Why Trump’s order to freeze funding evokes the darkest days of Watergate
Why Trump’s order to freeze funding evokes the darkest days of Watergate
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President’s move has convulsed Washington in a manner arguably unseen since the Saturday Night Massacre of 1973. For its potential to provoke a constitutional crisis, Donald Trump’s attempted freezing of trillions of dollars of federal funds pending a “review” evoked the darkest days of Watergate.
Monday’s memo from the White House Office of Management (OMB) ordering a “temporary pause” on a vast array of spending activities across the US federal government convulsed official Washington in a manner arguably unseen since the Saturday Night Massacre of 1973.
Richard Nixon sparked frenzied accusations of a presidential coup and assaulting the rule of law when he tried to fire Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor appointed to investigate Watergate, before dispensing with the attorney general and his deputy after both declined to follow his order to carry out the sacking.
Similarly apocalyptic warnings greeted the OMB memo, which followed an onslaught of radical executive orders from the returning president that had already had an electrifying effect, including one that attempted to end constitutionally-guaranteed birthright citizenship, and the pardoning of about 1,600 rioters convicted of the January 6 insurrection.
“It’s an attack on the constitution and a blatant violation,” said Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, one of a coalition of Democrat state attorneys general who filed a legal suit to prevent the freeze from taking effect. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House of Representatives’ judiciary committee, called it “a breathtaking attack on the American people, the constitution and the rule of law”.
