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THREAD: Trump’s Nixon precedent. … 1. I’m flattered the NYT Sunday Review cites me in printing Nixon’s bogus claim that he didn’t contest the 1960 election. But evidence from its own pages belie the notion that there might be truth to Nixon’s claims. Here’s the backstory. (1/14)
2. Back in Oct. 2000, for Slate, I looked into oft-repeated but unproven rumors that JFK's people “stole” the 1960 presidential election from Nixon. I found that while there was probably some chicanery, no grounds existed to believe it was "stolen." https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2000/10/was-nixon-robbed.html (2/14)
3. Then, after Election Day, 2000,w/Bush barely leading Gore in FL—whose outcome would decide the election—pundits were falsely saying that Nixon refused to contest the 1960 race & Gore should do the same. I repurposed my research for the LA Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-nov-10-me-49741-story.html (3/14)
4. My research got some notice on NBC News, in The New Yorker, and elsewhere. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2000/11/27/pieties-hes-back-again (Thanks, Rick!) But it never fully penetrated popular consciousness, and many people continued to repeat the myth. (4/14)
5. This year, once Trump got going months ago with his crazy talk about not conceding if he lost, I revisited the issue again for @PoliticoMag, adding in new details I’d discovered over the years. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/10/10/the-time-nixons-cronies-tried-to-overturn-a-presidential-election-428318 (5/14)
6. So I was a bit surprised to see the NYT write, “Historians debate whether [it’s] true” that Nixon fought the outcome. As I explain in these pieces, the GOP fought JFK's wins in 11 states. Nixon publicly distanced himself from the effort, but his campaign mgrs led it. (6/14)
![6. So I was a bit surprised to see the NYT write, “Historians debate whether [it’s] true” that Nixon fought the outcome. As I explain in these pieces, the GOP fought JFK's wins in 11 states. Nixon publicly distanced himself from the effort, but his campaign mgrs led it. (6/14)](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Em4LpqVW4AAY8Wf.png "6. So I was a bit surprised to see the NYT write, “Historians debate whether [it’s] true” that Nixon fought the outcome. As I explain in these pieces, the GOP fought JFK's wins in 11 states. Nixon publicly distanced himself from the effort, but his campaign mgrs led it. (6/14)")
7. Like this year, it took much longer than people realize for states to finish counting their votes. On Nov. 21, 1960, only 10 states had finished counting. Recounts or court challenges were underway across the nation. (7/14)
8. Meade Alcorn, the RNC general counsel, was talking like Trump. More details on all of this in the Slate, LAT, and Politico pieces I’ve linked to above. (8/14)
9. RNC Chair Rogers Morton flew to Chicago, the site of the most heavily covered recount, in December, to rally his team. GOP officials were realizing they had no shot to make Nixon president but wanted to keep the issue alive for cynical reasons. (9/14)
10. Meanwhile, efforts in other states, like Texas and NJ, began to unravel. (10/14)
11. Morton did not concede that the jig was up until Dec. 21, 1960. (So be patient, everyone.) (11/14)
12. It’s simply not plausible that Nixon wasn’t involved behind the scenes. Imagine Trump saying, “I have nothing to do with these recounts,” while Giuliani, Bill Stepien, and Ronna McDaniel are alleging fraud and demanding recounts in 11 states. (12/14)
13. Ironically, one state's electoral vote count did change: Hawaii. It flipped from Nixon to Kennedy. Nixon ended up with 3 fewer EVs than he started off with. (13/14)
14. Myths die hard. People still believe untruths:that RN won the 1960 debates on radio; that feminists burned bras at the 1968 AC protests; that Vietnam vets were spat on in bus depots. But this one is clear. Just because Trump's acting badly, let’s not give Nixon a pass.(14/14)
* I just noticed I wrote Rogers Morton in the thread above when I meant Thruston Morton (they were brothers). I had it correct in the articles that I published.
