For many months, the liberal media had been warning us President Trump had the country on a crash course with a constitutional crisis because of his anger at the special counsel investigation. Arguably, chief among those doomsday soothsayers was CNN’s Carl Bernstein who has been comparing Trump to Nixon and Watergate since former FBI Director James Comey was fired. But during an appearance on Anderson Cooper 360 Tuesday, Bernstein had an update: “We’re in a constitutional crisis.”
To continue his theme of drawing parallels between President Richard Nixon and President Trump, Cooper wanted now how close we were to another Saturday night massacre. “Carl, just in terms of reporting that the President is considering firing Deputy Attorney General Rob Rosenstein, do you feel like we are on the verge of a Saturday night massacre here?”
Asking that question was the epitome of beating a dead horse because CNN has been declaring such massacres since Trump fired Comey.
“We’re in a constitutional crisis,” Bernstein immediately proclaimed. “The President of the United States has made clear to those around him and those closest to him in the White House and among his friends, that he is determined to shut down the investigation.”
After suggesting Trump was only upset by the FBI raids of his personal lawyer because there was harmful evidence against him (and only admitting there could be “exculpatory information” retrieved as an afterthought), Bernstein declared: “We have a president of the United States willing to risk a constitutional crisis for this nation so he can avoid [a] legitimate investigation and letting the facts roll out the way they ought to the end of an investigation.”
“This is no witch hunt. This about a lawless president of the United States determined to avoid accountability,” he bitterly spat.
The panel discussion took a bit of a humorous turn when Cooper looked to former FBI agent Josh Campbell who pontificated about how the FBI would never stop the investigation no matter what might happen to Special Counsel Mueller.
“So you send the FBI agents home, you send the prosecutors back to their districts. The case will still continue cause FBI if they are in possession of information or allegation of a crime, they’re not simply going to stop investigating simply because they don’t have that process in place,” Campbell said.
But Campbell was quickly deflated by legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. “Wait, wait a second, now I think that is overly optimistic about the work of the FBI. If Robert Mueller is fired and this investigation, you know, technically still exists but no one in charge of it: Donald Trump wins,” Toobin huffed.
All of this was not news. It was speculation and opinion passed off as fact. It’s perfectly obvious just by looking at how Bernstein talked, which was mostly declarations. It was hyperbolic fear mongering deserving of mockery.
Transcript below, click "expand" to read:
CNN
Anderson Cooper 360
April 10, 2018
8:11:45 PM Eastern(…)
ANDERSON COOPER: I mean, Carl, just in terms of reporting that the President is considering firing Deputy Attorney General Rob Rosenstein, do you feel like we are on the verge of a Saturday night massacre here? What would be the point of firing Rosenstein if it’s not in order to have some sort of impact on Mueller and the investigation?
CARL BERNSTEIN: We’re in a constitutional crisis. The President of the United States has made clear to those around him and those closest to him in the White House and among his friends, that he is determined to shut down the investigation. And the moment he has chosen to actually act on it apparently is when the special prosecutors and other prosecutors have gotten hold of his lawyer's computers. Which have perhaps evidence of real conspiracy between the President of the United States and others. Or there could be exculpatory information there.
If, as the president maintains and a few even around him believe, that there is no there there and this is really a witch hunt. We have a president of the United States willing to risk a constitutional crisis for this nation so he can avoid [a] legitimate investigation and letting the facts roll out the way they ought to the end of an investigation. And if it’s a witch hunt, there is plenty of time at the end and there would be hell to pay if Mr. Mueller or anybody else, Rosenstein, were conducting a witch hunt. This is no witch hunt this about a lawless president of the United States determined to avoid accountability.
COOPER: Josh, would firing Rosenstein necessarily get what the President likely wants, which is the ability to contain the special counsel investigation?
JOSH CAMPBELL: Well, two prongs here. The first is he can set additional parameters. Let's take the example of firing Rosenstein. They put in someone who is actually going to do the President's bidding and further narrow the scope of what Rob Mueller can do. That’s one option. If they dissolve the special counsel completely, that make the investigation go away. So you send the FBI agents home, you send the prosecutors back to their districts. The case will still continue cause FBI if they are in possession of information or allegation of a crime, they’re not simply going to stop investigating simply because they don’t have that process in place.
JEFFREY TOOBIN: Wait, wait a second, now I think that is overly optimistic--
BERNSTEIN: Sure is.
TOOBIN: --about the work of the FBI. If Robert Mueller is fired and this investigation, you know, technically still exists but no one in charge of it: Donald Trump wins.
(…)
