“WORSE THEN WATERGATE !!!”
You know the one: The meme used by leftists to extol a supposed scandal committed by Republicans and conservatives. How many times has this been repeated? Of course, the media never applies it to Democrats so they can rest easy that their media allies will never declare the emails on Hunter Biden’s lap to be “Worse Than Watergate!”
We received the latest version of “Worse Than Watergate” this week. It featured stories about an alleged seven hour gap in Donald Trump’s telephone record from January 6, 2021. CNN debunked the story in an April 1 “Official analysis of Trump’s phone logs starting January 6 finds complete record” article.
CNN’s fact checking was done on April Fools Day because John Avlon was one of those big idiots who took the phone gap story. Day of the NewDeclared it to be — wait for it— “Worsethan Watergate.” His report comes with an “Worse than Watergate” chyron as an added bonus.
It’s worse than Watergate. Even worse than Watergate. Ex-President Trump used this refrain to drum up Democratic scandals. It was part his defect. However, it is coming back to bite him when we learn that more than seven hours are missing in phone records from the blank Presidential schedule between the attacks on the Capitol and January 6. The 18 minutes of Watergate tapes from the Oval Office that were erased around Watergate are now looking like an episode of Game of Thrones.
It’s not clear what or why was excluded from this record. However, it is a historical irony to note that Bob Woodward was the original reporter for Watergate. Carl Bernstein has stated that Trump’s coup attempt is actually worse than Watergate.
The man is aware of his words. Watergate was an attempt by Trump to alter an election result through burglary and subsequent cover-up. Trump’s plan was to use intimidation and lies after the fact to reverse an election.
It’s going to be interesting if Avlon will be reminded about his “Worse Than Watergate” labeling of a scandal that was debunked by his own network. He might just have to own the tattoo, and put a WORSE THANWATERGATE ink on his forehead.
Avlon, however, had an excuse for jumping on the phone about the phone gap which was debunked April 1. Jill Wine-Banks, MSNBC’s legal analysts, has no excuse for not writing about Trump’s phone gap. Her article “Trump’s phone gap could be worse than Nixon’s Watergate tape erases” was published April 2nd. This is exactly one day after April Fools Day’s debunking.
Wine-Banks, a Watergate former prosecutor, couldn’t resist making comparisons.
As soon as I heard the news, my phone rang. The Washington Post reported that the gap between internal White House records and those turned over to them by their Jan. 6 committee contained seven hours, 37 minutes. There is a lot to be said about 457 minutes.
I was immediately aware of the similarities to the 18.5 minute gap in an important Nixon recording. After all, I was the prosecutor who cross-examined Nixon’s secretary, Rose Mary Woods, about how that gap came to be. That connection doesn’t just belong to me.
…It is often said that Nixon’s cover-up was worse than his underlying crime. Trump may be able to do the opposite. Trump’s records gap is 25 times as long as Nixon’s, but his alleged crime could be incalculably worse.
Like —“Worse Than Watergate!”
Wine-Banks’s permission to publish her story after CNN had debunked the phone log gap is the real scandal. Did it matter that she was hard at work and couldn’t just give up after all the effort put into this story? John Avlon from CNN could ask her that.
Now, we pause for a moment as the mainstream media proclaims another Republican or conservative scandal as “WORSE THE WATERGATE “.