WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 Vice President JD Vance on Thursday said the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon would have been a blip in today’s news cycle, and he drew parallels between Nixon and President Donald Trump 鈥 arguing that both were targeted by 鈥渄eep state鈥 forces.
Vance described his admiration for Nixon during a conversation at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California. Widely expected to be a presidential contender in 2028, Vance spoke at the library while promoting his , 鈥淐ommunion.鈥
After talking about the book and his faith journey, Vance shifted to Nixon, saying the legacy of the 37th president is 鈥渆njoying a bit of a renaissance.鈥
鈥淚f Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story. The idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy,鈥 Vance said.
He went on: 鈥淚f you look at the story of how the deep state took down Richard Nixon, it鈥檚 not all that different from what the same groups of people, the same institutions tried to do to Donald Trump in the first Trump administration.鈥
Vance then noted his own similarities with Nixon.
鈥淵oung senator, vice president, writes some bestselling books, is hated by the media,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t kind of sounds like JD Vance. I’ve always liked Richard Nixon.”
Nixon was in his second term when he resigned over the Watergate scandal in 1974.
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