Trump Impeachment News: What Is Watergate Scandal? Pelosi Says Trump Worse Than Nixon

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) increased the intensity of her attacks on a battered president Donald Trump, implying he should "do a Nixon" and resign as president for the good of the United States.

Swamped by revelations he played the key role in the Watergate scandal, former president Richard Nixon resigned from office on August 9, 1974 to avoid the certainty of impeachment by the House and his equally certain removal from office by a trial in the Senate.

Nixon is the only president thus far to resign from office. The Watergate Scandal was triggered by the June 17, 1972 break-in of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate Office Building in Washington, D.C. by five men hired by the Nixon administration to boost his re-election.

The men were caught wiretapping phones and stealing top-secret documents. Nixon's White House subsequently attempted unsuccessfully to cover-up its involvement in the crime. It was later revealed that he offered "hush money" to the thieves leading to the impeachment probe and his resignation.

Pelosi's latest broadside at Trump ups the ante from last week when she first publicly said Trump should be accused -- and in all probability will be accused -- of bribery in the impeachment charges Democrats in the House are expected to bring shortly before Christmas.

The United States Constitution limits the grounds for presidential impeachment to "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." The precise meaning of the phrase "high Crimes and Misdemeanors" isn’t defined by the Constitution.

Pelosi said Trump has committed worse crimes than did Nixon on CBS’ “Face the Nation" Sunday. She inferred Trump should be man enough to emulate Nixon.

“I mean, what the president (Trump) did was so much worse than even what Richard Nixon did, that at some point Richard Nixon cared about the country enough to recognize that this could not continue,” said Pelosi.

She said Trump has has “every opportunity to present his case.” She invited Trump on Nov. 14 to testify before the House Intelligence Committee headed by Democrat Adam Schiff (D-CA). Trump refused.

“If the president has information that demonstrates his innocence in all of this, which we haven’t seen,” she said at the time. “If he has information that is exculpatory -- that means ex, taking away, culpable, blame -- then we look forward to seeing it.”

She accused Trump of bribery last week for offering Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky a meeting with him, and Trump's unfreezing $400 million in suspended U.S. military aid to Ukraine, if Zelensky announced an investigation into former vice president Joe Biden.

During the Sunday interview, Pelosi called Trump an “imposter” for his real-time Twitter attack on former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch as she testified in the impeachment inquiry. Legal experts say Trump's tweets were tantamount to witness intimidation, a federal crime, and another article for impeachment.

“He made a mistake,” said Pelosi about Trump's real-time tweet criticizing Yovanovitch.

Some Republicans later openly criticized Trump’s tweets and his actions inimical to Yovanovitch.

“I find the president’s tweet unfortunate,” said Mike Turner (R-OH), who sits on the intelligence committee.