August 5, 1974 was a significant day in modern American history.
[It was] the day the Nixon Presidency ended. On that day, Nixon heeded a Supreme Court ruling and released the so-called smoking-gun tape, a recording of a meeting, held two years earlier, with his chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman.
Precisely 44 years later, August 5, 2018, another besieged president tweeted while most of us were still asleep:
Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics – and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!
This was after an even earlier tweet (4:38 AM EST) where a paranoid president tapped out:
The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know it’s TRUE. I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People. They purposely cause great division & distrust. They can also cause War! They are very dangerous & sick!
These tweets, especially the one where Trump admits that the purpose of the Trump Tower meeting was to get dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russians, were sufficient to give a startled awakening to even the most soundly-sleeping members of the media.
Here is a sampling:
• The New York Times: “President Admits Focus of Trump Tower Meeting Was Getting Dirt on Clinton
• Huffington Post: Donald Trump Says Son’s Trump Tower Meeting Was To Get Clinton Dirt But ‘Totally Legal’
• Reuters: Trump says his son sought information on Clinton from Russians in 2016
• CNN:: Donald Trump is twisting himself in knots trying to explain the Trump Tower meeting
• CNBC: Trump changes rationale behind son’s controversial 2016 Trump Tower meeting, but calls it ‘totally legal’
• Associated Press: Trump acknowledges purpose of meeting with Russian lawyer
• New Republic: Trump admits his son met with Russians “to get information on an opponent.”
• Vox: “This was a meeting to get information on an opponent”: Trump changes his story on Russia meeting
• Hill Reporter: President Is Reportedly Fearful that Don Jr. Broke the Law and May Find Himself in Legal Jeopardy
But perhaps The New Yorker has the clearest explanation of what all this furor means.
In “The Day Trump Told Us There Was Attempted Collusion with Russia,” Adam Davidson at The New Yorker writes that Trump’s early Sunday-morning tweet catharsis “should be seen as a turning point,” because, as we all move forward there is a clear fact pattern about which there is no dispute:
• The President’s son and top advisers knowingly met with individuals connected to the Russian government, hoping to obtain dirt on their political opponent.
• Documents stolen from the Democratic National Committee and members of the Clinton campaign were later used in an overt effort to sway the election.
• When the Trump Tower meeting was uncovered, the President instructed his son and staff to lie about the meeting, and told them precisely which lies to use.
• The President is attempting to end the investigation into this meeting and other instances of attempted collusion between his campaign staff and representatives of the Russian government.
By the way, The New Yorker had another startling editorial in which Jonathan Schell wrote in part:
…a question has been haunting our national life. It is whether the Republic will live or die. The question has been asked in countless forms. May newspapers print whatever they wish to print, and the people read whatever they wish to read? May the people assemble without fear of injury or loss of life? Must senators and others always support the President in his difficult decisions?
[…]
On this occasion, as on many others in recent years, the President has flouted the law. He has not merely broken the law; he has overthrown the law. But this time, since his lawbreaking seems to remove a threat to the very survival of his Administration in office, it is not just this one act but the continuation of the Administration itself that has become lawless. The question of whether the Republic will live or die has now been decisively posed in this form: Will we remove a lawless Administration from office or will we submit to illegitimate rule?
[…]
The country surveys a scene of devastation. The wreckage of American institutions lies all around us. Any future under the present leadership is unthinkable. The point of no return has been passed, and the country has no choice but to take the first, dread steps toward putting its house in order.
To the reader who has already drawn conclusions as to which president this editorial is about, you are right and you are wrong.
Jonathan Schell wrote this editorial in October 1973, one year before the Nixon presidency ended.
Lead image: DonkeyHotey/Flickr.com
