The resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn and the Russian scandal surrounding him have many people asking the same questions: What did Donald Trump know and when did he know it?
For many, the debacle has echoes of the Watergate scandal. Here’s everything you need to know as Watergate returns to the public consciousness – more than 40 years after it happened.
What actually happened?
Flynn stepped down from his position late on Monday, following reports he misled VP Mike Pence about contacts with a Russian diplomat.
The key issue is whether Flynn broke diplomatic protocol and potentially the law by discussing US sanctions with Russia’s ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, before Trump’s inauguration. The sanctions were imposed in December by Barack Obama after US intelligence reported that Russia had interfered in the presidential election.
How did the Democrats react?
The Democrats immediately demanded the formation of an independent, bipartisan panel to examine possible links between the Trump administration and Russia, including when the president learned Flynn had discussed US sanctions with a Russian diplomat.
This isn’t the first time the Democrats have called for a closer look into Trump’s ties with Russia: they have also asked for an independent inquiry into Moscow’s alleged meddling in the 2016 election to help Trump beat Hillary Clinton.
“The American people deserve to know the full extent of Russia’s financial, personal and political grip on President Trump and what that means for our national security,” House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement.
What are Republicans saying?
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Flynn made the right decision to step down but he sidestepped any questions about whether there should be an inquiry.
“I’m not going to prejudge any of the circumstances surrounding this until we have all of the information,” he said.
Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said “the situation has taken care of itself” when asked by reporters if his panel would investigate Flynn’s actions.
Republican Devin Nunes said he intended to ask the FBI how details from Flynn’s conversation with Kislyak were disclosed to reporters. “I’m just shocked that nobody’s covering the real crime here,” he said. “You have an American citizen who had his phone call recorded and then leaked to the media.”
But not all Republicans are sidestepping the issue. John McCain said in a statement: “General Flynn’s resignation also raises further questions about the Trump administration’s intentions toward Vladimir Putin’s Russia, including statements by the president suggesting moral equivalence between the United States and Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine, annexation of Crimea, threats to our NATO allies, and attempted interference in American elections.”
So why are people comparing it to the Watergate scandal?
Flynn's resignation is a good start, but to quote the Watergate hearings, "What did the president know, and when did he know it?"
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) February 14, 2017
A quick refresher of your political history knowledge: the Watergate scandal involved a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building in 1972, and the cover-up by President Richard Nixon’s administration that followed. The scandal led to such strong calls for Nixon’s impeachment that he resigned the presidency in 1974.In a Facebook post hours after Flynn’s resignation, former CBS news anchor Dan Rather wrote: “Watergate is the biggest political scandal of my lifetime, until maybe now.”He wrote: “On a 10 scale of armageddon for our form of government, I would put Watergate at a 9. This Russia scandal is currently somewhere around a 5 or 6, in my opinion, but it is cascading in intensity seemingly by the hour. And we may look back and see, in the end, that it is at least as big as Watergate.”
I guess this is like the moment during Watergate when everyone realized "OK, people are going to have to go to jail."
— Stephen Marche (@StephenMarche) February 15, 2017
Rather thinks that the questions being asked of Trump are very similar to those asked of Nixon in the 1970s. The main question is: “What did the President know, and when did he know it?”
Some are comparing Nixon’s attempted cover-up of the affair with how Trump is currently dealing with the Russian scandal – although it must be stressed that this would only apply if Trump was aware of more than he has let on and he denies this is the case.
Rather calls for an independent investigation, arguing that “each piece of news demands new questions,” and “the White House has no credibility on this issue”.
