Historian Jon Meacham: At Least Richard Nixon Didn’t Hire Russian Burglars

Presidential historian Jon Meacham has said Richard Nixon’s actions were ‘sedate’ compared to what President Donald Trump is doing. Speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Meacham compared Trump to the infamous Watergate scandal and the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP).

“I must say, I’ve learned an awful lot over the past several years, and one of the things I’ve learned is that the position of Attorney General is particularly susceptible to corruption,” host Joe Scarborough said.

“You look at the Attorney General Barr who, I believe, is every bit as grave of a threat to our constitutional norms as Donald Trump, and let’s — what Chuck just said, here’s a guy that lied about the Mueller investigation and the findings. He actually went and testified and lied and threw out a conspiracy theory that had long been debunked on what the basis of the Mueller investigation was, even though he knew it was a lie. He’s going around the globe right now chasing conspiracy theories that he knows is a lie because he’s not representing the people.”

Scarborough wanted to know how current events stacked up against Watergate.

“You know, in American legal history, you can either be John marshal or John Mitchell, and I think Bill Barr has chosen his fate here,” Meacham said.

“And so Mitchell was long-time friend, insofar as Nixon had friends, had been his law partner, and municipal bond lawyer, had left the Justice Department to run the Committee to Re-elect the President.”

“The Committee to Re-elect the President, which, again, in this context looks like a fairly sedate operation,” Meacham said, prompted a laugh from Scarborough.

“At least it was, you know, domestic,” Meacham said. “They didn’t hire Russian burglars. I guess if they’d outsourced that would make it worse.”

Meacham went on to compare Barr to Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell.

“Where we are in terms of the historical comparison with Watergate is very close. We’re heading toward a U.S. v. Trump Supreme Court case. All the language from Watergate, stonewalling, modified limited hangout, twist slowly, slowly in the wind, that whole vernacular is entirely applicable here.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.