During an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on his show, “Hardball,” journalist and “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw compared the Nixon and Trump presidential impeachments, contrasting the political climates of the 1970s and today.
Brokaw underscored that the evidence against former President Nixon, in his opinion, was much “harder” and more clear cut than the evidence against President Trump. That evidence eventually lead Nixon to resign from office in 1974.
“His principal aides were on their way to prison, we had tape recordings of the attempt within the White House itself, including from the president, to try and cover up everything. So the evidence was much harder at that point and much more obvious to everyone. Now it’s become this kind of game ‘he said, she said’, ‘that’s not what we meant’ kind of thing,” he told Matthews on Monday night.
“We’re a much more divided country now than we were then,” he continued.
“[Most Republicans] stayed quietly in their office and took in the evidence as it came in,” Brokaw said of GOP lawmakers during the Nixon impeachment. “They didn’t stick out their elbows and say, ‘This is outrageous,’ about how the president’s being treated. They waited until they saw things.”
Brokaw, 79, covered Watergate when he became a White House correspondent in 1973.
The seasoned journalist also commented on the differences in demeanor toward the press between Trump and Nixon during their respective impeachments.
“The conduct of Donald Trump versus the conduct of President Nixon — Nixon was always aware of being presidential and the way he spoke the way he responded to me there. Trump, you know, plays from the gutter frankly. It’s ready, draw, shoot, whatever you need to do. So it’s a different time,” Brokaw added.
The House Judiciary Committee leveled three articles of impeachment against Nixon, including obstruction of justice, abuse of power and defiance of subpoena. Nixon resigned before any votes were cast on the articles on Aug. 9, 1974.
Republicans have been united in their defense of Trump, with no party members voting for the two articles of impeachment against Trump in a House vote that fell almost entirely along party lines. Two Democrats voted against the articles, including Rep. Jefferson Van Drew (N.J.), who switched parties shortly after casting his vote earlier this month.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), who is running for president, voted present.
Trump has repeatedly called impeachment efforts a “hoax” and a “witch hunt.”