Other than a New York Mets game, I don’t know that he ever watched anything as intensely.

During what I recall as “Watergate summer,” he sat in his favorite living room chair, all of his attention focused on the television. Sometimes, I would sit on the couch across from him, and instead of watching TV, I watched him. While the Watergate hearings bored me, my grandfather recognized the gathering smoke of a not-so-distant fire threatening the nation.

WHEN REPRESENTATIVE JERROLD Nadler recently declared “We are now in a constitutional crisis,” I suddenly understood how my grandfather felt more than 40 years ago.


A man of few words, my grandfather tended more toward stoicism than joviality. Still, this was different. There was a gravity etched on his face that rendered me silent; it may have even scared me. I couldn’t fully comprehend what was happening, but his expression told me it had the potential to leave permanent scars.

Now I see my grandfather’s despair and uncertainty in my own face.

Nadler’s statement came after the Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee voted to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for failing to provide the unredacted Mueller report. More than two years into this unnatural disaster of a presidency, it was always a question of when, not if, such a crisis would erupt.

“It’s the first administration you’ve ever seen where they say, we’ll deny all subpoenas from Congress, whether it’s on the Mueller investigation or on security clearances or in anything else,” Nadler said on “The Rachel Maddow Show” hours after the contempt vote that predictably fell along party lines. “They defy the law. We can’t have a situation where the president becomes a king or dictator.”

In her comments during the judiciary committee hearing, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee was even more succinct: “I can only conclude that the president now seeks to take a wrecking ball to the Constitution of the United States.”


Similarly, I can only conclude that Trump and his fellow Republicans lied when they took an oath to protect and defend that Constitution. And regardless of political leanings, that should terrify everyone — as it eventually did during Watergate.

Like the rest of my family, my grandfather was no fan of Richard Nixon. (My father called him “Tricky Dick,” which I found hilarious for childish reasons.) He wanted Nixon out, but was more concerned about how that president’s rampant criminality threatened the long-term stability of the nation.

A year later I stood in that same living room and watched Nixon resign before he could be impeached, and likely tossed out of office. It was the only acceptable conclusion, and it happened because long-reticent Republicans, in the face of mounting and undeniable evidence, finally turned against the president they once vigorously defended.

There’s no reason to believe today’s GOP will experience a similar epiphany. That’s what’s so unnerving about this nation’s current state of affairs. As Trump becomes more lawless and, as Representative Jamie Raskin put it, “tears at the very fabric of our Constitution,” Republicans are allowing him to run wild. It’s not benign neglect; it’s deliberate and forceful complicity.

One after another, they’ve supported this president’s repulsive behavior and have shown no inclination toward defending checks and balances that should never be ignored.


As Trump has emboldened white supremacists, Republicans have emboldened Trump. He can laugh when a supporter shouts that the way to handle migrants at the border is to “shoot them,” and the GOP will wave it off. They’re the perverted actions of a would-be dictator — one whose administration also recently rescinded press passes for a significant number of White House reporters, another blatant attempt to limit press access and freedom.

From Trump fixer-turned-felon Michael Cohen to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, there’s a growing belief that Trump, should he lose next year, will upend any peaceful transfer of power to his successor. It could happen because Trump may be convinced that the presidency innoculates him from being indicted — plus we already know how he feels about adhering to constitutional norms.

Trump is detrimental to the health of this nation. He has thrust America into a burgeoning constitutional crisis — and is fully supported by an amoral mob of abettors whose sole purpose is protecting and serving a corrupt and increasingly authoritarian president.

Nixon imperiled our democracy. With the GOP’s blessing, Trump won’t stop until it has been irreparably dismantled.

Renée Graham can be reached at renee.graham@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @reneeygraham.