Today In History: Arianna Huffington Compares Trump To Kim Jong-un; Nixon Owes $432,787 In Back Taxes

April 3, 2017, is the 93th day of the year, with 272 days remaining. The moon is in a first quarter phase, with illumination at 47 percent. The first quarter phase is a one-day event that enters a waxing gibbous phase in the following days, becoming increasingly illuminated until the full moon on April 11.

Arianna Huffington: “News outlets are ‘mainstreaming’ Donald Trump’s extremism”

Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington announced one Sunday in 2016 that the editor’s note on the news aggregator’s Donald Trump-focused articles was designed to ensure that HuffPo readers didn’t forget about the president’s “extreme statements.”

Addressing the publication’s coverage of Trump’s presidential candidacy of the time, Huffington asserted that it was a “dereliction of duty for a media organization not to have a point of view on Donald Trump,” later adding that Trump “has the potential of destroying this country.”

“We think that he’s a little bit like Kim Jong-un,” Huffington told CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter. “You know, he’s both a buffoon and he’s dangerous. So, we started covering him as a buffoon until the day when he proposed that we ban 1.6 billion Muslims from entering the United States. From that point on, we started covering him as a clear and present danger, with an editor’s note at the end of each story.”

Nixon announces $432,787 in back taxes

Enter 1974. Richard Nixon — as a result of an IRS investigation into the president’s finances — is forced to pay $432,787 in back taxes, as documented by presidential news archiver Miller Center, as well as $33,000 in interest.

But how did the 37th president of the United States get here?

A near five months earlier on Nov. 17, 1973, Nixon told 400 managing editors of the Associated Press that he had not profited from public service.

“I have earned every cent,” he declared, "and in all my years in public life, I have never obstructed justice. People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook.”

“Well,” said Nixon, “I’m not a crook.”

Benefits to himself, per Nixon’s payment of these back taxes, included improvements in his properties — a security ice maker, a security swimming pool heater, security club chairs, a security sofa and security pillows, to name a few.

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