Carl Bernstein Says Trump’s Call to Raffensperger Is ‘The Ultimate Smoking Gun’ from a ‘Criminal President’
Carl Bernstein held up President Donald Trump’s call with phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as evidence of criminal actions to undo his election loss.
CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield spoke to Bernstein on Sunday in the midst of wall-to-wall coverage on Trump’s phone call where he pressured Raffensperger to help him overturn the state’s results from the 2020 election. When asked if this reminded him of breaking the Watergate scandal, Bernstein said “this was something far worse than Watergate.”
We have both a criminal president of the United States and a subversive president of the United States at the same time in this one person subverting the very basis of our democracy, and willing to act criminally in that subversion.
Bernstein called the audio “the ultimate smoking gun tape” and proof of Trump’s attempts “to undermine the electoral system and illegally, improperly and immorally try to instigate a coup in which he remains president of the United States.”
“In any other presidency,” he continued, “this tape would be evidence enough to result in the impeachment of the president of the United States, his conviction in the Senate of the United States, and really an immediate call by the members of Congress, including of his own party, that he resign immediately.”
As Bernstein applauded Raffensperger for standing up to Trump, he lamented that the country is unlikely to see a lot of Republicans in Congress denouncing the president’s conduct. Instead, Bernstein hypothesized that Trump’s “craven” allies will carry on with their long shot efforts to interfere with the certification of Trump’s loss to Joe Biden.
“This is fantasy. It’s not delusion because they know what they’re doing,” Bernstein said. This led to his assessment that by supporting Trump, this “may be the end of the Republican Party as a constructive, decent force in our politics in this country.”
All these Republicans, from Cruz to all the rest of them who have participated in this sham, really ought to be made to pay by history, as should their party. This is not some kind of forgivable act. This is not about two simple equal sides of an equation. There are no two sides to this question. This is about democracy, fundamental principles… We have, for the first time, a president of the United States who has exceeded McCarthy’s authoritarianism, his disrespect for the constitution and rule of law, and the Republican party of our time – with McConnell’s leadership, with McCarthy’s leadership — has gone along with it to their disgrace.
Watch above, via CNN.
