William Ruckelshaus, who famously resigned as deputy attorney general during the Watergate scandal, says President Donald Trump is acting with a "desperation I’ve seen only once before in Washington: 45 years ago when President Richard M. Nixon ordered the firing of special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox."
"Nixon was fixated on ending the Watergate investigation, just as Trump wants to shut down the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election," Ruckelshaus, who quit in October 1973 when Nixon ordered him to boot Cox, writes in Tuesday’s Washington Post.
"A lesson for the president from history: It turned out badly for Nixon. Not only could he not derail the investigation, but also, 10 months later, he was forced to resign the presidency. In fact, in some ways, Trump is conducting himself more frantically than Nixon, all the while protesting his innocence."
Ruckelshaus, who also served as acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation administrator of the EPA, added:
"The cynical conduct of this president, his lawyers and a handful of congressional Republicans is frightening to me and should be to every citizen of this country. We are not playing just another Washington political game; there is much more at stake."
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