Experts

Ken Hughes

Fast Facts

  • Bob Woodward called Hughes "one of America's foremost experts on secret presidential recordings"
  • Has spent two decades mining the Secret White House Tapes
  • Expertise on Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Secret White House Tapes, abuses of presidential power, Watergate, Vietnam War

Areas Of Expertise

  • Foreign Affairs
  • American Defense and Security
  • Governance
  • Leadership
  • Political Parties and Movements
  • Politics
  • The Presidency

Bob Woodward has called Ken Hughes “one of America's foremost experts on secret presidential recordings, especially those of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.” Hughes has spent two decades mining the Secret White House Tapes and unearthing their secrets. As a journalist writing in the pages of the New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, and Boston Globe Magazine, and, since 2000, as a researcher with the Miller Center, Hughes’s work has illuminated the uses and abuses of presidential power involved in (among other things) the origins of Watergate, Jimmy Hoffa’s release from federal prison, and the politics of the Vietnam War. 

Hughes has been interviewed by the New York Times, CBS News, CNN, PBS NewsHour, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press and other news organizations. He is the author of Chasing Shadows: The Nixon Tapes, the Chennault Affair, and the Origins of Watergate and Fatal Politics: The Nixon Tapes, the Vietnam War and the Casualties of Reelection.

Hughes is currently at work on a book about President John F. Kennedy’s hidden role in the coup plot that resulted in the overthrow and assassination of another president, Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam. 

 

Ken Hughes News Feed

Ken Hughes, an expert on Watergate at the University of Virginia, said Barr’s comments on Trump line up with defenses offered by the Nixon White House. “Richard Nixon also sincerely believed that the Watergate investigation ‘was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks,’” Hughes said, quoting Barr’s morning press conference. “None of that justified obstruction of justice then, and none of it justifies obstruction now.”
Ken Hughes ThinkProgress
In essence, Mr. Mueller is saying that if he could have exonerated the president here, he would have, says Ken Hughes, a research specialist and expert on presidential abuse of power at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center who has spent two decades mining President Richard Nixon’s tapes. But Mr. Mueller was unable to reach that judgment. “Really, the special counsel’s office is saying, they couldn’t charge him because he’s president. That’s the overarching theme,” says Mr. Hughes.
Ken Hughes The Christian Science Monitor
Ken Hughes, a Watergate expert at the University of Virginia, told the left-leaning outlet ThinkProgress that Cohen’s congressional testimony is "immediately reminiscent" of Dean’s. Hughes added: "The Nixon administration tried to frame Dean as the source of the Watergate cover-up, [while he was] more of a point man operating under Nixon’s most powerful aides, and they were guided by Nixon himself."
Ken Hughes Newsweek
For Ken Hughes, a Watergate expert with the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, Cohen’s testimony is “immediately reminiscent” of Dean’s, including the attempts to discredit the witness ahead of the hearing. “The Nixon administration tried to frame Dean as the source of the Watergate cover up, [while he was] more of a point man operating under Nixon’s most powerful aides, and they were guided by Nixon himself,” Hughes told ThinkProgress.
Ken Hughes ThinkProgress
Nixon’s allies in Congress levied some of the same criticism against Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox that Republicans use today about Mueller, explains Ken Hughes, an expert on Watergate at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.
Ken Hughes TIME
“In everything he did, Nixon tried to master the fundamentals,” Ken Hughes, a historian with the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, and author of the 2015 book Fatal Politics: The Nixon Tapes, the Vietnam War, and the Casualties of Reelection, says in an email. “When he wanted to learn poker in the Navy, he studied the game before risking any of his money, spending hours and days with the best players he could find, listening to their lectures, learning their moves, playing practice games with no stakes.
Ken Hughes History.com