For those of us who saw the demise of the Nixon White House due to the Watergate investigation, it’s remarkable to see the similarities with the Trump administration’s attempts to fend off the growing evidence of collusion with Russian officials during last year’s election.
Just as Nixon did, Trump’s first reaction was to deny any culpability and defame the accusers.
Yesterday, the game changed, when former campaign chair Paul Manafort was arrested and charged with numerous offences, including conspiring against the United States.
But the bigger story came later yesterday when it was revealed that former policy adviser George Papadopoulos had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during the Russian investigation.
Apparently, Papadopoulos is co-operating with special prosecutor Robert Mueller and supplying records of meetings with Russian officials to “get dirt” on Hillary Clinton and subsequent meetings with high-ranking Trump officials to allegedly relay that information.
If these two men start naming names and producing documents to substantiate the allegations of collusion, as members of Nixon’s team did, more arrests are likely and we may see the redux of a disgraced presidency.
It’s said that those who don’t learn from history are bound to repeat it; that’s a truism that Donald Trump may realize sooner than later.
Bill Kelly is the host of Bill Kelly Show on AM 900 CHML and a commentator for Global News.