Podbit · The Bulwark Podcast
JD Vance's argument that Watergate would be a 12-hour news story today is a deliberate strategy to connect present grievances about presidential power to a popular grievance. The problem: Nixon's own voice on the smoking-gun tape makes the 'deep state victim' narrative impossible.
Where this was said
At 11:25 · chapter starts 9:05
Tim Miller recounts the surreal spectacle of JD Vance delivering carefully prepared remarks at the Nixon Foundation claiming Nixon is enjoying a renaissance and that Watergate would barely register as news today. John Dickerson's mother Nancy covered the Nixon White House for NBC, giving him a personal thread into the era — including Nixon's late-night, drink-fueled call to her expressing love for the Mall protesters, shortly before his famous midnight visit to the Lincoln Memorial. Dickerson then dissects the political logic of Vance's Nixon rehabilitation: it connects the administration's grievances about presidential power to a grievance with popular cultural resonance, framing critics as 'ninnies' or 'nattering nabobs' in the elite-versus-real-America framing. The problem, Dickerson argues with cutting precision, is that the smoking-gun tape is Nixon's own voice — there is no deep state to blame when the president is literally caught on recording ordering the CIA to obstruct justice. He and Miller also note the historical absurdity of claiming a 'deep state' victimized Nixon when the CIA and DOJ were in fact complicit in the coverup. [1] — John Dickerson "JD Vance's argument that Watergate would be a 12-hour news story today is a deliberate strategy to connect present grievances about preside…" 11:25
John Dickerson argued that JD Vance's attempt to rehabilitate Nixon ignores the 'smoking gun' tape in which Nixon himself ordered the CIA to obstruct the FBI's Watergate investigation.
The US government is actively doing critical minerals deals worth ~$9 billion with at least 14 companies that have financial ties to Trump or Lutnick.
A New York Times report documents 14 companies with Trump or Lutnick financial ties winning roughly $9 billion in critical minerals deals. The Kazakhstan tungsten deal — where both Trump and Lutnick family announced lucrative connections shortly after a Trump-Lutnick-Kazakh summit — is the template.
The total value of critical minerals deals benefiting Trump-connected companies stands at approximately $9 billion.
Factories that replaced coal engines with electric ones in the early 1900s got only 6% efficiency gains. Those that redesigned their entire factory around electricity got a 3x productivity improvement. Swapping AI tools into your existing structure will give you 6%. Rebuilding around AI will give you 10x.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
The CIA supply operation used a front company called Southern Air Transport, widely known to be a CIA cover. Crew members of the downed plane carried their Southern Air Transport employee IDs in their wallets. One also had a business card directly linking him to Oliver North's office in Washington.
When the scandal broke, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall conducted what became known as a 'shredding party,' destroying a day's worth of documents. The full truth of Iran-Contra may never be known because of what was fed through that shredder.
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