Trump Is Nixon All Over Again
WASHINGTON — Ron Nessen has been around the block. As an NBC News reporter, he fabricated multiple trips to Vietnam, where he was wounded by a grenade. He went on to comprehend the White House during the administration of President Richard Nixon. Shortly after Nixon resigned nether threat of impeachment from the Watergate scandal, Nessen went to the other side of the W Fly and became press secretary for Republican President Gerald Ford.
In an interview with Yahoo News earlier this calendar month, Nessen shared his memories, his thoughts on President Trump'southward embattled printing team, and his fears for the White House. Nessen said he believes the relationship between Trump's administration and the press corps is the worst he's seen since Nixon famously feuded with the media and played fast and loose with facts.
"I recall probably this is more like a press attitude toward Nixon than any other president since then, I think. I really do. I actually practice," Nessen said.
Trump'southward press team has been at the middle of a tempest during his four months in part. The president has reportedly grown frustrated with negative coverage of his administration, and there are abiding rumors of an imminent shakeup in the White Firm messaging shop. The start existent modify came on Monday, when news broke that communications manager Mike Dubke had resigned.
Amidst press secretaries, there is a tradition by which a Westward Wing spokesperson volition leave a impenetrable belong with a letter for their successor every bit they get out the White Firm. This practice seems to have started with Nessen, who led more than 500 briefings while serving as press secretary from September 1974 until Jan 1977. After his last briefing, Nessen returned to his role.
"I wrote a notation to my successor, Jody Powell, and attached it to the blue, brocade bulletproof belong I had received from friends in the Justice Department," Nessen said.
The letter of the alphabet said, "'Jody, I hope you won't need this. Good luck, Ron.'"
Nessen said he didn't realize it had afterward become a custom. Yahoo News asked what he would write if he could exit a note for Trump'due south printing secretary, Sean Spicer.
"Well, I think I'd probably say the same affair. 'I hope you won't need this.'" said Nessen with a express joy.
Nessen has been avidly watching the briefings led by Spicer and his deputy, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Does he think they need the vest? Y'all bet. And he doesn't but mean as a gag gift.
"I worry that Trump is and so unpopular and so controversial then forth. I really worry that somebody's going to try and have a shot at him. … I have no within information and I don't know whether the Secret Service shares that view or not just, you know, I worry about that," said Nessen.
He said those fears are based on his personal experiences and "the ii cases actually where people took shots at Ford."
There were two attempts on Ford'southward life during his presidency, although in one instance the would-be assassin, Manson family member Lynette Fromme, didn't really get off a shot earlier she was tackled by a Secret Service agent. White Business firm press secretarial assistant James Brady was severely wounded in the 1981 assassination attempt confronting President Ronald Reagan. Brady's death in 2014 was attributed to his injuries. The White House press room is named in Brady's honor.
Spicer and Sanders have faced major questions most their credibility during their fourth dimension speaking on Trump's behalf. Spicer has fabricated demonstrably fake statements behind the podium. Sanders' initial statements about Trump's controversial conclusion to fire FBI Director James Comey were afterward directly contradicted by the president. Trump addressed the consequence on Twitter, where he suggested his team is not ever going to be on pinnacle of his thinking. The president, who has made attacks on the media a cornerstone of both his campaign and presidency, also threatened to abolish the daily White Business firm press briefings, a possibility that has been raised several times during his administration.
"As a very active President with lots of things happening, information technology is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!" Trump wrote, adding, "Possibly the best matter to do would be to abolish all future 'press briefings' and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???"
For his office, Nessen said being familiar with the president'due south thinking was essential for him equally printing secretary.
"I guess my theory of the chore equally press secretary was that my role was to answer the questions from the printing every bit the president himself would answer them if he were there. You lot know, the president was likewise decorated every day in the Oval Role to answer reporters' questions," Nessen explained. "1 of the things that I asked Ford when he asked me to accept the job, was that I actually needed a meeting with him every morn before my White Firm conference with reporters."
At those meetings, Nessen and his squad would present Ford with the questions they expected to face from the press in order to get a sense of how the president thought they should exist answered. But the printing secretary doesn't always give a straight answer.
"If it's something that's even so going on … that the White House feels that it shouldn't be publicized quite even so, I think you have to say … 'On that issue, nosotros are in the midst of making some decisions and as soon equally those decisions are made, I will, report that to you lot and give you the background on it.' You take to say something like that," Nessen said.
It wasn't a foolproof system. If he got something incorrect, Nessen thought information technology was important to brand a correction as soon equally possible.
"I believe that if you fabricated a mistake or said something that was wrong … y'all had to exit in that location … and tell the printing, you know, 'I want to correct something that I told you. I had the wrong information and here's the accurate answer to your question.' Or, something similar that," said Nessen.
