Famed Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein shocked CNN’s Brian Stelter on Sunday by deeming former President Donald Trump a “war criminal.”
Bernstein joined Stelter for a conversation on Reliable Sources about how Trump has been able to maintain his political hold over the Republican Party despite his numerous “delusions” and the disastrous end of his presidency. After suggesting that Trump’s conduct is colored by “a degree of narcissism,” Bernstein sounded the alarm over the shocking comments about Trump reportedly from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley.
When you’re talking about Trump, we’re obviously talking about a kind of delusional madness — such as General Milley was talking about that — that’s on a scale and a scope that we ever never experienced in an American president in our history. I think we need to calmly step back and, maybe, look at Trump in a different context. He is our own American war criminal of a kind we’ve never experienced before.
Stelter promptly asked Bernstein to explain that remark, and Bernstein answered by alluding to past precedents where “crimes against humanity” were prosecuted by the international community. As he blasted Trump for his “homicidal negligence” throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Bernstein further argued that Milley’s reported comments should be a “wake-up call” to the true nature of Trump’s political movement.
Looking at his actions in terms of fomenting a coup to hold onto office, in which the head of the American military… not the press, not reporters comparing Trump to Hitler. But rather the head of the American military comparing him and his movement to brownshirts, to the Reichstag fire. This is a huge wake-up call to this country when General Milley, the head of the American military, has said this, and it fits as a piece with something so extraordinary in our history. It’s not political, Trump is not just political, he transcends the political, and we need to start looking at his crimes in that context.
Stelter warned Bernstein “you’re going to get heat for talking about war crimes” since Trump is not facing prosecution from the International Criminal Court. Bernstein responded to that by saying his point was that Trump’s actions require a “new context” to be fully understood.
“It’s not about just impeachable offenses,” he said. “It’s about a different kind of crime in which the humanity of the people of the United States was relegated to the floor by the President of the United States, who uplifted only his own narrow political, financial, and personal interests above that of our people, of our country, of our Constitution… These were crimes against our people.”
Watch above, via CNN.
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