Courtesy of Pam Martens
President Donald Trump Berates the Media in a Hastily Called Press Conference on February 16, 2017
It was Tuesday, August 6, 1974. New evidence had surfaced showing that the President of the United States, Richard Nixon, had lied to the nation about his knowledge of the Watergate burglary and attempted coverup. Senator Barry Goldwater blurted out in frustration at a Republican luncheon: “There are only so many lies you can take, and now there has been one too many. Nixon should get his ass out of the White House — today!”
The next day, Goldwater led a delegation of Republican leaders to the White House. They told Nixon he had lost the confidence of his party; he did not have the votes in the House to ward off impeachment or the votes in the Senate to avoid conviction. The very next day, Thursday, August 8, 1974, Nixon addressed the nation and announced his resignation as President.
One could see August 2017 playing out in a similar vein if Republicans in our current Congress do not quickly find the mettle to meet with President Trump and demand that he starts behaving in a manner befitting the Oval Office.
Yesterday’s hastily called press conference by Trump and its tortuous 80 minutes of “alternative facts,” berating the media, and painfully embarrassing bouts of unhinged braggadocio, should have been the last straw for Republicans in Congress who love their country more than they fear becoming the target of Trump’s next Twitter rant.
Robyn Urback of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation summed up the disaster as “unpresidential,” noting the following low points of the press conference:
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