Carl Bernstein: Fox News and Republicans are “abetting a criminal cover-up” for the Trump team
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
From the December 8 edition of CNN's Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin:
BROOKE BALDWIN (HOST): So Trump's allies -- people he listens to and watches -- do they seem to be laying the groundwork for a Mueller dismissal in your eyes?
CARL BERNSTEIN: They are abetting a cover-up. Not just Fox News of whom it might be expected -- particularly Hannity and some of the commentators -- there are some real reporters at Fox I think that feel very uncomfortable about this abetting a cover-up which is what this network is doing at Fox at this moment. But the Republican Party is in danger of abetting a criminal cover-up, and this is going to have real consequences. You know in Watergate, the heroes of Watergate were really Republicans who said we cannot have a criminal president of the United States. Barry Goldwater, the 1964 nominee of his party, led a delegation of Republicans who went to Richard Nixon three days before he resigned and says “you must leave office Mr. President because of what you have done.” There is no interest in the truth that we are now seeing from the organized Republican party on Capitol Hill and there could be huge consequences for a long time because of that.
BALDWIN: So, could they be heroes again? Potentially, but those who are, to use your words, aiding and abetting -- Republicans, Fox News -- do you think that they're -- They are the voices in the president's head. They are trying to get to the president.
[...]
BERNSTEIN: Look. This is a real investigation. What we know so far is that the president of the United States, his campaign aides, his family, have been had by the Russians. Whether they have been criminally “had” in their own abetting of the Russians trying to undermine the election, we don't know. ... And also, the idea of undermining the FBI. Look, the FBI had a terrible history under J. Edgar Hoover of abuse of power, we don't see evidence of that now and indeed there is plenty of oversight to make sure there is not and if there has been here it will be revealed. But this investigation, which is about a White House swamp and a campaign swamp that got had by the Russians and there now is a cover-up to keep us from learning what happens when that swamp in the White House is drained. And it might not be criminality but what we now know is that the president of the United States, his family, his campaign aides have lied for months, and months, and months about their relationships to Russians and Russian nationals and this special prosecutor is determined to get to the bottom of it.
Previously: