Elizabeth Warren: The Trump Russia Scandal Could Be Worse Than Watergate

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren says that the ongoing revelations and scandals concerning President Donald Trump and his administration and their alleged collusion with Russian officials could eventually become worse than Watergate, the scandal that brought down the Richard Nixon presidency in 1974. Although she noted that the same initial charges that wound up forcing President Nixon to resign would likely start the legal process grinding against President Trump, she said that Trump’s situation would be worse due to the alleged dealings with Russia.

Senator Warren was speaking at a Credo-sponsored event in San Francisco Wednesday (May 31), according to The Hill, when she drew a comparison to President Trump‘s beleaguered presidency and that of the disgraced former president, Richard Nixon, and the Watergate scandal. The nearly daily reveals made by the media with regard to meetings and contacts with Russian officials are being met with calls for Congress to initiate impeachment proceedings and/or start the process of forcing Trump to resign.

Warren said, “A lot of people compare this to Nixon and they say, ‘That’s what got Nixon, was the obstruction of justice.’ And it’s true, but this is a lot worse because this one has connections to a foreign power, which the whole back-and-forth around obstruction of justice with Nixon did not include.”

The latest of the “connections” came when NBC News reported that Trump White House adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Russian officials prior to his current posting and failed to disclose the meetings. In fact, the FBI was investigating the situation. At least one of the meetings was said to be with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Another, which took place last year, was with Russian banker Sergey Gorkov, chairman of VneshEconomBank, a Russian government-owned business currently under U.S. sanctions going back to July 2014.

At least one of those meetings was attended by former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who resigned his post in the Trump administration just 24 days into the nascent presidency.

Warren said that liberal activists — like members of Credo — need to apply pressure to Republicans to get answers concerning the nature of the relationships between Trump, his inner circle, and the Russians.

“First, we make sure that we’ve gotten the facts, that you get them out there, but … we got to turn the heat up under Republicans,” she said.

The Massachusetts senator also pointed out that her Republican colleagues are going to be held accountable. “Guys, you don’t get to take a pass on this,” she said. “You got to step up on this one.” She also noted that, historically, “Republicans and Democrats have agreed that obstruction of justice is an impeachable offense. That has been a bipartisan position.”

Warren emphasized the necessity of the FBI conducting a thorough investigation into the allegations that the Trump administration had illegal dealings with a foreign power and the need for Democrats to keep up the pressure on the agency in this regard, not to mention the investigation into allegations of obstruction of justice on the part of President Trump himself. This allegedly occurred when Trump, according to a memo written by former FBI Director James Comey, asked Comey to back off in his investigation into then National Security Advisor Flynn’s contacts with the Russians.

Warren also insisted that Republicans be pressured into continuing the investigation into the reported tampering by the Russians in the 2016 general election.

“We really have to keep pushing on both of these fronts,” she said, “because they both pose threats both to our security from the outside but also — back to the Trump … obstruction of justice — to the very notion of rule of law, that no one in this country is above the law, not even the president of the United States.”

Warren is not the only senator to point out that Trump’s and his administration’s alleged connections to Russia were similar to Watergate.

Commenting during a speech in Washington in mid-May that “we’ve seen this movie before,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) added (per the Inquisitr), “I think it’s reaching a point where it’s of Watergate size and scale, and a couple of other scandals that you and I have seen.”

And if Sen. Elizabeth Warren has her way, constant pressure from the media, Democrats, and liberal activists will push the ongoing scandals to the point of being at the very least Watergate-sized. But if revelations continue to unfold about dealing with Russia, Sen. Warren could be proven correct in that the Trump scandals could become worse than Watergate.

[Featured Image by Steven Senne/AP Images]