U.S. Vice President JD Vance called it “crazy” that Richard Nixon was forced to resign over the Watergate scandal, arguing that today the affair “wouldn’t dominate the media for more than twelve hours.” “I think his legacy is experiencing a kind of rehabilitation, and I think it deserves that,” Vance said during a speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in California.
Read also: Vance: We laid the groundwork for a deal with Iran — Tehran accepts IAEA inspectors
Vance: “The idea that this brought down a presidency is crazy”
“As I’ve joked, if Watergate happened tomorrow, it wouldn’t dominate the media for more than twelve hours. The idea that this brought down a presidency is crazy,” Vance said. These comments “say a lot about the moral and ethical decline of the Trump era,” Democratic-aligned commentator David Axelrod wrote in a post on X.
It’s actually mind-boggling that @JDVance would say Watergate would be a “10 hour story” today.
Just to review, Nixon’s aides authorized a break-in of the DNC HQ to install bugging equipment–in a caper foiled by a night watchman, who called police. They then enlisted the CIA to… https://t.co/BQgeOhCrwd— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) June 26, 2026
The Watergate scandal
As a reminder, the Watergate scandal began in 1972 with the arrest of five men for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. An investigation by the Washington Post uncovered a vast network of political espionage and a White House cover-up. Nixon ultimately resigned from the U.S. presidency in 1974.
