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Impeachment: What's changed since Nixon?

Why was the Nixon impeachment so consequential and the Trump impeachment a flop?

In August 1974, the 37th President of the United States - Richard Nixon - resigned after being told by members of his own Republican party that they could no longer support him. Evidence brought during the process to impeach and remove him had implicated the White House in an attempt to sabotage President Nixon's Democratic rivals. The allegations against President Nixon were similar in nature to those levelled at the 45th President Donald Trump. But this week, Mr Trump was acquitted of the two charges against him following his impeachment trial, after Republicans in the Senate voted not to hear new evidence in the case. So, have public attitudes towards allegations of corruption in public office changed over the past four decades? US politics itself, is different, but how did it arrive here? Ritula Shah and a panel of expert guests discuss - what’s changed since Nixon?

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53 minutes

Last on

Sat 8 Feb 202004:06GMT
BBC World Service except Americas and the Caribbean

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Contributors

David Paul Kuhn - Journalist and author of The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and The Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution

Ross K. Baker - Distinguished professor of political science at Rutgers University

Eleanor Powell - Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

John Daniel Davidson - Political editor at the Conservative online magazine 'The Federalist'

Also featuring:

Jeff Flake - Former Republican Senator

Carroll Doherty - Director of Political Research, Pew Research Centre

Image

Richard Nixon, in his first public appearance after resigning from the Presidency.

Credit: Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

Broadcasts

  • Fri 7 Feb 202009:06GMT
    BBC World Service
  • Sat 8 Feb 202000:06GMT
    BBC World Service
  • Sat 8 Feb 202003:06GMT
    BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean
  • Sat 8 Feb 202004:06GMT
    BBC World Service except Americas and the Caribbean

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