Only on Fox News would a (Republican) president boast about how much he learned from Richard Nixon without a single question from any of the three cohosts.
16 minutes into his hour-long chat with Fox & Friends this morning – and still several minutes before any of them got around to discussing the rising death toll from the coronavirus pandemic, Trump spoke of his admiration for Nixon. You may recall that Nixon resigned in disgrace as he faced impeachment and removal.
Trump said he "learned a lot from Nixon" several times. Trump never specified exactly what he learned. It seemed to be not to fire anyone investigating him and not to tape himself but he hinted at more. Not one of the three lickspittles playing news hosts on TV asked any questions.
Trump brought up the subject of Nixon in the middle of his rambling rant about former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Russia probe and as part of a vague threat to former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein:
TRUMP: [Sessions] recused himself and had a deputy named Rod Rosenstein, who probably I mean, just you'll see things coming out, but I learned a lot from Richard Nixon. Don't fire people. I learned a lot.
I study history, and the firing of everybody I should have in one way, but I'm glad I didn't because look at the way it turned out. They're all a bunch of crooks and they got caught. But I learned a lot by watching Richard Nixon. Of course, there was one difference -- one big difference.
Number one, he may have been guilty, and number two, he had tapes all over the place. I wasn't guilty. I did nothing wrong, and there are no tapes, but I wish there were tapes in my case. But learn a lot from Richard Nixon and you don't do that. The one person I did a very good thing in firing was the dirty cop, Comey, and when I fired him, the whole thing blew up. They were ratting on each other.
They were going crazy. It was like throwing a rock at a hornets' nest. Had I not fired him, I probably wouldn't be speaking to you right now other than maybe I'd be talking to you about the private sector because I'd be in the private sector had I not -- because this was a takeover. This was the takedown of a duly elected President of the United States.
When I fired Comey because he was dishonest and he lied in front of Congress and other things, when I fired Comey you know what hit the fan, and it was big. It was big. It was a monster, and those guys -
At that point, cohost Steve Doocy broke in – not to question any of this unhinged talk from the guy who’s supposed to be the leader of a country and the free world in the middle of a global pandemic and economic crisis. No, Doocy said, agreeably, “I remember.”
Then Trump went back to his whining about the Russia probe (Brian did a good write up about that).
The whole Trump Fox & Friends interview is below. The Nixon part begins at about 18:12.
