Ex-Bush speechwriter: Trump is nothing but a 'clownish caricature of Nixon' and Robert Mueller is beyond his reach

A former speechwriter for Republican President George W. Bush issued a scathing broadside at Donald Trump saying he shares many of the worst attributes of Richard Nixon before claiming he is nothing but a "clownish caricature" of the disgraced former president.

Writing in the Washington Post, Michael Gerson all but sneered at Trump's antics while comparing them to Nixon's attempts to maintain power as documented in a recent History Channel documentary of the fall of the 37th president.

Noting the documentary illustrates "the downward spiral of Richard M. Nixon’s administration into paranoia, criminal conspiracy, self-delusion and ruin," Gerson said the parallels to Trump are obviously similar but that Trump lacks Nixon's political savvy.

"Recently, the New York Times reported that this past spring President Trump pressured then-White House counsel Donald McGahn to push the Justice Department to start a criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton and James B. Comey," Gerson wrote. "Other reports indicate that Trump repeatedly asked Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and Matthew G. Whitaker, who was then chief of staff to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, how the Justice Department was progressing in its investigation of Clinton."

Comparing Trump's firing of former FBI Director James Comey to Nixon's infamous "Saturday Night Massacre," Gerson points out that nothing Nixon attempted saved his presidency.

"The integrity of our political system has always depended on principled public servants willing to say 'no' to great power," Gerson explained. "During the Watergate scandal, Judge John J. Sirica did it. When Nixon fired the special prosecutor, Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and his deputy William D. Ruckelshaus resigned. By one count, five senior officials in the Watergate-era FBI — for a variety of motives — leaked material damaging to the Nixon administration."

He then offered up at reality check for fellow Republican Trump who he called, "a president without ethics or honor."

"There are many reasons for pessimism about our fractured politics — including the general cowardice of elected Republicans in the face of presidential corruption and abuse of power. But will special counsel Robert S. Mueller III — who spent a decade building the reputation and independence of the FBI — really be silenced or outwitted by the clownish caricature of Nixon who occupies the Oval Office and issues a fusillade of smoking guns? Not likely," Gerson wrote.

He then concluded, "Rosenstein has managed to give Mueller the time to put down on paper the strongest case against a president without ethics or honor. And it is beyond Trump’s power to erase."

You can read the whole piece here.