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Vance downplays Watergate · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I'm actually fascinated by Nixon as a character in history.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: I think that his historical legacy is enjoying a bit
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  Speaker 1: of a renaissance, but I think deservedly so. As I
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  Speaker 1: joked with Robert backstage, if Watergate happened tomorrow, it would
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: be like a twelve hour news story. Like the idea
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy.
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  Speaker 1: And by the way, if you look at the story
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  Speaker 1: of how the deep state took down Richard Nixon, it's
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  Speaker 1: not all that different from what the same groups of people,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the same institutions tried to do to Donald Trump in
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  Speaker 1: the first Trump administration. There is a parallel. I also
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  Speaker 1: just at a personal level, you know, Okay, young senator
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  Speaker 1: vice president, writes some best selling books, is hated by
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  Speaker 1: the media. It kind of sounds like.
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  Speaker 2: Jd Vance, would that sound right there leading us off
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  Speaker 2: tonight or some of my top political sources the co
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  Speaker 2: chair of American Bridge twenty first Century and a senior
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  Speaker 2: advisor to the Harris Walls campaign, and also the former
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  Speaker 2: mayor of New Orleans Mitchell and Drew and also former
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  Speaker 2: special assistant to President George W. Bush, Scott Jennings. I
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  Speaker 2: mean Scott. There's a lot to unpack there when it
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  Speaker 2: comes to what the Vice President said today when he
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  Speaker 2: was speaking at the Nixon Library. Do you agree with him?
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  Speaker 3: Oh about what? I mean, he said a lot, He's
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  Speaker 3: said a lot of things. I will say it would.
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  Speaker 2: Be a twelve hour story today.
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  Speaker 3: Hard to say.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, things happening in a historical moment at different
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  Speaker 4: points in time, It's hard to say.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, it was obviously a huge story.
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  Speaker 4: But again, then again, the media and politics work different
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  Speaker 4: in the seventies than it works today, So you know,
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  Speaker 4: hard to play the what if game. I do think
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  Speaker 4: just you know, I think a lot of Republicans, a
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  Speaker 4: lot of people are reviewing the Nixon era. I mean,
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  Speaker 4: you know, his era and his presidency was not without accomplishments.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, they opened China, you know, at the Vietna
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  Speaker 4: on Peace Accords, there was environmental legislation Title nine de segregation.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, a lot of things happened on Richard Nixon's watch,
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  Speaker 4: apart from just a Watergate. I think a lot of
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  Speaker 4: people are looking at that and you know, looking back
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  Speaker 4: on it and saying, you know, this wasn't all bad.
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  Speaker 3: So it was it was an interesting conversation.
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  Speaker 4: I took note of his comments, but I also noted
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  Speaker 4: at the beginning of it he said, I was joking
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  Speaker 4: with who I assume was the director of the library backstage.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, but Mitchell and Drew obviously that it's not
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  Speaker 2: the Jdvance was not making the point that there were
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  Speaker 2: also accomplishments that Nixon had. Of course, I think everyone
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  Speaker 2: can recognize that. He was saying that it wouldn't be
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  Speaker 2: a story that took down a president, and you said
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  Speaker 2: it was the deep state that took down Richard Dixon.
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  Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure it was Richard Nixon who took down
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  Speaker 2: Richard Dixon and the Republicans who said he needed to
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  Speaker 2: basically resign, yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Well, for historical accuracy.
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  Speaker 5: A number of Republicans found that courage and went to
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  Speaker 5: a president of their own party and said, you violated
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  Speaker 5: the oath to the people of the United States of
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  Speaker 5: America and you can't be president anymore. They kind of
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  Speaker 5: carge is solely lacking right now when the Republicans in
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  Speaker 5: the Senate now just a couple of things. Sometimes when
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  Speaker 5: people like Jdvans say those things, you should just let
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  Speaker 5: their words speak for themselves. I think every American will
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  Speaker 5: listen to that, and of course acknowledge that that President
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  Speaker 5: Nixon did a couple of really good things, but that
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  Speaker 5: doesn't excuse the fact that he violated the law and
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  Speaker 5: he violated his oath to the people, and the fact
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  Speaker 5: that jd. Vance thinks that the twelve hour story now
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  Speaker 5: says everything about the view of the Trump administration's relationship
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  Speaker 5: with the truth and their appetite for corruption. You think
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  Speaker 5: about the pool, the ballroom, the plane, just the chaos,
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  Speaker 5: the confusion, the corruption. The one thing that the president
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  Speaker 5: will not focus on is costs, which is on this
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  Speaker 5: housing bill. Like he said to Zelenski, he doesn't have
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  Speaker 5: any cards. The president has no cards to play here.
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  Speaker 5: The number one issue for the people in America is costs,
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  Speaker 5: and the biggest cost that they have aside from their
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  Speaker 5: guest tank right now is housing. He has a bipartisan
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  Speaker 5: built that the House and the Senate passed again and
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  Speaker 5: he's threatening to not sign it. Well, first of all,
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  Speaker 5: he doesn't have to sign it. The law says after
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  Speaker 5: ten days it is going to become law anyway. So
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  Speaker 5: he's got no cards to play on this thing. Plus politically,
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  Speaker 5: it's kind of insane for him to basically hold up
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  Speaker 5: the first bill that he passed that actually is going
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  Speaker 5: to help working class people make their lives a little
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  Speaker 5: bit easier.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, but also just Scott on the Nixon
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  Speaker 2: comment when Vance compares himself to Nixon, saying, you know,
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  Speaker 2: that sounds a lot like me. Is that a comparison
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  Speaker 2: you would want made if you were the vice president?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, that's up to him.
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  Speaker 4: He was sitting at the Nixon Library, I assume talking
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  Speaker 4: to an audience full of Nixon officionados, So you know,
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  Speaker 4: I assume there was some amount of playing off the
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  Speaker 4: crowd there, so, you know, hard for me, hard for
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  Speaker 4: me to say. I also think some of it sounded
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  Speaker 4: a little tongue in cheek to me. Look, Richard Nixon
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  Speaker 4: has a presidential library. They host a lot of big events,
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  Speaker 4: They host a lot of major speech Republicans, and I
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  Speaker 4: think even some Democrats go there and make speeches.
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  Speaker 3: And so I don't think the vice presidents is alone
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  Speaker 3: in doing that.
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  Speaker 4: And I don't think it's really out of line to
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  Speaker 4: say something nice about the person whose name is on
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  Speaker 4: the building. If I might debate my friend Mitch on
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  Speaker 4: some of what he just said. Look, Gas prices are
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  Speaker 4: not up, they're down below four dollars a gallon. Nationally,
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  Speaker 4: oils trading at seventy one dollars a barrel. We don't
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  Speaker 4: run the gas price tracker on the screen anymore for
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  Speaker 4: a reason, you know. I mean, it's because it's a
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  Speaker 4: non story. The pool was vandalized. You keep bringing up
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  Speaker 4: the pool. It was vandalized by people who are so
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  Speaker 4: broken brained about our politics as they went out there
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  Speaker 4: and vandalized the pool. It's in the court documents, which
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  Speaker 4: you can read yourself today. And as it relates to costs,
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  Speaker 4: the Republicans cut taxes. Working people all over this country
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  Speaker 4: got major tax refunds. We have a booming job market,
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  Speaker 4: we have a stock market that's.
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  Speaker 3: Up right now. We have an economy that's on the
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  Speaker 3: upswing because of Republican policies.
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  Speaker 4: And we've got insane Democrats winning primaries promising socialism all
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  Speaker 4: over this country. Those are the facts, and that's the
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  Speaker 4: argument that will be carried to the election.
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  Speaker 2: Mitch, I'm gonna let you respond, but Scott on two things. One,
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  Speaker 2: I'm on the gas prices. I mean, the president doesn't
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  Speaker 2: think they're a non story, because he was sounding like
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  Speaker 2: President Biden yesterday saying that these companies are gouging people,
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  Speaker 2: saying the DJ he needs, he wants to look into it,
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  Speaker 2: as he was arguing yesterday, because he doesn't think prices
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  Speaker 2: are coming down fast enough. So he's been talking about
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  Speaker 2: that though. But two, Scott, I am kind of taken though,
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  Speaker 2: just because people who watch you every night, you know,
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  Speaker 2: we have you on the show a bunch. You were
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: not very defensive of those comments that were made at
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  Speaker 2: the Nixon Library. You seem to be saying, you know,
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  Speaker 2: you don't seem to be defending them very much.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, look, it's up to him how he wants
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  Speaker 4: to define himself and compare himself to historical figures.
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  Speaker 3: It's up to every politician to do that.
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  Speaker 4: There's some things about the Richard Nixon presidency that I
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  Speaker 4: think are worthy of mention and worthy of admiration. And
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  Speaker 4: obviously they did some things that are not worthy of admiration.
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  Speaker 3: And we know how he's got my point.
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  Speaker 2: That's not that's not the point the Vice president.
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  Speaker 5: Mate.
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  Speaker 2: He didn't say, look at what Nixon did with China,
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  Speaker 2: we're doing something similar to that. He was saying, look
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  Speaker 2: at Watergate. It would have never taken down a president today,
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  Speaker 2: it would have been a twelve hour story. And actually
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  Speaker 2: it was the deep state who took Nixon down. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: he was specifically talking about Watergate. He wasn't talking about
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  Speaker 2: Nixon's other achievements, of which I agree there are several.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, it's interesting academic conversation.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, I you know, if something like that had
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  Speaker 4: happened today, does our politics work the same way today
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  Speaker 4: that it worked, then it's a it's an interesting academic conversation.
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  Speaker 4: But that's really all it is. It's academic. It happened
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  Speaker 4: in history, and you know, we live at a different point,
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  Speaker 4: so I you know, I don't know how to analyze
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  Speaker 4: it beyond that, really, mister mayor.
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  Speaker 5: But as as Scott said, let me let me, let
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  Speaker 5: me kind of contradict my friend, Scott. Richard Nixon started
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  Speaker 5: the APA. That was a really good thing. He also
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  Speaker 5: started revenue sharing. He was actually pretty good in working
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  Speaker 5: with the mayors across America to help rebuild the country,
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  Speaker 5: and for that he should be given credit. But that's
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  Speaker 5: not what jd Vance was doing. J. D Vance was
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  Speaker 5: dismissing corruption that Richard Nixon engaged in that created an
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  Speaker 5: impeachable offense, as though somehow that that's not a big
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  Speaker 5: thing and if it happened today.
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  Speaker 3: Under Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 5: Maybe that's what Donald Trump said, because he's done things
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  Speaker 5: that are worse than that, There's no question about that.
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  Speaker 5: But that comment, you will see that comment many many
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  Speaker 5: times in campaigns going forward. When you consider the chaos
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  Speaker 5: and the confusion and the corruption coming out of the
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  Speaker 5: Trump administration and the vice president dismissing it, I think
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  Speaker 5: the American public's years go up. And look, I'll let
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  Speaker 5: him defend himself.
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  Speaker 3: I think Scott's right.
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  Speaker 5: The vice president has the right to divine himself anyway
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  Speaker 5: that he wanted. That was not a wise thing for
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  Speaker 5: him to say. If he wants people to think that
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  Speaker 5: he might be president of the United.
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  Speaker 6: States one day, do you think this would be a
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  Speaker 6: twelve hour news story.
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  Speaker 7: You've got to be kidding me. The biggest political corruption
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  Speaker 7: and cover up scandal of the twentieth century. He doesn't
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  Speaker 7: know his history, but I do agree it is very
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  Speaker 7: much like Donald Trump in terms of the corruption and
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  Speaker 7: the cover up. We're still missing three million pages of
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  Speaker 7: the Epstein files.
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  Speaker 6: To his point, is he actually right though about the
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  Speaker 6: twelve hour thing? That we would not have the patients
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  Speaker 6: as a society to stay.
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  Speaker 8: But yeah, probably wouldn't have taken him down because you
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  Speaker 8: look at all the stuff from Bill Clinton, you know,
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  Speaker 8: to Trump and incredible colorful scandals. Neither one of them
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  Speaker 8: was forced out of office, and after a while everybody
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  Speaker 8: got tired tired of it. People get tired very quickly
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  Speaker 8: of news stories.
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  Speaker 6: Noticed there was.
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  Speaker 7: A break in, there were wire taps there.
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  Speaker 6: Well, the reason that Nixon ultimately left is that his
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  Speaker 6: own party went to him and said you've got to go.
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  Speaker 6: Thats not happen because the Republicans, and it did not
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  Speaker 6: happen for Bill Clinton either, because he was about.
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  Speaker 4: To be impeached.
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  Speaker 7: He surely would have.
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  Speaker 6: Been so sort of this has been an interesting testing ground,
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  Speaker 6: this book tour for JD. Vance as a potential presidential candidate.
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  Speaker 6: We don't know if he's going to run. Marco Rubio
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  Speaker 6: may run instead. What do you make of this rollout
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  Speaker 6: for JD. Vance, who's been all over.
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  Speaker 7: The appalling I mean, if you're going to go on
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  Speaker 7: for president, you should know US history.
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  Speaker 3: I think that's kind of.
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  Speaker 7: A basic requirement. And to say that there's a renaissance
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  Speaker 7: for Richard Nixon. I'm sorry, where where is this renaissance?
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  Speaker 6: Maybe at the library where he was sitting made they
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  Speaker 6: feel that there the very nice people that John. What
• 10:19
  Speaker 6: do you make it? Jdvan's And do you think he's
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  Speaker 6: the strongest Republican potential?
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  Speaker 8: I mean I like Marco Ruby a lot because he's
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  Speaker 8: an incredible diplomat. He's very strong and decisive. He handles
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  Speaker 8: Ron really well and all the other crazy countries we
• 10:33
  Speaker 8: deal with. He handles the press really well, he handles
• 10:35
  Speaker 8: Trump really well, and he seems to be a very experienced,
• 10:40
  Speaker 8: powerful leader who really takes control of the situation. Vance
• 10:44
  Speaker 8: still has this whiff of junior varsity about him. He
• 10:47
  Speaker 8: hasn't done much yet, he hasn't been around very long yet.
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  Speaker 8: He's incredibly smart and he can out talk and out
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  Speaker 8: debate anybody, is he.
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  Speaker 6: As we've seen through history, that job of vice president
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  Speaker 6: is just very tough to look at, very strong.
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  Speaker 3: Less everything.
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  Speaker 6: Going to there's a reason we have not had a
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  Speaker 6: lot of vice presidents.
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  Speaker 8: But but but Rubio has his own like semi presidency
• 11:13
  Speaker 8: eighteen jobs at the same time, which is quite something.