Nessen is adamant that Ford never asked him to lie.
"I don't take any recollection of him asking me to say annihilation that wasn't true," said Nessen. "Role of that was just that's who Jerry Ford was."
The word Nessen uses to draw the relationship between Trump'south team and the White House press corps is "difficult."
"I do call up that there's a very stiff 'anti-Trump' feeling in the press and maybe … there's an 'anti-press' feeling in Trump," said Nessen.
He said the media's problems with Trump stem in part from his administration'due south reputation for stretching the truth.
"if you don't reply the questions honestly, you undermine your credibility and that actually hurts," said Nessen, before adding, "[Trump] tends to be a little more bourgeois than nearly of the reporters are, and I retrieve that's a factor. So, I think that'due south why the atmosphere is and so, you know, tense and critical of each other."
Nessen described the White Firm's threat to abolish the briefing as a "terrible idea" that would only exacerbate these tensions.
"It will only alienate the press more than it's already alienated," he explained.
Nessen said ditching the daily printing conference "sends the wrong indicate" and would enhance questions about the Trump assistants and what "they feel they take to be so secretive about."
"It hurts his reputation and I merely don't think it'south the correct matter to do," said Nessen.
Overall, Nessen said, information technology'due south "very complex" to judge the operation of Trump's printing squad.
"Sometimes it takes the president and his staff a little while to sort of, y'all know, get situated and fit in and understand what the needs and demands are and then forth," he said.
Spicer and Sanders have both been mocked with sketches on "Sabbatum Dark Alive" satirizing the combative daily press briefings. Nessen knows what information technology's similar to be on the receiving end of an "SNL" skit. The prove debuted during Ford's administration, and ane of its early bits involved Chevy Chase mocking Ford as clumsy. Nessen hasn't seen the "Sat Night Alive" skits featuring Spicer and Trump.
"I oasis't watched that bear witness for a while," Nessen said with a laugh.
Ford and Nessen both went along with the joke.
"Ford had three teenage kids in the White House and they watched 'Saturday Nighttime Live,' so they knew about this and Ford knew almost it and they asked Ford to be the guest host," recounted Nessen. "And he idea that wasn't proper for a president to be a invitee host, and so he asked me, why didn't I do information technology?"
Nessen ended upward going on the 7th episode of the start season. He was the first political figure to host the programme. Although Ford declined the gig, the president taped an opening with the show's tagline, "Live from New York, information technology'southward Saturday night!"
"Some of the people on the Ford staff didn't think I should have gone on the bear witness and taken part in making fun of Ford and I gauge, in hindsight, mayhap I retrieve that they were right, but I had a pretty salubrious ego in those days," said Nessen, laughing.
Nessen joined the White House at a tumultuous time. His predecessor, Jerald terHorst, left the press secretary chore after one month in protest of Ford's determination to consequence a pardon to Nixon for the cord of crimes that led to his awaiting impeachment. Nessen kept returning to the pardon during our interview. At ane point, he called it "the major thing that happened." And Nessen admitted Ford "never did restore his reputation subsequently the decision."
Ford always insisted his conclusion to pardon Nixon was an attempt to heal the land after the divisive Watergate scandal. Nessen said Ford was "hurt" by the impression many had that "it was a deal he had made" in which Nixon allegedly promised to make him vice president after Spiro Agnew resigned in exchange for the promise of a future pardon if the charges mounted. For Nessen, time has vindicated Ford. He pointed out the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation gave Ford its Profiles in Courage Award in 2001. The prize was presented to Ford past the belatedly Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy, who originally opposed the pardon just said he had come to experience Ford fabricated the right decision.
"I idea that was actually, really amazing, you lot know," said Nessen.
While he thinks the years take improved Ford'south standing, Nessen doesn't downplay how devastating the move was for the president'southward reputation.
"He never recovered from the pardon of Nixon," Nessen said. "I mean, it was so unpopular."
More and more of Trump's opponents, including some Democratic members of Congress, are bringing up impeachment as questions swirl nearly Trump's ties to Russia and his treatment of the probe into Moscow'southward efforts to interfere with terminal year's ballot. Nessen said he thinks the current president could indeed exist removed from office, merely he doesn't await Trump to take Nixon'south route.
"I don't think Trump is going to resign. Now, peradventure he'southward going to exist charged and dismissed or whatever you call that. Merely I just don't see him resigning," said Nessen.
And if we do come across the president removed from office, given his experience watching Ford's stock crash subsequently pardoning Nixon, does Nessen call back Trump's successor should pardon him? He's non certain.
"That'southward a tough question. That is a tough question," said Nessen.
Source: https://news.yahoo.com/trump-media-like-nixon-says-gerald-fords-spokesman-150356923.html
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