History has been said to repeat itself and it has been said to rhyme. Now it would appear that it runs along parallel tracks, as well. We saw the Watergate train rumble through Washington, D.C. on its date with destiny and now we see 18-Minute Gap II, except in this case the figure is 457, which is a lottt longer.
On November 17, 1973 Richard Nixon said, “‘I have never obstructed justice … I am not a crook.” On March 29, 2022 Donald Trump said, “I have no idea what a burner phone is” only to be called a liar several hours later by his former national security adviser. So we have a pattern of two sitting Republican presidents, both credibly accused with shenanigans of their own devise, which never needed to happen, and they both have committed violations — apparently — of the Presidential Records Act.
In Nixon’s case, the 18-minute gap hung him and in Trump’s case the 457-minute gap has now just come to light and is being explored.
Here’s the most damning evidence so far: Trump’s official logs stop recording calls at 11:17 a.m. and don’t resume until 6:45 p.m. when Trump asked the switchboard to place a call to Dan Scavino. What is interesting is that Trump placed some highly known calls during that period, to Tommy Tuberville and most notably to Kevin McCarthy. How? Because they don’t show up on the official logs.
So either he made the calls 1) on a burner phone, which he claims he never heard of; 2) from somebody else’s phone. Which the begs the question of why? OR, he placed those calls from the White House phone and somebody came in and altered the logs later on. Same question, why? The Guardian:
Between those times Trump addressed a rally on the Ellipse, exhorting supporters to “fight like hell”; hundreds of Trump followers overran police barricades and stormed the Capitol building; and Mike Pence, the vice-president, who had been overseeing the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election, was forced to go into hiding.
A bipartisan Senate report connected seven deaths to the attack. More than 100 law enforcement officers were injured.
In an echo of history, the investigation by the January 6 committee of a possible cover-up was revealed by Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, who made his name, with Carl Bernstein, by breaking the story of Watergate and bringing down a president, Richard Nixon. Woodward’s journalistic partner on this occasion was Robert Costa, his co-author of Peril, a book on the end of the Trump presidency that was released last year.
The pair reported that the long gap between call logs was of “intense interest” to elements of the January 6 committee. They quoted an unnamed member of the panel who said they were investigating a “possible cover-up”.
I think “possible” is not the applicable word here. I think “undeniable” is a better choice. How else do you explain these facts? Salon via Raw Story:
We’ve only heard about some calls that day from people who cooperated with the committee or told reporters. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, for instance, was overheard telling Trump that he needed to call off the mob. Trump reportedly retorted, “well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are” after which McCarthy told Trump the rioters were breaking into his office through the windows, and yelled, “Who the f–k do you think you are talking to?”
Evidently, that call didn’t go through official channels because it happened during that long seven-hour and 37-minute gap along with several other calls we know about from people like Senator Mike Lee, R-Ut, and Senator Tommy Tuberville, R-Al. […]
As Salon’s Igor Derysh observed, this is all very redolent of Watergate. The seven and a half-hour gap immediately brought to mind the famous 18 and a half minute gap in Richard Nixon’s secret White House tapes and the absurd lengths to which his secretary, Rosemary Woods, went to try to explain it away. The gap in that tape also just happened to occur during a crucial time — three days after the Watergate break-in during a discussion between Nixon and his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman. I have a sneaking suspicion that someone from Trump’s White House will end up being held responsible for this missing seven-and-a-half hours in the official call logs as well. You wonder if they will be as loyal to Trump as Rosemary Woods was to Nixon. To this day, no one knows exactly what was said in those 18 and a half minutes.
I think there is a Rosemary Woods analogue to be found in the Trump White House, insofar as trashing the phone logs is concerned. That I believe. But as to being as loyal to Trump the way Woods was to Nixon? No way in hell. Not in a million years. Unless it’s Ivanka and even then it’s still questionable.
It will be interesting to find out who the Rosemary Woods counterpart is.
When he gets caught over & over & over with mountains of evidence of criminality & nothing serious ever happens, it looks like another box canyon. 15 boxes of violations concerning records, including some marked top secret, crickets. That’s small potatoes compared to the impeachment trials that never happened. Remember that event soon to be 15 months ago? Crickets. NY Manhattan DA’s office with CLEAR bank fraud, with so much evidence, & despite two very credible prosecuters QUIT because they believe their boss isn’t going to prosecute, crickets. So on & so on & so on. No. I know they don’t teach this in Law school, but some people clearly are above the law. Maybe monarchy is better. At least everyone knows they are vassals. Here, we live in a collective delusion. I believe John Lennon said about us, ” you think you are so clever, classless. & free…you still look like fucking peasants to me.” Of course John stayed in trouble for being brutally honest.
“So we have a pattern of two sitting Republican presidents, both credibly accused with shenanigans of their own devise, which never needed to happen, and they both have committed violations — apparently — of the Presidential Records Act.”
Um, Ursula? Nixon could NEVER have violated the Presidential Records Act–apparently or otherwise–because that law wasn’t enacted until 1978 (and it was only created after the Supreme Court found a 1974 law, the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act, to be constitutional–and this law was enacted immediately following Nixon’s resignation to ensure that all his records would remain intact with the National Archives tasked with separating materials that related directly to Nixon’s presidential duties from those that were not). Additionally, the law didn’t actually go into effect until Jan 20, 1981 (it didn’t apply to Carter’s records as he lost the election in 1980 but IF he had won, records after that date would be subject to the law; of course, I can’t imagine Carter wouldn’t have turned over every last little bit of information from his Presidency whether it was of national importance or not).
“I think there is a Rosemary Woods analogue to be found in the Trump White House, insofar as trashing the phone logs is concerned. That I believe. But as to being as loyal to Trump the way Woods was to Nixon? No way in hell. Not in a million years.”
On the “loyal to Trump” matter? Eh, it’s possible. If Trump has something that would be more damaging to his Woods’ stand-in, it may be far less any real “loyalty” and more a matter of the person’s need for self-preservation (where prison time might be the proverbial lesser of two evils–at least from the mystery person’s perspective). Let’s not forget that Woods had been with Nixon as his personal secretary for more than 2 decades at the time of Watergate (and she’d been injured during the attack on Nixon’s motorcade in Caracas, Venezuela, during his “goodwill tour” of South America in 1958). Trump doesn’t really have anyone who would be THAT loyal without there being some sort of compromising material on his “loyal” follower. We all know Trump operates on a transactional basis; if he doesn’t benefit in some manner, he doesn’t take part.
Love it. “I am not a crook” & “I have no idea what a burner phone is”. lmao