Watergate-era reporter warns: US faces dire 'constitutional crisis' following the Trump coup

Journalist Carl Bernstein and John Dean, former White House counsel under President Richard Nixon in the early 1970s, both have vivid memories of the Watergate scandal — and they have warned that in terms of corruption, Nixon paled in comparison to Donald Trump's presidency. CNN's Anderson Cooper recently interviewed Bernstein and Dean separately, getting Bernstein's thoughts on Trump's attempt to pressure U.S. Department of Justice officials to help him overturn the 2020 election results.

The U.S. Senate recently issued a damning report on Trump's efforts to bully DOJ officials in December 2020 and early January 2021. Discussing that report with Cooper, the 77-year-old Bernstein said, "There has been a coup, led by the president of the United States to undermine the Constitution — and possibly and likely, a criminal conspiracy as well. And all of these things that are laid out in the report are incontrovertible evidence of the president of the United States trying to overwhelm constitutional responsibility, the laws of the United States and the Constitution of the United States."

Bernstein went on to say that "we are looking at an ongoing cover-up, led by the Republican Party to keep the people of the United States from knowing what the hell happened…. The president of the United States, for the first time in our history, tried to subvert a legal and free election. And now, we are heading toward the next election in which these same forces are planning to subvert the elections. So, we are in a constitutional crisis…. We're in it, we're in it."

Those are powerful words coming from Bernstein, who is famous for historic reporting on Watergate with his Washington Post colleague, Bob Woodward, during the 1970s. B

In a separate interview, Dean, now 82, discussed Trump's efforts to prevent Republicans from testifying for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's select committee on the January 6 insurrection. Dean, a Watergate whistleblower and former attorney who testified before Congress during the 1970s, pled guilty to a single felony charge for his role in the Watergate coverup.

Trump is urging Republicans to defy subpoenas from the committee, and Dean told Cooper, "He has no authority to do that. Each of those people have to decide what they can do, and they can't say, 'Well, I'm acting under the orders of former President Trump.' That's no order. It is meaningless."

Water the video below:

'There has been a coup': Bernstein on Trump's role in January 6 riotwww.youtube.com