Watergate reporter says current White House ‘potentially more dangerous situation’

Carl Bernstein, one of the reporters that investigated scandals in former President Nixon’s White House, on Sunday said current White House conditions could be more dangerous than the Watergate scandal.

“I think this is a potentially more dangerous situation than Watergate and we’re at a very dangerous moment,” Bernstein said on CNN.

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Bernstein referred to President Trump’s decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey last week. Comey was leading the FBI’s investigation into the Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, including allegations that Trump’s campaign colluded with Moscow.

“Because we are looking at the possibility that the president of the United States and those around him, during an election campaign, colluded with a hostile foreign power to undermine the basis of our democracy: free elections,” Bernstein continued.

Bernstein said the country does not yet know the facts.

“But what we do know is, is that the president of the United States seems to be doing everything in his power to keep us from knowing the facts,” he said. “Including firing the director of the FBI because, says the president of the United States, of ‘this Russia thing.’ So the question of a cover-up seems to me to have been answered a while ago.”

Bernstein said there is a cover-up going on to keep the public from knowing what happened.

“Whether that means the president of the United States obstructed justice or not, or those around him did, we don’t know,” he said.

“But what we see is that at every turn, this president is impeding the ability of those who were chosen to investigate to do so…It’s a truly dangerous moment. It’s very different than Watergate.”

Trump sparked controversy last week when he fired the FBI director. Bernstein is the latest to question the timing of the firing and raise comparisons between the current situation and the Watergate scandal.

During an interview last week, Trump said: “When I decided to just do it, I said to myself — I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.”