JD Vance raises eyebrows with surprising claim during Nixon Library talk: 'So close'

Vice President JD Vance's commentary about former President Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal, comparing the moment to President Donald Trump, raised eyebrows online after he delivered public comments in Orange County Thursday.

Vance was speaking at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California, when he described his thoughts about the nation's 37th president who resigned in 1974 — the only president in history to step down from the job.

"I'm actually fascinated by Nixon as a character in history," Vance said. "I think that his historical legacy is enjoying a bit of a renaissance, and I think deservedly so. As I joked with Robert backstage, if Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story. The idea that it took down a presidency is crazy."

Media and political commentators reacted to Vance's comments.

"This is just not the thing you say in public holding a microphone," Mikey Smith, U.S. political editor at The Mirror, wrote on X.

"Jeez louise," Kevin Rothrock, managing editor at Meduza in English, wrote on X.

"I genuinely wonder if this guy has a humiliation fetish," writer Jim Stewartson wrote on X.

"'Hey, remember when actions had consequences? Crazy times,'" writer Nick Pettigrew posted on Bluesky.

"Oh, he's so close to getting it," historian and author Kevin M. Kruse wrote on Bluesky.

"The quiet part out loud he said," Kai Ryssdal, host and senior editor of "Marketplace," wrote on Bluesky.

"Good point. Nixon's corruption was infinitesimal compared to Trump's," New York attorney and legal expert Ray Beckerman wrote on Bluesky.