Swan Song?

On May 17, 1973, Senator Sam Ervin Jr. opened Senate hearings into the Watergate affair. “It is the constitutional duty of this committee to expeditiously investigate allegations that American democracy has been subverted and its foundations shaken."

On August 9, 1974, with bipartisan articles of impeachment hanging over him, Nixon resigned.

Trump has a very different experience. Republican control of Congress protected him from public exposure Nixon endured. Now that the Democrats have taken the House, the Trump administration will face a far-reaching, aggressive, and highly public investigations of the kind that brought down Nixon.

Robert Mueller’s investigation has picked off a few campaign aides and charged Russian operatives, but it has yet to breach the Oval Office. A Democrat-controlled Congress, however, will show less restraint when it comes to the president.

Congressional committees have power tools to used with only majority-party consent. Congress’s subpoena power—to compel the production of documents or the sworn testimony of witnesses is the biggest drill. That can produce anything from Trump’s unseen tax returns to public testimony from his staff and family. And. due to a 2015 rule change by House Republicans, some House committees can issue subpoenas on the authority of the chairperson alone (e.g. Oversight, Intelligence, and Foreign Affairs).

Congress can bring the results into public view. The Watergate hearings were instrumental in bringing down Nixon because they forced Republicans to contend with damning testimony from the president’s closest aides, broadcast in prime time. Once his approval among Republicans sank below 50, GOP congressmen joined "the impeachment effort."

Removing Trump from office before his term expires may require a loss of GOP support. Since Democrats today don’t control the Senate they will avoid a repeat of the Republicans’ botched impeachment of Bill Clinton.

What Democrats could do with hearings into the Trump campaign’s alleged Russian connections is shame him out of office. Except Trump has no shame!

Democrats in the House will not haul crucial witnesses up to Capitol Hill at the risk of interfering with Mueller’s cases. If Congress and Mueller cooperate, both stand to gain from parallel investigations.

Trump’s position may now be even more precarious than Nixon’s. Leaks from inside the White House suggest that Trump does not enjoy the confidence of officials in his own administration.

Trump has been likened to Nixon from the first day of his presidency.

Will the combination of Mueller and a blue House kick the bum out? Or has America changed so much that Trump can withstand allegations that, on his watch, "American democracy has been subverted and its very foundations shaken”? Wait, and see.