Former Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein slammed US President Donald Trump and Republicans after the release of a previously classified memo alleging abuse of government surveillance powers by the Justice Department, calling the memo a “disingenuous partisan document” and a “red herring.”
“What we are seeing here is a demagogic, authoritarian president who is using this red herring to contend that there is a ‘witch hunt’ going on when, in fact, there is a legitimate investigation into what the Russians did, and whether or not the president of the United States and his cohort and aides and family may or may not have been involved in helping the Russians,” The Hill reported.
Bernstein said if there’s evidence to exonerate Trump in the investigation into Russian election interference, the president “ought to have enough confidence in our institutions” to allow them to continue their investigation.
The famed Watergate journalist also ripped Republicans for “going along with” Trump in attacking institutions like the FBI and Justice Department.
“If they cannot see how Donald Trump has been manipulated and how Donald Trump is using this to avoid legitimate investigation and to poison the institutions of American democracy, then the Republican party is taking us somewhere where we haven’t been before,” Bernstein said. “And they were the heroes of Watergate because they were open to the truth.”
He went on to blast the Republican party for behaving as if President Trump is “above the law.”
The previously classified memo released Friday by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee accuses senior Justice Department officials of improperly using information from the so-called Steele dossier, which was partially funded by Democrats, to obtain surveillance warrants on Carter Page, a member of the Trump transition team and former Trump adviser.