In an appearance with CNN’s Anderson Cooper this Monday, the former White House Counsel for Richard Nixon declared that President Trump has engaged in a “very public obstruction of justice.”
“[Trump], as I see it, has already exceeded everything that Nixon did,” said John Dean, who is also a CNN contributor. “He’s really much more intimately involved than Nixon ever was in the cover-up.”
Dean explained that Nixon didn’t start poking his influence into the investigation of Watergate until only later in the scandal, but “Trump, from the very beginning, he’s involved in this.”
“So I see a very different profile,” Dean said. “And the difference being Nixon was behind closed doors … Trump is just right out in front of it, and he’s doing it very publicly.”
“That’s a pretty stunning statement,” Cooper said, asking Dean to clarify if he meant that Trump has “gone farther than Richard Nixon did” to obstruct justice.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Dean replied. “I think Trump is Nixon on steroids and stilts.”
This weekend, Trump publicly attacked Special Counsel Robert Mueller along with former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and former FBI Director James Comey, calling the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election a “witch hunt.”
Although the White House has denied it, speculation is mounting that Trump is gearing up to fire Mueller, just as he did to McCabe and Comey.
Over the weekend, Trump claimed that Mueller’s team was comprised of ‘die-hard Democrats.”
Watch the video below, via Anderson Cooper 360:
Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean says President "Trump is Nixon on steroids and stilts" https://t.co/R26U13jT0L https://t.co/mnfMjVjSar
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) March 20, 2018
Featured image via screen grab
