From Watergate to Jan. 6: Patrick Leahy leaves the Senate after nearly 50 years

Patrick Leahy was swept into the Senate nearly a half-century ago in the wake of the Watergate scandal and President Richard Nixon’s resignation and pardon.

After a historic career, the Vermont Democrat — the last of the so-called “Watergate Babies” of that 1974 class — departs Congress with his mind set on another constitutional crisis: President Donald Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election and the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Here’s a man who doesn’t believe in the Constitution, has probably never read the Constitution. I’m talking about Trump, who announced just a week or so ago, ‘Well, we should set aside parts of the Constitution,’” said Leahy, who rose from state prosecutor in Chittenden County to Senate president pro tempore, third in line in presidential succession.