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Nov. 29, 2025, 7:00 AM ESTBy Tyler Kingkade and Ben KamisarDuring a segment on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” in August, activist Christopher Rufo astonished the studio audience when he said the Watergate scandal that toppled President Richard Nixon “was a setup from start to finish.” The crowd hooted. Maher retorted that there were plenty of “smoking guns” showing the late president’s guilt. But Rufo insisted that there were federal agencies that had had illegal backdoor meetings and that there was a judge who was “out to get Nixon.”Maher muttered, “Oh, geez,” to which Rufo replied with a grin and a prediction: “Nixon vindication by 2035.”The Watergate scandal has long been viewed as a defining moment in presidential corruption and accountability, prompting a series of government transparency reforms and influencing generations of journalists. It became a shorthand comparison for political scandal and lent the omnipresent “-gate” suffix to many that followed.But those lessons are now being flipped by some of the most influential right-wing figures, including people known to have President Donald Trump’s ear, who insist that Watergate was actually an underhanded scheme by the “deep state” and the press to take down a popular Republican president.Watergate has often been invoked in comparison to Trump’s scandals, in both his first and current term. Many people — from historians to former Nixon officials — argue that were Watergate to happen in today’s media landscape, with the influence of conservative outlets and in particular Fox News, Nixon most likely would have survived it.“In some ways, the reframing of Watergate seems like an attempt to try and rehabilitate the current president’s image,” said Brendan Gillis, director of teaching and learning initiatives at the American Historical Association, a nonprofit professional organization. “In a lot of ways, it’s about what’s happened the last few years.”Michael Koncewicz, a historian who has been sounding the alarm on Watergate revisionism and who formerly worked at the Nixon presidential library, said the scandal has always been remembered as one in which “the system worked.” But if these pundits “can make Americans believe that that story is bulls—,” he said, “then they can ensure that another Watergate will never happen again.”Beyond Rufo, the conservative media personalities Tucker Carlson, Michael Knowles and Steve Bannon have pushed this revisionist Watergate narrative in the past year. Hillsdale College, a conservative college in Michigan, promoted and endorsed a Carlson podcast episode that described Watergate as a “scam.” Even actor Bill Murray suggested this year on Joe Rogan’s podcast that Nixon might have been “framed.”Republican-controlled states like Idaho and Louisiana have approved a video for use in public school social studies classes that was produced by the conservative media organization PragerU, in which the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt quotes a historian who argues that Watergate was the media’s attempt to reverse an election.Hewitt, who serves on the board of the Nixon Foundation, contends that the media and the “East Coast liberal elite” had it out for Nixon in part because of his “staunch anti-communist” views. PragerU worked over the past two years with many Republican-led states to get its content into public schools, and it recently partnered with the Trump administration on a civics education initiative. After Rufo’s proclamation on HBO, Marissa Streit, PragerU’s CEO, said he is “right about Nixon!” and directed people to watch Hewitt’s video on X.Through a spokesperson, Streit declined an interview request. In response to specific questions, PragerU said people should watch its Watergate content.Rufo also declined an interview request, but said in an email that the Nixon era is crucial to understanding why he believes politics has been in a loop since 1968. “To understand our moment — and to move beyond it — we must understand Nixon and learn from his experience, his successes, and his failures. BLM, Russiagate, gender ideology, left-wing terrorism: all of our current challenges can be understood through the prism,” Rufo said, of Nixon, “one of the twentieth century’s greatest presidents.”Hillsdale College, Hewitt and Idaho and Louisiana’s education agencies did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Carlson and Bannon’s shows.Kenneth Hughes Jr., a researcher at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, who is considered one of the foremost experts on the audiotapes from Nixon’s White House, said the recordings clearly demonstrate that Nixon was “the ring leader of the abuses of power that we group under the heading of Watergate.” “They do show Nixon deliberately, consciously and illegally weaponizing the government against those he considered political threats,” Hughes said.Nixon has always been a conflicted character in American consciousness. His congressional career defined him as a strident anti-communist, but as president he opened diplomacy with China. Liberals have praised him for signing Title IX and the Environmental Protection Agency into law but criticized his administration for launching a “war on drugs.”After losing the 1960 presidential election and the 1962 California gubernatorial race, Nixon famously told reporters that they “won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore,” only to then become president in 1968 and subsequently win every state except for Massachusetts and the District of Columbia in his 1972 re-election.The scandal that brought down Nixon, in oversimplified terms, centered around his complicity in attempts to cover up the involvement of members in his administration in a botched break-in to bug the Democratic Party’s headquarters. The fallout from the episode then exposed other illegal activity he authorized to go after political enemies.While the twists and turns were widely covered by multiple national media at the time, the scandal was immortalized by the book and film “All the President’s Men,” based on the work of Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein — relying in part on an anonymous source known as “Deep Throat” — to expose the plot.Nixon resigned in August 1974, once it became clear he’d lost the support of many Republicans in Congress and would likely face impeachment.