vt. author draws parallels between January 6 hearings, Watergate scandal, #author #draws #parallels #Jan #hearings #Watergate #scandal Welcome to OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) — More witnesses are scheduled to testify this week before the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.
Some historians draw similarities between that and another great political drama from half a century ago, the Watergate scandal.
Vermont author and historian Garrett Graff, who has done extensive research on Watergate, says he sees a connection.
The January 6 hearings are back this week, detailing a timeline leading up to the attack and explaining who in then-President Trump’s administration knew what and when.
Like the Watergate scandal 50 years ago, the hearings take place in real time on live TV.
“We usually think of Watergate as the five burglars. At the end of Watergate, there were 69 people who were actually charged with the scandals that stemmed from Watergate,” Graff said.
Graff’s latest book, “Watergate: A New History,” chronicles a series of events leading up to the Watergate scandal that ended with the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
“January 6 was not an isolated series of events, just as the Watergate burglary was not an isolated series of events,” Graff said.
He says that like Watergate, a years-long chain of events laid the groundwork for the Capitol riots, from the Mueller investigation to false claims of voter fraud.
“Donald Trump was repeatedly told by aides that what he was doing was wrong and had no basis in reality and he persevered anyway,” Graff said.
Like the Watergate hearings, the January 6 panel has been streamed and viewed by millions. But unlike the summer of ’73, the US media is more divided where people select what they want to see and hear.
In 1974, faced with impeachment for his abuse of executive power, Nixon eventually resigned.
But Graff says the Trump administration’s alleged crimes go against one of the foundations of democracy: the peaceful transfer of power.
It is unclear whether the Justice Department will launch a criminal referral. But Graff says that in the future, new laws giving power to partisan voters and possible US Supreme Court decisions could affect election integrity.
“For me, the challenge is that if we look at these hearings, Donald Trump remains the symptom, not the disease,” Graff said.
The next hearing on January 6 is Tuesday at 1 p.m. You can watch it live on WCAX.
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