JD Vance said he does not believe Watergate, if it happened today, would lead to a president’s downfall. Speaking at the Richard Nixon presidential library in Yorba Linda, California, on Thursday (25 June), the vice president said that the scandal involving Richard Nixon, would have been a “12-hour news story” if it had happened in 2026. “The idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy,” Vance told the audience. Watergate, known as the biggest political scandal of the 20th century, began in 1972 when operatives linked to Nixon’s re-election campaign were caught planting listening devices at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, leading to his resignation in 1974.