“If Donald Trump and his advisors and his supporters, in the media and within his administration, can alter the history of Watergate, then they can pretty much change anything, and that’s why the history of Watergate matters so much,” said Koncewicz, associate director of New York University’s Institute for Public Knowledge.The revisionism arguments generally concede that the president’s aides and campaign staff were involved in boneheaded and nefarious activities. But they contend Nixon was oblivious to much of it until after it happened. And they say the true scandal was that Nixon’s due process rights were violated by prosecutors who secretly met with judges and by the release of confidential grand jury testimony to Congress.“It sends chills down your spine about how close this is to what they’re trying to do to President Trump right now with this radical judiciary,” Bannon said on his podcast in August.Monica Crowley, a Trump administration official and former Fox News host, said on a New York Post podcast in July that “the full vindication, I think, of President Nixon is coming to pass.” She said Trump passes Nixon’s portrait every day, and she sees the two men as similarly “forging their own path, which inevitably put them in a collision course with the deep state.”Many of these conservative commentators rely on or feature Geoff Shepard, a former Nixon administration lawyer, who’s written for decades about ways he believes the president was wronged in the Watergate investigation.Bannon, who helped run Trump’s first campaign and remains a loyal booster, provided his streaming subscribers with free access this past summer to a new documentary based on Shepard’s work. In September, a historian spotted one of Shepard’s Watergate books displayed prominently at the gift shop of the National Archives, which is currently managed by the former head of the Nixon Foundation.A key piece of Shepard’s argument is that the “smoking gun” tape is misunderstood. The tape is typically interpreted as showing that Nixon approved White House interference in the FBI probe into the DNC break-in, but according to Shepard, it was actually a narrow question as to whether investigators could look into donations the Department of Justice had deemed outside of the Watergate case. In other words, he writes on his website, it “did not remotely prove that Nixon was in on, much less directing, the cover-up from its outset.”Shepard, who is also on the Nixon Foundation’s board, declined an interview request, but said in an email that his focus has always been on ways he believes the Watergate Special Prosecution Force violated the due process rights of the president and his aides.“In short, lawfare (the misuse of criminal law to undercut political opponents) didn’t begin with President Trump; it began with President Nixon,” Shepard said.Jill Wine-Banks, an assistant Watergate special prosecutor, said these arguments are nonsense. Nixon’s team distributed cash as hush money payments, the president is on tape approving it, the grand jury testimony was provided to Congress through a judicial process and there were no secret meetings with a federal judge, she said. And the smoking gun tape includes Nixon giving instructions on how to tell the FBI to avoid questioning certain people that would expose where hush money payments came from.“That’s him directing an action,” she said in an interview. “How much more do you need than that for him to be guilty of the cover-up?”The Nixon Foundation, which gave Trump an Architect of Peace Award last month, has welcomed the newfound interest in dismantling the mainstream narrative around Watergate. On social media, the organization has amplified examples of popular pundits defending Nixon. It recently published a video featuring podcast host Michael Knowles describing him as “the first president taken down by the deep state.”Speaking at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California, this month, Knowles said the investigations into Trump during his first term started the process of exonerating Nixon by demonstrating “the lengths to which ‘deep state’ would go to undermine the will of the electorate.” “Was it so crazy that the man whom they dubbed ‘Tricky Dick’ might be the target of their shenanigans?” Knowles said in his speech, later adding, “The forces that sought to destroy him are the forces that threaten us again.”Knowles was unavailable for an interview. Historians, however, argue that the only person who set up Nixon was Nixon himself.Hughes, from the University of Virginia, said Nixon pursued a cover-up to protect himself because he had committed crimes to target political enemies, and it’s what makes his actions most relevant today.“What Nixon hid, Trump is doing much more blatantly,” Hughes said. “He’s weaponizing the government against people who he deems political threats, and that’s just something that America has not allowed, and something that America came together against during Watergate.”Tyler KingkadeTyler Kingkade is a national reporter for NBC News, based in Los Angeles.Ben KamisarBen Kamisar is a national political reporter for NBC News

