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What does ‘Watergate’ teach us 50 years on?: Politics Weekly America

26 min

As Americans mark the 50th anniversary of the Watergate affair, Jonathan Freedland wonders: had it happened in today’s political climate, would Richard Nixon have resigned? And what can a new round of televised public hearings into a different president accused of undermining democratic elections learn from the Watergate hearings?

50 years ago, police in Washington DC arrested five men for breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. What followed was the unravelling of a web of scandals that ultimately ended Richard Nixon’s presidency. What can today’s January 6 hearings learn from Watergate? And had it happened in today’s political climate, would it have played out the way it did? Jonathan Freedland speaks with Garrett M. Graff, journalist and author of Watergate: A New History