Trump's Behavior Is Beginning to Remind Me of the Final Days of Nixon's Tenure

By Dan Rather, Dan Rather's Facebook Page

19 February 17

resident Donald Trump's press conference Thursday is one of the most unusual and unsettling from a president perhaps in our nation's history. It reminds me a bit of the final days of President Nixon's tenure, when the world was collapsing about him. But Mr. Trump is not yet a month into his presidency.

As many of my fellow journalists have noted, the scorn for Mr. Trump's ramblings and incoherence, nevermind the matter of the topics he did address, has been widespread. But it would be a grave mistake to think it is universal. This President remains deeply popular with his base. While his overall numbers are sinking well below any historical comparisons, his numbers amongst Republicans seem to be floating on helium.

This is one of the great urgencies of the moment - a deep bifurcation in how the country sees the President and the Republican agenda as a whole. The two are linked but only weakly. The effects of this can be seen by the tepid criticism at best from the GOP leadership and rank and file on Capitol Hill. Even as many in the press and on the political left - and even maybe independents - see an Administration teetering on collapse. Republican voters see it very differently. at least for now. The votes on controversial cabinet posts continue with few speed bumps. The latest vote on Scott Pruitt, a climate change denier whose potentially explosive emails were ordered by a judge to be released, is a perfect case in point as this article in from The New Yorker makes clear.