- Latest News - November 29, 2025

The lessons of Watergate are now being flipped on their head by some of the most influential right-wing figures, including people known to have President Donald Trump’s ear, who insist.

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Nov. 29, 2025, 9:32 AM ESTBy Freddie ClaytonPresident Donald Trump said Saturday morning that Venezuela’s airspace should be considered “closed” as he weighs military action against the South American nation. “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.There was no immediate response from Venezuela, which maintains authority over its own airspace, to the post. Flight-tracking data appeared to show a handful of planes still above the country on Saturday morning.A number of airlines began rerouting flights away from Venezuela’s airspace earlier this month, and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has issued a warning of “heightened military activity” in the area.On Wednesday, Venezuela’s civil aviation authority stripped take-off and landing rights from six commercial carriers it accused of “joining the actions of state terrorism promoted by the United States government and unilaterally suspending air commercial operations.”On Thursday, Trump said the U.S. could “very soon” begin targeting alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers on land, expanding operations that have so far focused on vessels in the Caribbean Sea.Trump says land strikes in Venezuela could start “very soon”02:03In Thanksgiving remarks to U.S. troops around the world, Trump thanked the Air Force’s 7th Bomb Wing for its work to “deter Venezuelan drug traffickers” and said “it’s about 85% stopped by sea … and we’ll be starting to stop them by land.”“Also, the land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon,” the president added, speaking from his Mar-a-Lago estate.For months, the president has intensified U.S. military presence in the region, ramping up pressure on Venezuela with strikes on alleged drug boats since early September. The military has carried out nearly two dozen known strikes on vessels they said were carrying drugs, killing at least 82 people.The USS Gerald R. Ford, a major aircraft carrier, arrived in the Caribbean last week, rounding out a buildup of U.S. military forces in the region that has not been seen for decades.The U.S. last week also designated the Cartel de los Soles, a group Washington alleges is run by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, as a foreign terrorist organization.Maduro has denied having any ties to the drug trade and has accused the U.S. of “fabricating” a war against him.Freddie ClaytonFreddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London. Katherine Doyle contributed.

- Latest News - November 29, 2025

President Donald Trump said Saturday morning that Venezuela’s airspace should be considered “closed” as he weighs military action against the South American nation.

