Deep State Meets Deep Throat

JD Vance loves Nixon and sofas

JD Vance visited the Nixon library this week, and he had a few thoughts to share on the man who used to be America's most corrupt president.

JD said, “I’m actually fascinated by Nixon as a character in history. I think that his historical legacy is enjoying a bit of a renaissance, but I think deservedly so. As I joked with Robert backstage, if Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story. Like, the idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy.”

Vance continued: “And by the way, if you look at the story of how the deep state took down Richard Nixon, it’s not all that different from what the same groups of people, the same institutions tried to do to Donald Trump and the first Trump administration. There is a parallel.”

Being fascinated with Richard Nixon is one thing, but rewriting history, gaslighting, and defending his corruption is another. About 30 years ago, I was very fascinated with Elvis Presley, but I avoided the deep-fried peanut butter banana sandwiches and the jumpsuits.

And Republicans love to rewrite history, claiming that the Civil War was over state rights, that the Democratic Party created the KKK, that the Republican Party today is the same GOP that supported the Civil Rights Act, that Hitler was a socialist, that Afghanistan invaded Russia, that Ukraine started the war with Russia, that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election, that Iran started a war with the United States, and now they are claiming that Richard Nixon was the victim in Watergate.

Instead of blaming Richard Nixon for his downfall, JD is blaming the deep state. The Trump regime is so corrupt that it can't see that Richard Nixon was corrupt.

JD now joins other corrupt conservatives, like Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon, and lays the blame on Watergate on a fictional deep state instead of Nixon. Except that the crimes of Watergate were very real. Richard Nixon was not framed. Richard Nixon was a very corrupt president.

When I was a little boy in Elgin, Illinois, the news caught my attention one night in 1974, and for the first time. I did not know who Richard Nixon was or that he was the president of the United States, but on the TV before me, he was boarding a helicopter to leave the White House for the very last time as president. My mother tried to explain to me, an 8-year-old, what was going on. I did not understand it entirely, but even at that time, as a small child, I knew that Richard Nixon was corrupt. JD Vance is an adult who has served as a senator, is now the vice president of the United States, has been to college and written books and shit, and he still does not understand that Richard Nixon was corrupt.

Watergate was about more than just a break-in at Democratic Party headquarters in the Washington office/apartment complex that gave the scandal its name. It’s often said that the cover-up was worse than the crime of the break-in at the Watergate complex. When the Washington Post published its story on the break-in the morning after with the headline, "5 Held in Plot to Bug Democrats' Office Here," nobody knew that it would lead to the resignation of a president. This little break-in that was initially believed to only be a local story in Washington led a trail of a mountain of criminal acts, from money laundering to obstruction of justice to multiple additional break-ins to a shocking abuse of power.

It was inconceivable that an American president would be involved with bugging the opposition party’s headquarters, so the New York Times passed on the first few tips offered to it, and the reporters from the Post who did break the story, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, were from the metro section.

The White House tapes (the so-called “smoking gun” recording) recorded Nixon personally committing criminal acts, including making a plan to order the CIA to kill the FBI’s investigation of the break-in at Watergate. This is what got W. Mark Felt to start leaking to Woodward and Bernstein to prevent the story from disappearing and the CIA from killing the FBI’s investigation. For decades, we did not know it, but Felt was the notorious Deep Throat.

In the end, over 40 government officials and aides in the Nixon administration were indicted or jailed in connection with Watergate, with around 25 members of his inner circle, administration, and re-election campaign ultimately serving prison time. Those sent to prison included the attorney general, the White House chief of staff, and the president’s chief domestic policy adviser.

The civil servants who cooperated with investigators were not a deep state, and they did not frame Richard Nixon; they exposed him. Many of these civil servants were pressured, intimidated, and ordered to commit acts they knew were illegal. Their crimes, according to people like JD Vance, were that they were more loyal to the nation than to Nixon. Trump had several civil servants like this in his first administration, like Eugene Vindman, who testified about Donald Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, when he pressured him to investigate his political opponent, Joe Biden, or he would continue to withhold American military aid. But Trump is making sure not to make that same mistake for his second regime, as he's staffed it entirely with lickspittles and sycophants, like JD Vance.

It was Republicans who told Richard Nixon that he had to resign. Today, Republicans circle their wagons around their corrupt president. Yesterday, the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, told his fellow Republicans, “I run the protect protection program.” Republicans in the 1970s put the nation first. Republicans today only serve their cult.

Unfortunately, JD Vance may be right, and if Watergate happened today, it may only be a 12-hour story. One reason for that is that as soon as one scandal hits, it’s replaced with another. Another reason is that the Trump regime doesn't hide its corruption anymore. Donald Trump is taking bribes out in the open. Can you imagine how much worse Nixon could have been if he had focused more on his pet projects, wealth, greed, and personal power, instead of worrying about a cover-up? Nixon was 10 times smarter than Donald Trump, and he would have survived if his Republicans were as lousy as Donald Trump's Republicans. The attorney general is literally Donald Trump's personal lawyer.

It should also be noted that Nixon was brought down by the Washington Post, which has an owner today who despises the publication and journalists. At the time of Watergate, the Post had an ownership that believed in the integrity of journalism and the importance of truth. Jeff Bezos, today's owner of the Washington Post, has changed the direction of the newspaper to protect Trump, has appealed to Trump's ego to advance his other businesses, and has even contributed financially to Donald Trump's corrupt ballroom. Jeff Bezos should be encouraging the Post reporters to uncover and expose the corruption behind the ballroom instead of contributing to it.

What's different today than the time of Watergate is that we have weaker Republicans and a weaker press.

I have written about this before: I attended my first political cartoonists convention in 1991, where one of the old guys still had not recovered from Watergate. Being the newbie that I was, I asked for several signatures, and he wrote a message saying that I would never have the experience of covering Richard Nixon. He passed away many years ago, but if he could see me covering Donald Trump now. What's horrible is that I might end up just like him, and perhaps the rest of us, too, who care about this country, and decades from now, we will all be struggling to get over Donald Trump and his corruption.

Richard Nixon had the distinction of being our nation's most corrupt president, but he has now been replaced by Donald Trump. New laws were created after Nixon resigned in disgrace in order to prevent a future Nixon. If this nation is not destroyed by Donald Trump, we will have to create new reforms again after he is gone. The only problem is that Republicans are trying to destroy the presidency and turn the office into a dictatorship.

When JD Vance and Republicans liken Watergate to Russiagate and other Donald Trump-related gates, they are all admitting that Donald Trump is guilty of corruption, and they're not covering it up.

Every sofa in Washington is in danger.

Drawn in 30 seconds: TikTok removed this video, claiming it violated their community standards without explaining further.

Support your local cartoonist: If you want to support the cartoonist, please donate through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com, Venmo to clay-jones-87, or snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.
I also take Zelle.
All support is appreciated.

Signed prints and books: I cannot take orders for signed prints or for my books at this time. So please do not send me money or place orders for them until further notice. Because of the stroke, it is an ordeal for me to get to the post office, so we’re gonna hold up until I’m fully capable of doing so. Thank you for your understanding.

Merch: Did you know there’s a Claytoonz store? My cartoons are printed on mugs, clothing, caps, and even a Peezy T-shirt. If you ever want a specific cartoon on some merch, let me know, and I’ll add it.