Carl Bernstein, who helped expose President Richard Nixon’s Watergate , says President Donald Trump’s attempts to pressure a Georgia official to overturn the presidential election is “far worse.”
On Sunday, The Washington Post published audio from a call the president had with Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger on Saturday, where he told him to “find” enough votes to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s win there.
During an appearance on CNN on Sunday, Bernstein was asked if the tape gave him reminder from Watergate — during which it had been revealed that Nixon ordered a break-in to steal campaign secrets from the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters.
“It’s not reminder . this is often something far worse than occured in Watergate,” Bernstein said.
Bernstein described the tape as “the ultimate smoking gun” that shows what Trump “is willing to do to undermine the voting system and illegally, improperly, and immorally attempt to instigate a coup.”
“In the other presidency, this tape would be evidence enough to end in the impeachment of the President of the us , his conviction within the Senate of the us , and really an instantaneous call by the members of Congress — including of his own party — that he resign immediately.
“That’s really what we need to be hearing at the moment.”
Since news of the decision broke on Sunday, a DC watchdog group and Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have involved a new impeachment of Trump. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris called the conversation a “baldfaced, bold abuse of power.” Republicans have stayed mostly quiet.
Bernstein said it had been unlikely that Republicans would activate Trump over the news, and said that was one among the most important contrasts to Watergate.
“The one thing we should always recall from Watergate is that the heroes of Watergate were Republicans who wouldn’t tolerate Richard Nixon’s conduct,” Bernstein said.
Bernstein has been a frequent critic of Trump, and it isn’t the first time he has said one among his scandals was worse than Watergate.
In September, responding to his former reporting partner Bob Woodward’s taped conversations with the president, during which Trump admitted to downplaying COVID-19, Bernstein said the admission was “even more devastating than Nixon’s tapes.”
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