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Nov. 29, 2025, 7:15 AM ESTBy Kevin CollierIdentity thieves have in recent years narrowed in on a particularly lucrative target: athletes on the verge of going pro.A report from the fraud detection company SentiLink found that NBA and NFL draft picks from a recent five-year period were far likelier than the average American to be victims of attempted financial fraud such as fake loans and credit cards taken out in their names.The figures have risen dramatically from 2020 through 2025. Of the NBA draft picks from that period, 20% saw suspicious credit activity such as credit card applications, and attempted auto and consumer lending loan applications. For NFL picks in the period, the figure was 15.2%. The national average is usually between 2-3%, the report found.The data only flags suspicious attempts to take out loans and does not track confirmed instances of identity theft.window.addEventListener(“message”,function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;r.style.height=d}}});“Most draft prospects are young adults, typically 18–23 years old. This demographic often has limited credit histories, fewer active financial accounts, and inconsistent digital footprints,” the report found.“These characteristics make them ideal targets because fraudulent applications are less likely to trigger alerts associated with established credit behavior, and there is often less public information available to contradict a fraudulent application,” it said.The rise in identity fraud efforts around young athletes coincides with a national trend. While there are no comprehensive figures on how many Americans become victims each year, complaints to the Federal Trade Commission have risen nearly every year since it started tracking them in 2001, culminating in a record 6.5 million last year..James Lee, the president of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit that helps Americans deal with identity theft, said young athletes make sense as targets.“Professional athletes who are early in their careers make for easy targets because they are highly visible, are suddenly wealthy, but may not have the same level of personal protection and life skills to avoid being taken advantage of by professional criminals,” said Lee, who was not involved in the study. Trying to open a credit card or take out a bank loan in another person’s name often require little more than some basic information about that person, such as their name, current address, birthday and family. It usually also requires a Social Security Number, but those are hacked and traded by cybercriminals so frequently that they’re relatively easy to acquire.Athletes competing to go pro are heavily scrutinized and generally see little expectation of privacy. Their names, ages and basic biographical and family information are widely plastered across sports websites, and they often publicly advertise on social media. And the fact that they are likely to frequently move among their home, college, training camps and the city where they’re drafted means they may be less likely to see mailed credit alerts.The attempts also echo a spate of home burglaries that have plagued both leagues in recent years, particularly targeting them while they’re playing in high-profile away games. Victims include NFL stars such as Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Shedeur Sanders and NBA stars such as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic. The FBI is helping investigate the break-ins for potential ties to international crime rings, NBC News reported last week. The agency did not respond when asked if it was also tracking identity thieves who target athletes.SentiLink works with banks and other financial services to flag suspicious transactions and has a massive database of credit activity. Researchers at the company looked at the 1,292 NFL players drafted from 2020 to 2024, as well as the 288 NBA players drafted in that same period, and compared them to national averages.David Maimon, SentiLink’s head of fraud insight and the lead researcher on the study told NBC News that the data does not indicate a widespread organized criminal conspiracy and seems more like a phenomenon of more amateur criminals trying to take advantage of newly famous young men. He declined to share the names of which players have been particularly targeted, citing confidentiality agreements.Most identity theft attempts are not made public. But they can be amateur and brazen, while others can use modern technology and manipulation techniques.Some loan applications ask for a person to record a live video and move their head to prove their identity. But that can be easily fooled, Maimon said. Athletes’ pictures are easy to find online and there are plenty of AI tools that can convincingly deepfake their heads turning, he noted. Jason Rivarde, the commander of public affairs at the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana, said his office had arrested two people earlier this year for allegedly attempting to take out loans by posing as Cam Ward, Tennessee Titans quarterback and 2025 first overall draft pick, as well as his father. The pair were caught when an employee at a Jefferson County financial institution who had served them before recognized them trying to take out a loan in a third name, Rivarde said.The Wards and the Titans did not respond to requests for comment.The NBA and the NFL players unions both provide rookies with basic financial literacy training and recommend vetted financial advisers, spokespeople for the unions told NBC News.But it’s particularly hard for newly famous people to fully protect themselves from dogged identity thieves, especially if they have not yet hired advisers to handle their finances and closely watch their credit reports. Experts like Maimon say one of the best defenses is for everyone to keep their credit frozen, but that’s a tall order for an athlete who signs a major contract and is inclined to buy items that require a credit check, such as vehicles and property.Kevin CollierKevin Collier is a reporter covering cybersecurity, privacy and technology policy for NBC News.

- Latest News - November 29, 2025

Identity thieves have in recent years narrowed in on a particularly lucrative target: athletes on the verge of going pro

