Author and journalist Carl Bernstein said Friday on ABC’s “The View” that former President Donald Trump’s “big lie” that he won the 2020 presidential election was “far worse” than former President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal.
Bernstein said, “This is far worse than Watergate. Let’s look at a couple of aspects of it. First of all, Richard Nixon was a criminal president of the United States who undermined the electoral system in this country just as Donald Trump has sought to undermine the electoral system in this country, but Trump has sought to do it in a much worse way. He tried to stage a coup so he would not leave office. He has told this big lie about what happened in the election.”
He continued, “But more than that, we also have a situation in which we have in Trump the first seditious president of the United States. He has sought, you know, to bring about an insurrection to keep him in office. Whatever you say about Richard Nixon and his criminality, he left office peaceably. He allowed the peaceful transfer of power, which Trump hasn’t when he staged his coup.”
Bernstein added, “But more than that, we have the fact that courageous Republicans forced Richard Nixon to resign. They voted for articles of impeachment. He was convicted in the Senate because Republicans were willing to convict him for his crimes. Compare that to Donald Trump, his crimes, his constitutional crimes, and what the Republicans in the Senate have done. They have acquitted him twice. And we now have instead of a Republican Party committed to the rules of law and constitutional order. It has fallen to a kind of obeisance to Trumpism and its excesses.”
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