Trump tapes worse than Watergate, Bernstein says

‘The one thing we should recall from Watergate is that the heroes of Watergate were Republicans who would not tolerate Richard Nixon’s conduct,’ Mr Bernstein said

File image: Carl Bernstein has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump  (Getty Images for The New Yorker)

Veteran journalist Carl Bernstein has described the tapes in which Donald Trump is allegedly heard pressurising Georgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to “find” votes to overturn his defeat in the state, “far worse” than the Watergate scandal.

Mr Bernstein, who is known for his investigative reporting work in the 1972 Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, said: “It’s not deja vu. This was something far worse than occurred in Watergate.”  

“We have both a criminal president of the US in Donald Trump and a subversive president … at the same time in this one person subverting the very basics of our democracy and willing to act criminally in that subversion,” Mr Bernstein told CNN.  

He said this is the “ultimate smoking gun tape with the evidence of what this president is willing to do to undermine the electoral system and illegally, improperly and immorally try to instigate a coup in which he remains the president of the US.”

During an hour-long call, Mr Trump allegedly attacked Mr Raffensperger, a Republican, while the latter and other officials explained that Joe Biden’s victory was fair and accurate, reported the Washington Post.

Mr Trump lost Georgia by over 11,700 votes resulting in the Democrats claiming the state in the presidential elections after a gap of 28 years.

Mr Bernstein, who has criticised Mr Trump several times in 2020, emphasised that “in any other presidency, this tape would be evidence enough to result in the impeachment of the president of the US, his conviction in the Senate and an immediate call by the members of Congress including of his own party that he resign immediately.”

However, the veteran journalist said, “we’re not going to hear that.”  

“We might from a few Republicans, but that’s what’s really called for here. And the one thing we should recall from Watergate is that the heroes of Watergate were Republicans who would not tolerate Richard Nixon’s conduct.”