August 7, 2023 By Michael Weymouth
Donald Trump is following long-established responses to criminal charges against elected officials by denying everything, smearing the prosecution and the media, obstructing justice and claiming it’s all a witch hunt. These were the same tactics used by President Richard Nixon’s vice president Spiro Agnew in 1973 as he attempted to fight off criminal charges that involved receiving kickbacks from his home district in Maryland while in the VP’s office.
Prosecutors could have brought multiple criminal indictments against Agnew but Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, back in the day when Republicans were a responsible political party, was intent on immediately getting Agnew out of the line of succession to the presidency, especially since President Nixon himself was embroiled in Watergate and potentially subject to impeachment.
Agnew never showed a shred of remorse, saying he was railroaded by the Justice Department and the press, and he never stopped stoking his supporters. Even after his resignation, his hardcore supporters claimed he was a victim of a weaponized justice department.
For those on the political right, Agnew was the blunt and honest outsider, willing to speak truths no one else would speak. He was adored for trashing liberals, radicals and minorities. Agnew played a moralist, devoted to the silent majority. He presented himself as a pillar of rectitude and conservative integrity. In reality he was a petty crook.
Denying everything, smearing prosecutors, obstructing justice and screaming witch hunt did not ultimately work. The problem for Agnew was that in spite of his claims, he was as guilty as sin.
Under the terms of his resignation, Agnew did no jail time nor did he have to pay back bribe money. He was forced to resign the vice presidency immediately, and prosecutors entered into the record a 40-page statement that detailed the factual allegations against him.
If all this sounds familiar, the similarities with Donald Trump are many: Agnew’s use of pejoratives when referring to the opposition: “nattering nabobs of negativism” and “pusillanimous pussyfooting on law and order,” have been replaced by “Crooked” Hillary, “Pocahontas” Elizabeth, “Little Marco” and “Sanctimonious DeSantis,” to name a few.
Name calling seems to be the playground default for bullies.
A major difference between Agnew and Trump, however, is the state of the Republican Party then compared to the Republican Party today. Republicans in 1973 saw Spiro Agnew as a threat to the country and acting on its behalf, forced him to resign, whereas today’s Republican Party simply looks away, the country be damned.
It’s hard to imagine today’s Republican leaders ever visiting the White House, as they did in Nixon’s time, and telling President Trump they would no longer support him, or since he is now out of office, telling him they would no longer accept him as a presidential candidate.
But don’t bet the farm on it.
Years later in 1981, George Washington University law students filed a lawsuit which forced Agnew to pay back to the State of Maryland $268,482 for the kickbacks he had received. They won the lawsuit.
A similar recompense would be for the judge in Donald Trump’s conspiracy trail, should he be found guilty, to require him to pay the federal government’s costs to bring him to trial, which should be chump change for someone who claims to be a multi-billionaire.
Perhaps far more important than the money is the damage Trump continues to do to the institutions that form the bedrock of our democracy, as well as to the once-proud Republican Party. In 1973, in dealing with a crooked Spiro Agnew, they chose country over politics, one can only hope they will find the courage to do the same thing here.