CNN political analyst Carl Bernstein said Monday on “Anderson Cooper 360” that he believed former President Donald Trump was a “rogue criminal president.”

According to Bernstein, Trump was perpetuating the lie that he won the 2020 presidential election, which is undermining American democracy.

Discussing former President Donald Trump’s lawsuit to block the January 6 select committee from getting documents citing executive privilege, Bernstein said, “This is clearly not a legitimate exercise of executive privilege.”

He continued, “This is about trying to suppress the truth, about a president engaging in illegal acts, anti-constitutional acts, trying to learn what, indeed, he was doing as he tried to thwart the American electoral process. This is not about trying to find out anything about the legitimate functions of the president of the United States and the exercise of his power.”

Bernstein added, “This is about a rogue criminal president undermining the Constitution, undermining American democracy. Again, you go back to the Nixon example, but this is even more grievous, particularly because this president tried forever to keep himself in office after the election. After he had been turned out of office, he tried to subvert the electoral process and the counting of votes, tried to keep the electoral college from casting its vote, and electing the next president of the United States, knowing, full well, that he had been defeated in a fair, honest, and open election. He continues to perpetuate the lie and the lies that have allowed this process to go forward in such a way as we now have grave doubts about what the Republican Party is going to do in the next election.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN