Watergate journalist details the similarities between testimonies from Michael Cohen and John Dean: Both explain 'the presidential cover-up'
As President Donald Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen testifies about the president's alleged criminal behavior, some observers are speculating whether this moment bears any similarities to the testimony of John Dean, the Nixon administration's White House Counsel who helped expose his own role in the Watergate scandal.
On CNN Wednesday morning, Wolf Blitzer then asked Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein whether the hearing could constitute a "John Dean moment," and Bernstein weighed in.
"The dynamic of it is potentially a John Dean moment, but there are big differences," said Bernstein. "One, Cohen was never in the White House with President Trump, whereas Dean served the President of the United States as his counsel in the White House. Also, this guy was a flunky. He was a runner, he was a fixer. Trump always held him in relative contempt, if you look at the history of the relationship between the two men. Very different with John Dean, who was really a principal in the cover-up."
"But what is similar is that both witnesses explain the White House cover-up, the presidential cover-up, if indeed this testimony is credible," Bernstein added. "It goes to helping us understand why the president has been lying, day in and day out, about all things Russian."
"It is very serious business for the American people, particularly, to hear," Bernstein concluded. "It's also serious business to see what the Republicans are going to do, because ... the instinct throughout these two years has been, for Republicans, to almost blindly support the President of the United States," even as he has continued to lie about "these matters that he's going to testify to today."
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