Vance says deep state took down Nixon, draws Trump parallels

JD Vance used a program at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California, to recast Watergate as a scandal that would barely last a news cycle today. Speaking Thursday, June 25, 2026, while promoting Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, the vice president said Nixon’s historical reputation was “enjoying a bit of a renaissance” and argued that the downfall of the 37th president was driven by “deep state” forces.

Vance said, “I’ve always liked Richard Nixon,” and added, “If Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story. The idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy.” He drew a direct line from Nixon to President Donald Trump, saying both men were targets of the same kind of institutional resistance. Vance also compared his own profile to Nixon’s, saying, “Young senator, vice president, writes some bestselling books, is hated by the media.”

The event was a special program hosted by the Richard Nixon Foundation, which framed the appearance as a candid conversation tied to the release of Vance’s memoir. The setting mattered: Vance chose the library built around Nixon’s political legacy to make the case that one of the most famous scandals in American history has been misunderstood through the lens of modern polarization.

Watergate began with the June 17, 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. Nixon had just won reelection in a landslide, defeating George McGovern 520 to 17 in the Electoral College, before the cover-up widened into a constitutional crisis that ended with his resignation on August 9, 1974. He remains the only U.S. president to resign from office.

Vance’s remarks go beyond a defense of Nixon’s personal reputation. They push a different historical account, one in which congressional, journalistic and judicial scrutiny recede in favor of a familiar conservative grievance: that unelected power centers, not evidence of abuse, brought down a president. That framing is likely to revive debate over whether Watergate still functions as a bipartisan warning about accountability, or has become another contested symbol in the country’s broader fight over truth, institutions and power.