Good morning. It's July 5, 2024, the day after Independence Day – and Friday, the day of the week when I invoke quotations meant to be enlightening or uplifting. Today's line harks back to the presidency of Richard Nixon, who suddenly seems relevant again.
Fifty summers ago, momentum was building on Nixon to resign from office. The circumstances are much different today, but pressure is also being brought to bear on Joe Biden to step aside. In a moment I'll have a brief word on the historical parallels – and a little-remembered conversation between the 37th U.S. president and the man who would become the 46th president.
In 1972, an ambitious political upstart mounted an unlikely challenge to an entrenched senator in the state of Delaware. The incumbent was a 63-year-old liberal Republican named J. Caleb Boggs. The challenger was a precocious 29-year-old Democrat, Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The race seemed like a mismatch, especially that year: Running for reelection, Richard Nixon would carry 49 states, including Delaware, where he beat George McGovern by more than 20 percentage points.
On paper, it shouldn't have been close. Joe Biden was only three years out of law school when he began campaigning – and it's not like his law school career was anything special. He'd flunked one course for plagiarism and ended up ranked 76th in a class of 85 graduates. Moreover, "Cale" Boggs, as he was known by friends, was a highly decorated U.S. Army combat officer in World War II and well respected on Capitol Hill – and inside the White House.
But political campaigns are not conducted on paper. They are waged in precincts and debates and over the airwaves. Joe Biden may have been callow in 1972, but he had charisma to burn and displayed relentless energy. After the election was over and Biden won by a few thousand votes, Nixon's advisers expressed regret that the president hadn't done more to help Boggs by visiting the state and campaigning personally with the senator. Nixon himself scoffed at such talk.
"If I had gone to Delaware I don't think it would have [helped Boggs] one iota," Nixon told Chuck Colson on Nov. 20, 1972. "He just had a damn good young candidate running against him."
We know about that conversation, of course, because Nixon had a surreptitious tape-recording operation going in the White House. It's also how we know about Nixon's call to Biden on Dec. 19, 1972, the day after Senator-elect Biden's wife and infant daughter were killed in a terrible car accident. Here is a transcript:
Biden: Hello, Mr. President, how are you?
Nixon: Senator, I know this is a very tragic day for you, but I wanted you to know that all of us here at the White House were thinking about you, and praying for you and also for your two children and …
Biden: I appreciate that very much.
Nixon: I understand you were on the Hill at the time, and your wife was just driving by herself.
Biden: Yes, that's correct.
Nixon: In any event, looking at it as you must in terms of the future, because you have the great fortune of being young, I remember I was two years older than you when I went to the House. But the main point is you can remember that she was there when you won a great victory, and you enjoyed it together. And now, I'm sure that she'll be watching you from now on. Good luck to you.
Biden: Thank you very much, Mr. President. I appreciate your call. I appreciate it.
I mention this brief conversation because although we live in a partisan and often crude era today, it's important to keep in mind that politicians are human beings. They have their own family dramas and these include sadness, even tragedies, as is true of everyone.
A year and a half later, on Aug. 7, 1974, to be precise, three somber Republican leaders went to see Richard Nixon the White House. The delegation consisted of Sen. Barry Goldwater and House Minority Leader John Rhodes, both of Arizona, and Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania. What precipitated the momentous meeting was the release of the so-called "smoking gun" tape two days earlier. It suggested that, despite his denials, Nixon had leaned on the FBI to drop the Watergate investigation. And though Goldwater, Rhodes, and Scott didn't believe it was their place to advise Nixon to step down, they did inform him bluntly that Republican support for the president had evaporated in Congress and they could no longer stop him from being impeached.
In "The Final Days," Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein wrote that Nixon responded to this information by saying, "I've got a very difficult decision to make."
In his memoir, John Rhodes wrote that he believed Nixon knew what he had to do before the trio even arrived in the Oval Office. "I got the very strong impression that he had already decided to resign when he talked to us," he wrote.
His hesitation (Nixon announced the next day he was resigning) was understandable. The president also faced a very difficult conversation with his family, who had gathered in the White House solarium while Nixon met with the congressional leaders. The sentiment in the solarium was defiant. Nixon's daughters Julie and Tricia particularly wanted their father to continue to fight.
I was thinking of this when Hunter Biden's name arose this week. Hunter, along with first lady Jill Biden, are reportedly encouraging the current president to dig in, too. Anyone who says the much-troubled Hunter Biden shouldn't be in the room for such conversations is missing the point. Hunter is Biden's only son. (Hunter's older brother Beau, who followed his dad into politics, died nine years ago at age 46.) Hunter and Beau were in their mother's car when it was hit by a truck and were seriously wounded. Richard Nixon would understand Biden's loyalty to his son, and appreciate it greatly.
Most Americans were relieved when Richard Nixon stepped down and Gerald Ford assumed office. But not all.
Tricia Cox Nixon described her feelings in her diary. "A day for tears," she wrote.
And that is our quote of the week – not partisanship on behalf of either Richard Nixon or Joe Biden, but a note of empathy.
Carl M. Cannon is the Washington bureau chief for RealClearPolitics. Reach him on Twitter @CarlCannon.
