Simple question: Is this crisis worse than Watergate?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

20. We don't know yet.

It could be worse because it involves the interference in our election by an adversarial foreign government, possibly (very likely) in collusion with one of the candidates. But don't forget, the reason the Watergate burglars broke into the DNC office in the first place was to plant bugs to wiretap the phones - they were trying to get information for the purpose of influencing the 1974 election in Nixon's favor. It was the same basic concept as hacking emails. There was a lot of related skullduggery as well, mainly money laundering for the purpose of paying for the illegal "ratfucking." And, of course, it all had to be covered up.

That's more or less what's happening now. It's known that the Russians hacked the DNC. What isn't known for sure is the extent of the Trump campaign's involvement - and that's what's being covered up, but IMO very clumsily. Arguably the current situation is worse than Watergate because of foreign involvement, but it's basically the same scenario. What's different is that, at least for awhile, Nixon was a lot better at it. They didn't call him Tricky Dick for nothing. Trump, however, has been completely ham-fisted from the beginning. Where Nixon really fucked up was when his paranoia got the better of him and he decided to fire the special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, which led to the Saturday Night Massacre. It was all downhill after that.

The parallel, of course, is Trump's firing of James Comey on the most flimsy and unbelievable grounds in order to throw a spanner into the FBI's gears and stop the Russia investigation. Trump, being a clueless idiot (unlike Nixon, who at least understood how the government works), was not prepared for the blowback, or for the fact that the investigations will continue, regardless. The extent to which this situation is, or will turn out to be, worse than Watergate depends on what happens next - particularly on whether there's a Howard Baker among today's GOPers. If even a few Republicans have the stones to call for a special prosecutor, we may yet see Trump leaving the White House in a helicopter.