blaming the opposition, the Republican Party, at least for the moment, committed to managing its own affairs.
Why, Mr. Romney asks.
June 16
Notes
1-https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/31/politics/richard-nixon-watergate-national-archives-mueller/index.html
2- pp. 46–47, “United States v Donald J. Trump and Waltine Nauta,” United States District Court, Southern District of Florida, June 8, 2023
3- “In a Washington Post story published the night Ford died, journalist Bob Woodward said that Ford once told Woodward he decided to pardon Nixon for other reasons, primarily the friendship that Ford and Nixon shared.”
— Shane, Scott, “For Ford, Pardon Decision Was Always Clear-Cut,” New York Times, Decoember 29, 2006. Cited in Wikipedia
4- “Pardon of Richard Nixon,” Wikipedia
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