LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Back in Ken Khachigian's day, things were different.
There were three major TV networks, ABC, NBC and CBS. There was the Associated Press and United Press International. Three major newsweekly magazines, Time, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report. And there were just a few national newspapers.
Today? There's Twitter (now X). Facebook. Instagram. Cable TV, on 24 hours a day. And podcasts. So many podcasts.
"Everybody's got a podcast," says Khachigian, now 80. "Out of their closets, out of their bedrooms, out of their garages. So people are just bombarded with information. That's the huge difference in American politics."
As far as Khachigian's concerned, more's the pity: If Fox News and other conservative channels had been speaking relentlessly to a right-wing base in 1974, congressional Republicans would not have abandoned an embattled President Richard Nixon amid the Watergate scandal, which led to Nixon's resignation.
Khachigian addresses those events — and his belief that the Watergate scandal should be reexamined in light of new research — in his new book, "Behind Closed Doors: In the Room with Reagan and Nixon."
Asked if today's politics are more vicious than they were in his day, Khachigian said the tumultuous 1960s had even more upheaval.
"It's just as vicious," he said. "Back then, you had assassinations. Obviously, it was vicious enough for somebody to take a gun to take out President [John F.] Kennedy, and to take out Martin Luther King in 1969 and to take out, try to take out [former Alabama Gov.] George Wallace and take out [then-New York Sen.] Bobby Kennedy in '68. So it was just as vicious back then."
Trump's style can have blowback
Long retired, Khachigian no longer offers the kind of political or speechwriting advice that he gave to Nixon or former President Ronald Reagan. But he did allow that former President Donald Trump's extemporaneous style that so thrills his base can sometimes obscure the issues Trump could use to attack his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
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"He dilutes the value of fundamental issues that could just zap her, and he could be 10 points ahead of her right now," Khachigian said.
In Reagan's day, they had a basic stump speech, and the president would add about two or three minutes of new material to it each day. Unlike a lot of modern candidates, Reagan didn't use a teleprompter, just sheets of notes at the podium.
Trump, by contrast, uses a teleprompter, but often complains about it and goes off script, which sometimes lands him in trouble, even if the crowds at his rallies love it.
Defending Nixon over Watergate
Khachigian is one of the cadre of former Nixon aides who stands by the president to this day, saying the former president's resignation under pressure in 1974 led to consequences that were worse than if he'd stayed in office and finished out his term.
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"During Watergate, the Republicans deviated. They weakened," Khachigian said. "As we said, at the first whiff of gunshot, they headed for the tall grass."
"Now the consequences of all that: what was the consequences? We bring in Jimmy Carter, a guy who ran the state of Georgia who used to be a peanut farmer, who knew nothing about international politics," Khachigian added.
"Who gave us the worst inflation in I don't know how many years, mortgage rates at 18 percent, inflation at 13 percent, unemployment at 8 to 9 percent, Iran took over hostages, and he weakened America. Now what was worse? Nixon defending his side on Watergate where we tried to take a look at Larry O'Brien's files at the Democratic National Committee or people being destroyed in the economy of Jimmy Carter and America's international integrity being torn down by Jimmy Carter's administration?
"How could we not see that that was a much worse outcome of Richard Nixon being removed from office?"
A Republican for Trump...
Khachigian's Republican loyalty extends to this campaign, as well. He calls Harris unqualified for the job.
"She's really a far-out leftist," Khachigian says. "And she comes out of that camp, in the San Francisco radical Democrat politics. So that's where she's going to go for America. That's not the direction I want. Trump may be zany at times, and a lot of times, but I think at the core he's going to surround himself at the end with people that I agree with much more than I disagree with, let's put it that way."
Click Here | Khachigian on what he believes adds to American division
...and one against Trump
But that stance puts Khachigian at odds with fellow Republicans, including former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh, a Trump critic who left the party and voted for President Joe Biden in 2020. Walsh is now a member of Republicans for Harris, a group that Khachigian dismisses as irrelevant.
"I respect the hell out of Ken but he's ancient. He's utterly out of touch," Walsh said. "He's been around too damn long. Look. This is unprecedented. Let's just be real, right? I don't know if Republicans for Harris is enough to help beat Trump, but Ken's never seen anything like this."
For Walsh, and other Republicans for Harris, the issue isn't Harris' policy ideas or Trump's staff picks, it's Trump himself.
"This movement isn't about policy, this is all about protecting democracy. We all believe fundamentally that Donald Trump is an existential threat to our democracy," Walsh said.
While Kachigian says either Nixon or Reagan could win a Republican primary today — Reagan because of his communications ability and Nixon because of his politically strategic mind — Walsh says that's flat wrong.
"You know like I know Ronald Reagan believed America was that shining city on the hill, he believed America was the indispensable leader around the world," Walsh said. "Kamala Harris believes that. Donald Trump doesn't. There's no way, no way, Reagan would support Trump or be welcome in this Republican Party."