1973’s ‘Handy Excuses for Nixon Backers’ Makes Timely Return for Trump Scandals

“The Democrats Are Sore Because They Lost the Election”

Between Donald Trump’s decision to fire James Comey, his subsequent threats of potentially recording their conversations and the naming of a special counsel to oversee the probe into Russia’s  meddling in the 2016 presidential election, there’s been no shortage of comparisons between Trump and Richard Nixon.

Now, as the fact-checking site Snopes pointed out, a satirical article written in 1973 by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Art Buchwald has taken on new life. In “Here are handy excuses for Nixon backers,” the syndicated Washington Post columnist cheekily advised that “these are difficult times for people who are defending the Nixon administration.”

“No matter where they go they are attacked by pseudo-liberals, McGovern lovers, heterosexual constitutionalists and paranoid John Dean believers,” Buchwald wrote. “As a public service, I am printing instant responses for loyal Nixon-ites when they are attacked at a party. Please cut it out and carry it in your pocket.”

The article offered over 30 responses—some of which could arguably be written today, including:

• A President can’t keep track of everything his staff does.
• The press is blowing this whole thing up.
• The Democrats are sore because they lost the election.
• Wait till all the facts come out.
• If you impeach Nixon, you get Agnew.
• People would be against Nixon no matter what he did.
• I’d rather have a crook in the White House than a fool.
• Nixon made a mistake. He’s only human.
• What about Harry Truman and the deep freeze scandal?
• I’m sick and tired of hearing about Watergate and so is everybody else.

An archived version of the piece, originally published in July of 1973, can be read here, or via the screenshot below:

 

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Screenshot via Newspapers.com