TRUMP CHRONICLES
NIXON & TRUMP
THE BEGINNING
OF THE END
In the 1976 movie All The
President’s Men, a chronicle of two Washington
Post reporters unraveling the scandal that
would take down Richard Nixon, the mysterious Deep Throat kept advising the
young reporters: Follow the
money.
The linguistics professor turned
political analyst Noam Chomsky advised his readers that if they really wanted
to know what was going on in government, they should read the Wall Street
Journal – not the editorial page which is bald faced, rightwing propaganda but
the factual reportage, the numbers, the trail of money.
The day following the revelation
that Donald Trump attempted to stop the FBI investigation into the wrongdoings
of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, the Dow Jones industrial
average fell over 300 points – down 372.82 at the closing bell. It was the largest drop since Trump was
elected. While it does not
necessarily signal the end of the Trump rally it does say the smart money is
now betting against this president.
The market loves Trump. The
market had already banked anticipated dividends from tax cuts, deregulation and
exploitation of the environment.
Now everything is on hold.
A wounded president collects no favors. A paralyzed president has no leverage. A toxic president has no friends.
Is this the
beginning of the end? The smart
money says it is – maybe. You
always want to hedge your bets.
A brief recap of recent
events: FBI Director James Comey
is abruptly relieved of duty. The
White House issues an obvious cover story involving Comey’s handling of Hillary
Clinton’s emails and pins the blame on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein refuses to serve as the fall
guy and the president promptly and publicly admits he fired Comey for his
handling of the Russia Gate investigation. Trump hosts the Russian ambassador and foreign minister to
the Oval Office where, according to a Washington Post report, he reveals classified information. Democrats demand a special prosecutor
and Republicans are unusually mum.
Republican Senator Bob Corker of
Tennessee says the White House is in a “downward spiral.” It seems the president is going under
and everyone knows what happens when you try to help a drowning man.
The New York Times reports a February 14 memo authored by James Comey
the day after he met with the president behind closed doors and without a
witness: It says the president
asked him to lay off Flynn in the wake of the National Security Advisor’s
resignation.
We can conclude at this point that the president is either
guilty of obstruction of justice or is stupid as hell or both. How any reasonable person could arrive
at any other conclusion is impossible to imagine.
It is apparent that Rod Rosenstein came to that conclusion
along with everyone else that lives in a world where reason still applies. Without delay he appointed former FBI
Director Robert Mueller to take over the Russia Gate investigation as special
counsel, i.e., special prosecutor.
The appointment provides sufficient latitude, independence and resources
to virtually assure an unbiased investigation.
Rosenstein took no chances. He informed the president and his staff only after the
appointment was signed, sealed and delivered. It’s a done deal.
There is no joy in the West Wing tonight.
Vladimir Putin tried to lift the president’s spirits by
offering to release his transcript of Trump’s meeting with the two Sergei’s:
Lavrov and Kislyak.
Fascinating. It seems someone
in that room recorded the conversation and it was not an American. Putin joked that his foreign minister
had failed to share his secrets with him or Russian intelligence.
The walls are closing in. At this point there is no one who wishes to be engaged in a
conversation with the president for fear that his or her words might be
recorded. No one wishes to
cooperate with the president for fear that he or she might be swept into the
lair. What do you say when the
president asks you for a pledge of loyalty?
Who dares tell the president that firing the FBI Director
for conducting an investigation into his misdeeds is not only inappropriate and
morally reprehensible but also illegal?
Who tells the president that when he asked Comey to lay off
Flynn he committed obstruction of justice?
Trump thought he was the king. He thought he was the emperor. He thought he could do and say anything he wanted and they’d
let him do it.
Along comes a bureaucrat, a simple civil servant, with just
enough nerve to inform the president who thought he was an emperor that he has
no clothes.
This is the beginning of the
end.
Unfortunately, justice moves
like a tortoise through quicksand: slow and slower.
In the Nixon-Watergate
case: Archibald Cox is named
Special Prosecutor to investigate Watergate in May 1973. In October Nixon fires Cox, triggering
the resignations now known as the Saturday Night Massacre. In November Leon Jaworski is appointed
as the new special prosecutor. In
March 1974 Nixon is named as an unindicted co-conspirator with seven of his
aides. In April Jaworski surprises
the president by issuing a subpoena for sixty-four White House tapes. Nixon releases edited transcripts of
the tapes to the House Judiciary Committee. Congress demands the unedited tapes. Nixon refuses. In May the House Judiciary Committee
begins impeachment hearings. In
July Nixon loses his appeal to the Supreme Court and is ordered to hand over
the tapes. On August 9, after the
release of the infamous “smoking gun” tape, Nixon resigns.
It took fifteen months from the
naming of a Special Prosecutor to Nixon’s resignation. That is probably the best we can hope
for in the Trump Gate case.
There is a lot of harm that can
be done in fifteen months. How
many more productive and law abiding immigrants will be deported in the next
fifteen months? How many more
missiles will be dropped in foreign lands? How many wars will be initiated or prolonged? How many rivers will be poisoned? How much carbon dioxide will be
injected into our atmosphere?
Fifteen months takes us to the midterm elections.
There are major differences
between Watergate and Trump Gate.
Despite inexplicable actions – firing the special prosecutor and
recording conversations in the Oval Office – Nixon was a highly skilled
politician with a deep understanding of how Washington works. Trump is not.
Trump fired Comey not knowing or
understanding the impact it would have on the press, the public and members of
congress. Nixon would not have made
that mistake. Trump admitted that
he fired Comey out of concern for the Russia investigation and compounded the
error by meeting with agents of the Russian government in the Oval Office. Nixon would not have made those
mistakes. Trump apparently revealed
state secrets in that meeting.
Nixon definitely would not have made that mistake.
Nixon acted out of desperation
when he fired Cox. The vultures
were circling and the existence of the tapes was public knowledge. Trump had no apparent need to panic.
The hope now is that Trump
continues to act on impulse and against his own interests. If he alienates his core support and
members of his own party abandon ship, the process could be accelerated. We are hoping for arrogance and
ignorance at a level we never expected to witness in an American
president. It could happen.
In any case we must continue the
resistance. Each of us in our own
ways – protesting in the streets, civil disobedience, letters to the editor,
emails to our representatives, phone calls to senators – must make it hard for
our president and his still loyal minions to do anything at all.
Jazz.
JACK
RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES, GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION, PAWNS
TO PLAYERS, NUMBER NINE AND TWO VOLUMES OF PLAYS (CROW DOG PRESS).
