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Perhaps the biggest is the difference in public temper. Americans in 1972 were shocked by what they learned about their president. No one is shocked by Donald Trump any more. Everything Trump is accused of is completely within character, as he continually reminded the world throughout the hearings with his barrage of tweets, denials and new insults, fired off even as witnesses were still giving evidence.

To succeed, she had to confront a largely indifferent American public with evidence so overwhelming it could pierce deep layers of cynicism and distrust

Democrats would have loved to have found a John Dean within the Trump camp, but had no such luck. Dean was the White House counsel who dealt directly with Nixon and had first-hand knowledge of his actions, and agreed to testify against him in return for a plea bargain on his own involvement. His presence at the scene of the crime gave him great credibility in convincing people of the truth of his claims. Pelosi’s forces couldn’t muster anyone as weighty. Even the original Dean — now 81 — thought Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the European Union, might fill his role. But while Sondland’s testimony was compelling in many ways, he lacked Dean’s depth of access to Trump and had to acknowledge he was never specifically told by the president that $391 million in aid for Ukraine was being held up until he got the dirt he wanted on Joe Biden. He just “presumed” that to be the case based on the fact it was dead obvious from Trump’s words and actions.

Photo by Mike Lien/The New York Times

Though Nixon was a polarizing figure in his day, he had a much greater claim on respectability than the current president. He’d been vice-president for eight years under Dwight D. Eisenhower, came within a few counties of besting John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential race, staged a triumphant comeback and won re-election in 1972 with 60 per cent of the vote and 49 of the 50 states. He’d opened the door to China and moved towards peace in Vietnam. While that record won him the benefit of the doubt with a lot of Americans, it also made the eventual revelations that much more damning. Nixon’s admirers believed in him and were offended when they learned the truth; once opinion shifted it shifted sharply. Trump’s fans don’t care if he was right or wrong; his ratings haven’t budged an inch.