With ‘tapes’ tweet, Trump evokes Nixon’s White House
NEW YORK — For the first time since an Oval Office taping system was removed by President Richard Nixon’s chief of staff nearly 44 years ago, a president has hinted that White House conversations might again be secretly recorded. If so, President Donald Trump is following a problematic precedent.
While several presidents secretly recorded conversations without problems, the practice is most associated with Nixon. His recordings became prime evidence during the Watergate investigation that ultimately led to his resignation. Sooner or later, recordings are likely to become public.
“The lesson for presidents since Nixon was, do not tape your Oval Office conversations,” said Timothy Naftali, a professor at New York University and the first federal director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California. “It can only get you in trouble.”
Trump tweeted Friday that former FBI Director James Comey “better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press.”