如果对唐纳德·特朗普总统的弹劾调查在众议院获得成功投票，这位分裂的总司令将成为第三位被弹劾的总统。
目前的丑闻围绕特朗普明显试图与乌克兰总统沃洛迪米尔·泽兰斯基(Volodymyr Zelenskiy)达成交易，据称，后者提出释放指定用于基辅的军事援助，以换取对特朗普2020年竞争对手乔·拜登(Joe Biden)的调查。
一些观察家指出，名誉扫地的理查德·尼克松总统的痛苦可能上课对特朗普来说。尼克松通过辞职避免了迫在眉睫的弹劾，因为秘密录像带揭露了他卷入水门事件的细节。
特朗普可能还会被自己的指控电话吊起来。白宫发布了一份备忘录，部分详述了总统7月份与泽兰斯基的通话，但这只是对他的行为提出了更多问题。
备忘录不是电话的直接记录。在某些时候，讲话被省略号打断，没有指出在间隙里说了什么。如同Axios注意到省略号可能表示有意省略了段落，段落丢失了，或者笔记之间对实际所说的内容有分歧。
亚历山大·温德曼中校是乌克兰国家安全委员会的最高专家，他接听了电话。他星期二向众议院弹劾调查人员作证，提供遗漏的细节从备忘录里。
他说特朗普提到乔·拜登在乌克兰讨论腐败的录音，而泽伦斯基提到了布里斯马控股公司——拜登的儿子亨特为其工作的天然气公司——提到了针对拜登的未经证实的腐败指控。
根据纽约时报文德曼说，他极力想把这些段落写进备忘录，但没有成功。与此同时，白宫表示省略号显示了声音减弱的地方。
作为对这些报道的回应，哈佛法学院教授劳伦斯·特里伯将尼克松臭名昭著的秘密录音带和他隐藏最具罪恶感的部分的明显努力进行了比较。
"让任何人想起尼克松录像带上的18分钟间隔？"部落问道在推特上。
在与水门事件特别顾问阿奇博尔德·考克斯索要白宫电话录音传票的斗争中，尼克松的律师发现18.5分钟的间隙。尼克松的私人秘书——罗斯·玛丽·伍兹——对丢失的部分负责，声称无意中擦干净了。
这一说法被广泛驳回，尽管并未证明尼克松下令销毁那部分录音，但这种愤怒让人们对总统声称他不知道有任何隐瞒的说法产生了怀疑。
这不是罗斯·玛丽森林第一次出现在乌克兰丑闻中。本月早些时候，水门事件检察官吉尔·温班克斯说“我喜欢尼克松错过的18.5分钟和特朗普的乌克兰省略号之间的类比”。
在温德曼的证词被报道后，其他推特用户也涉及尼克松的前秘书。物理学家乍得·奥泽尔写道，”罗斯·玛丽森林的鬼魂悲伤地摇摇头，“而纽约时报编辑委员会成员杰西·韦格曼问道，“当你需要她的时候，罗斯·玛丽·伍兹在哪里？”
唐纳德·特朗普总统于2019年10月28日在伊利诺伊州芝加哥市麦考密克广场会议中心演讲时被拍照。
TRUMP UKRAINE TRANSCRIPT GAPS REMINISCENT OF NIXON'S INFAMOUS MISSING WATERGATE TAPES, PROFESSOR SUGGESTS
If the impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump produces a successful vote in the House, the divisive commander in chief would become only the third president to be impeached.
The current scandal surrounds Trump's apparent efforts to procure a quid pro quo with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, allegedly offering to release military aid earmarked for Kyiv in exchange for an investigation into Trump's 2020 rival Joe Biden.
Some observers have noted that disgraced President Richard Nixon's travails may hold lessonsfor Trump. Nixon avoided imminent impeachment by resigning the presidency after secret tapes emerged detailing his involvement in the Watergate scandal.
Trump may yet be hoisted by his own incriminating phone calls. The White House released a memo partially detailing the president's July call with Zelenskiy, but this only raised more questions as to his conduct.
The memo is not a direct transcript of the call. At some points, speech is broken up by ellipses with no indication of what was said in the gaps. As Axios noted, the ellipses could indicate that passages were intentionally omitted, that the passages were lost or that there was disagreement among note-takes as to what was actually said.
Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman—the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, who listened in on the call—testified to House impeachment investigators Tuesday, providing details of what was omitted from the memo.
He said that Trump mentioned recordings of Joe Biden discussing corruption in Ukraine, while Zelenskiy mentioned Burisma Holdings—the natural gas company for whom Biden's son Hunter worked—in reference to the unproven corruption allegations against the Bidens.
According to The New York Times, Vindman said he pushed to have the passages included in the memo, but that he was unsuccessful. The White House, meanwhile, said the ellipses indicated where voices had trailed off.
Reacting to the reports, Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe drew a comparison to Nixon's infamous secret tapes and his apparent efforts to hide the most incriminating parts.
"Remind anyone of that 18-minute gap on the Nixon tape?" Tribe asked on Twitter.
While battling Watergate Special Counsel Archibald Cox's subpoena for the White House's phone call recordings, Nixon's lawyers found an 18.5-minute gap. Nixon's personal secretary—Rose Mary Woods—took responsibility for the missing portion, claiming to have accidentally wiped it.
The claim was widely dismissed, and though it did not prove that Nixon had ordered the destruction of that portion of the recordings, the furor cast doubt on the president's claim he was not aware of any cover-up.
This is not the first time that Rose Mary Woods has come up in the Ukraine scandal. Earlier this month, Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks said "I love the analogy" between Nixon's missing 18.5 minutes and Trump's Ukraine ellipses.
Following reports of Vindman's testimony, other Twitter users also involved Nixon's former secretary. Physicist Chad Orzel wrote, "The ghost of Rose Mary Woods shakes her head sadly," while New York Times editorial board member Jesse Wegman asked, "Where's Rose Mary Woods when you need her?"
President Donald Trump is pictured while speaking at the McCormick Place Convention Center on October 28, 2019, in Chicago, Illinois.
