Legendary journalist Carl Bernstein on Sunday bashed former President Donald Trump as a “war criminal” for “fomenting a coup,” and blasted him for mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s time to “step back” and take a clear look at Trump “in a different context,” Bernstein told Brian Stelter on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”
Trump is “our own American war criminal, of a kind we’ve never experienced before,” he said.
“What we’re talking about Trump’s crimes as an American war criminal ... that he has perpetrated upon our people, [includes] the tens of thousands of people who died because of his own homicidal negligence” concerning COVID-19, said Bernstein. He “put his own electoral interests above the health of our people, as they were slaughtered in this pandemic,” he added.
As the virus began to spread around the world in February 2020, Trump insisted that it would “disappear” like “a miracle.” After he contracted the disease and received excellent and experimental health care treatment, he told Americans not to “be afraid of COVID.”
So far, nearly 611,000 Americans have died of the disease.
Bernstein, who is known for his reporting on the Watergate scandal that brought down former President Richard Nixon, went on to say that Trump’s “war crimes” also include “fomenting a coup to hold onto office,” referring to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. He noted that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley has compared Trump to Hitler, and his supporters to the Nazi brownshirts.
“It’s not just about impeachable offenses. It’s about a different kind of crime in which the humanity of the people of the United States was relegated to the floor by the president of the United States, who uplifted only his own narrow political, financial and personal interests above that of our people, of our country, of our Constitution,” Bernstein said.
Trump could not immediately be reached for comment.
Check out the “Reliable Sources” clip up top.
