Don’t forget that all four of the burglars were working on Nixon’s behalf, and Nixon used his powers as President in the coverup.
But you see Clinton was caught committing crimes and the democrats basically told the country F U.
How exactly did Nixon use his powers to cover up?
The stated reason was to plug the leaks (plumbers) coming out of the White House resulting in things like the Pentagon Papers. This was not a political act by Nixon. Nixon had zip involvement in it.
That particular job was probably run by John Dean without Nixon’s knowledge. Of course Nixon did try to cover it up.
From the Watergate tapes:
Nixon: “I just don’t (unintelligible) very bad, to have this fellow Hunt, ah, you know, ah, it’s, he, he knows too damn much and he was involved, we happen to know that. And that it gets out that the whole, this is all involved in the Cuban thing, that it’s a fiasco, and it’s going to make the FB, ah CIA look bad, it’s going to make Hunt look bad, and it’s likely to blow the whole, uh, Bay of Pigs thing which we think would be very unfortunate for CIA and for the country at this time, and for American foreign policy, and he just better tough it and lay it on them.”
The whole burglary thing was just a dumb stunt that had no upside. And yeah, Nixon was involved in it, but it’s far, far from the worst thing a President has done.
As others have suggested, Nixon should have burned the tapes right at the start, and then said pizz off to critics.