The Case for Impeachment. Allan Lichtman J.

choosing.³⁶

      Trump too is a creation of the media. He expertly played the media in his campaign as a show they could not ignore. According to a study by mediaQuant, in the year before the election, Trump received some $5 billion in free media coverage, compared to $3.2 billion for Hillary Clinton, an extraordinary edge of $1.8 billion.³⁷

      Once elected, Nixon’s paranoia, his obsession with secrecy and control, and his penchant for punishing enemies guided the organization of his administration. He ran his presidency through the National Security Council (NSC) and his White House staff, led by chief of staff Bob Haldeman and his aide John Ehrlichman. Trump too would place importance on his NSC and centralize decision-making in the White House.³⁸

      As President, Nixon’s loathing of any independent check on his presidency led to a deep-seated animosity toward the media. “The press is your enemy.” “Enemies,” he underscored. “Understand that? … Don’t help the bastards. Ever. Because they’re trying to stick the knife right in our groin.” Nixon threatened journalists with banishment from the White House. He went as far as to wiretap the phones of his own aides suspected of disloyalty and journalists he found particularly troublesome. His surrogate Agnew famously blasted the press as the “nattering nabobs of negativism.” “Our real game plan,” wrote political advisor Lyn Nofziger, “[is] making our own point in our own time and in our own ways that the press is liberal, pro-Democratic and biased.”³⁹

      IS THE LONG NIGHTMARE OVER?

      Following Nixon’s resignation, Gerald Ford was now president, even though he had never been elected to any position higher than member of Congress from Grand Rapids, Michigan. In his most notable decision as president, Ford issued a full and unconditional pardon to Nixon for any crimes he may have committed against the United States. “Our long national nightmare is over,” he said. Ford was wrong. The nightmare of Watergate lives on in America’s collective memory, and resonates as a loud and clear warning to President Trump.⁴⁰