Carl Bernstein calls Trump’s Georgia call ‘far worse than Watergate’

Journalist Carl Bernstein said President Trump’s call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger amounts to a criminal act and is “far worse” than the Watergate scandal that ended Richard Nixon’s presidency. 

“It’s not deja vu,” Bernstein said Sunday during an appearance on CNN. “This is something far worse than occurred in Watergate. We have both a criminal president of the United States in Donald Trump and a subversive president of the united states.” 

Trump is heard on the Saturday phone call with Raffensperger, audio of which was published Sunday by The Washington Post, pressuring the secretary of state to “find” enough votes to hand him the state’s presidential electors. 

“All I want to do is this … I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state,” Trump says on the call. 

Bernstein, who along with Washington Post colleague Bob Woodward worked on the journalistic investigation into the Watergate affair during Nixon’s presidency, called the recorded conversation between Trump and Raffensperger “the ultimate smoking gun.” 

“It is the tape of the evidence of what this president is willing to do to undermine the electoral system and illegally, improperly and immorally instigate a coup,” he said, before suggesting Trump should resign. 

“In any other presidency, this tape would be enough to result in the impeachment of the president of the United States and really an immediate call by the members of Congress including of his own party that he resign immediately,” Bernstein said. 

Instead, several Republican lawmakers have backed Trump’s claims of a “rigged” election against him and indicated they will contest the election’s result when Congress meets this week to formally certify the results. 

Some congressional Democrats have also called for Trump’s resignation over call. 

Bernstein has made other comparisons between Trump and Nixon, suggesting in 2019 the Ukraine scandal that resulting in Trump’s impeachment was “somewhat equivalent” to Watergate.