If you turn on any news at the present, you are inundated with different scandal rumors and accusations involving President Trump. Then you have the entire White House denying anything and everything and lobbing back accusations of persecution and witch hunts.
Looking back at Nixon’s presidency and the Watergate scandal, I have never heard anyone try to dispute or mitigate the president’s guilt/culpability in the matter. At the time were there staffers, Congressional Republicans, or other politicians willing to “die on their own swords” in defense of Nixon as we see today with President Trump? I am NOT assuming any guilt on the part of President Trump, but before he stepped down as President, Nixon was also facing accusations and I have to assume there was a period of uncertainty. As I see it we are in that uncertain period for Trump, maybe things work out for him, maybe not. I’m not trying to start a political debate, I’m just curious how the accusations against Nixon were received? And if there were people fighting to defend Nixon, when did that stop?
While waiting for responses about staffers &c, you might like this previous response that dealt mostly with the press and the general public: "Did Richard Nixon have apologists in the press throughout the Watergate scandal? If so, did those journalist lose credibility after Nixon resigned?", response by /u/The_Alaskan .
There's also a fascinating reply from /u/TheHuscarl in "Were there hardcore, dogged Nixon supporters who denied that he was involved in Watergate even after he resigned?"
But this is not to discourage answers that target the question in the body of your post -- further discussion, questions, information, and debate are welcome.