Nixon declared Americans deserved to know ‘whether their president is a crook’ – Trump says the opposite

Richard Nixon and Donald Trump may seem similar, but they have key differences. Official White House portraits, CC BY-ND by Spencer Goidel, Auburn University One of the four criminal trials of Donald Trump was slated to start in the next few days, but has been delayed on procedural grounds. There was a time when it appeared possible all of his trials could happen before the November election. Now it is unclear whether even one will begin in time. As a result, on Election Day, the voting public may not know a key fact about candidate Trump: whether a jury has found him guilty of one or more crimes. Like Trump, scandal followed Richard Nixon throughout his political career. And, like Trump, Nixon always managed to claw his way back into the political forefront. Until he didn’t. As a scholar of American politics and public opinion, I believe the parallels between Trump and Nixon are clear. Yet there is a telling difference between the two men. Nixon acknowledged the fundamental importance of accountability in a democracy. He went so far as to famously declare – during the height of the Watergate scandal – that “people have got to know whether or...