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Nov. 28, 2025, 1:29 PM ESTBy Daniel ArkinSarah Beckstrom, the West Virginia National Guard member who died of her injuries after a shooting near the White House this week, took a keen interest in criminal justice and dreamed of one day becoming an FBI agent, according to a former boyfriend.Beckstrom, 20, believed her service with the military police would “get her foot in the door for a career in the FBI and help her in the long run,” according to the ex-boyfriend, Adam Carr, who said the two remained on good terms after breaking up last month following six years together.President Donald Trump announced Beckstrom’s death during a Thanksgiving Day phone call with U.S. troops. He described her as a “highly respected, young, magnificent person” and added: “She’s looking down at us right now.”The other National Guard member wounded in Wednesday’s shooting has been identified as U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24. Trump said Wolfe was in “very bad shape” and “fighting for his life.”The suspected gunman, an Afghan national identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, faces a first-degree murder charge, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced Friday. Officials previously said he faced three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed and one count of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.Suspect in National Guard shooting to be charged with murder02:35Lakanwal worked with U.S. forces during the war in Afghanistan, according to the CIA.Carr, 20, who started dating Beckstrom in high school, remembered her as “one of the most forgiving people” he had ever met. “She doesn’t even have to know you and she’ll do anything for you,” Carr said in an interview with NBC News on Friday.Beckstrom loved exploring the outdoors, Carr said. In photos shared with NBC News, Beckstrom can be seen hunting deer, roasting marshmallows over a backyard fire and posing happily with Carr’s brother’s dog, a Dutch shepherd named Major.Sarah Beckstrom.Courtesy Adam CarrBeckstrom enlisted in the West Virginia National Guard on June 26, 2023. She was assigned to 863rd Military Police Company and deployed to D.C. in August, when Trump ordered troops to the capital as part of a federal operation known as the “D.C. Safe and Beautiful Mission.”Carr said Beckstrom initially did not want to go to the capital because she was concerned about feeling lonely away from home. “She hated it. She cried about it,” he said. But with time, she came to enjoy the deployment and bonded with other troops. Her military colleagues nicknamed her “Becky,” he said.In her spare time, he said, she visited monuments and museums, taking pictures and soaking up D.C.’s history. She was especially interested in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, he said.She had the option to return to West Virginia sooner, he added, but she chose to remain in the district.Beckstrom’s service was praised by federal and state officials after Trump announced she had died of her wounds.“Sarah served with courage, extraordinary resolve, and an unwavering sense of duty to her state and to her nation. She answered the call to serve, stepped forward willingly, and carried out her mission with the strength and character that define the very best of the West Virginia National Guard,” West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said in a post on X.Col. Larry Doane, the commander of the joint task force in the D.C. National Guard, hailed Beckstrom as a “hero” and mourned the “devastating loss” for the Guard.Gary Beckstrom, her father, posted a brief message on Facebook, saying in part: “My baby girl has passed to glory.”In a Thanksgiving Day phone interview with The New York Times, Beckstrom’s father said he was holding her hand. “She has a mortal wound. It’s not going to be a recovery,” he said.Beckstrom’s death sent waves of grief through Summersville, a West Virginia city of just under 3,500 that sits along U.S. Route 19. Carr’s mother, Eva, said Beckstrom was “like a daughter” to her and spent a lot of time at her home.“She was the sweetest girl. She was hard not to love. You loved her the minute you met her,” Eva Carr told NBC News, fighting back tears.In the months leading up to the D.C. deployment, Beckstrom worked for a community health center that serves people with mental illness and substance abuse disorders, Eva Carr said. Seneca Health Services CEO Marcie Vaughan confirmed in an interview that Beckstrom started working for the center in January. “The fact that she chose both to enlist in the National Guard and to work at a community behavioral health center is testament to her passion for helping others,” Vaughan said.Beckstrom’s empathy was one of her defining traits, Eva Carr said, adding that the young woman had “a heart of gold” and treated strangers with respect. The senselessness of her death has left loved ones shaken.“I’ve cried myself to sleep last few nights,” Eva Carr said.Daniel ArkinDaniel Arkin is a senior reporter at NBC News.

- Latest News - November 29, 2025

Sarah Beckstrom, the slain West Virginia National Guard member, took a keen interest in criminal justice and dreamed of one day becoming an FBI agent.

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Nov. 29, 2025, 6:00 AM ESTBy Daryna Mayer and Yuliya TalmazanKYIV, Ukraine — From his position on the eastern front lines, the original peace plan backed by President Donald Trump looked more like a proposal for Volodymyr Rzhavskyi’s surrender.“It’s not a plan. It’s a real capitulation. There is nothing to discuss here,” said Rzhavskyi, a senior sergeant serving near Pokrovsk, a supply hub under intense pressure from Russian forces for some 18 months.While Ukrainian officials fought for changes to the 28-point plan that emerged last week, NBC News spoke with soldiers in the country’s embattled military who expressed frustration at the idea Moscow would be handed its hard-line demands but also hope that they might soon be able to return to their lives.

- Latest News - November 29, 2025

KYIV, Ukraine — From his position on the eastern front lines, the original peace plan backed by President Donald Trump looked more like a proposal for Volodymyr Rzhavskyi’s surrender.“It’s not.

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