Joy Reid: Difference Between Nixon And Trump Is Nixon Was A Patriot - The ReidOut - MSNBC

[Rhiannon12866]

The Watergate scandal’s 50th anniversary on Friday echoes today’s Jan. 6 hearings, but Richard Nixon was a patriot compared to Donald Trump, Joy Reid tells her expert panel, Michael Steele and Michael Beschloss. Aired on 06/17/2022.

[regnaD kciN]

1. One could debate that...

Nixon was a clear authoritarian ("The average American is like a little child. They have to be told what to do." ) who would stoop at nothing, including covertly interfering with peace talks while a private citizen, at the eventual cost of thousands of American lives, to win.

The difference between Nixon and Trump, IMO, was that Nixon was born poor and, while his family had its own issues, he wasn't brought up with the idea that he had enough power that he should be able to succeed at whatever he was to do and, if he didn't, it meant he was deserving of contempt. Nixon had to battle and lose often enough that, when the final crisis came down, he could accept that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, and that the most important thing was to salvage one's reputation for posterity. Whereas Trump, for whom there was nothing worse than to be thought of as a "loser," was quite willing to trash the nation in order to prove to himself (and his toxic dead father?) that he was and always would be a "winner."

[Rhiannon12866]

2. I figured that Joy's opinion would be controversial here, but I do see her point

And I also see yours. Nixon did not have that sense of "entitlement" that TFG has - when he knew that the battle was lost, he did resign for the sake of the country. I believe that's what Joy meant. TFG, on the other hand, is still fighting his battle and dividing the country even though he definitively lost going on two years ago. Nixon did care about this country and TFG could care less, it's all about him, that's what I think Joy meant.