Washington Post journalist Carl Bernstein was never one to keep his liberal bias in check. But now he sounds like every other host on CNN (or MSNBC for that matter). Appearing on Sunday’s CNN Newsroom, he lashed out at the “delusional,” “unstable,” “reckless” Donald Trump.
In what must be required now on CNN, host Ana Cabrera introduced the Watergate reporter as the “legendary journalist.” Talking about the coronavirus briefings, Bernstein raged, “Well, the question for the press and all Americans and the senators and the congressmen that needs to be raised is, are we at the mercy of a delusional, unstable president, at the moment that we have lost more lives than in any events since World War II.”
He chided Doctor Deborah Birx’s “excuse making” for Trump and continued his attacks on Trump:
Who can imagine a president of the United States, while we are losing thousands and thousands of Americans on this battlefield, we have watched repeatedly this irresponsible, reckless president talk about how he's going to get himself re-elected and about his enemies and about the press, and about -- until four weeks ago how this was a hoax, this pandemic manufactured by his enemies?
In early April, just as today, Bernstein falsely stated that Trump called the coronavirus a hoax. In January, Bob Woodward’s former partner accused the GOP of “joining hands with a tyrant.”
A transcript of the segment is below:
CNN Newsroom
4/26/2020
4:36 PM ET
CABRERA: President Trump has not formally addressed the American people this weekend, apart from tweets, and now he says the coronavirus task force briefings are no longer worth his time or effort if the media is going to ask what he claims are hostile questions. This, of course, follows criticisms as well as ridicule after the president suggested that the coronavirus could be treated by injecting or ingesting disinfectants like bleach. The remarks alarmed pretty much anyone who knows that drinking or injecting bleach can kill. And sources tell CNN, the president's closest aides and allies have made a concerted effort to try to get him to stop holding these briefings. I want to bring in legendary journalist, Carl Bernstein. Carl, just help us understand what we are witnessing right now, because more than 54,000 Americans are dead. And the president this week suggested a potentially deadly treatment before later saying he was being sarcastic and these briefings are no longer worth his time.
CARL BERNSTEIN: Well, the question for the press and all Americans and the senators and the congressmen that needs to be raised is, are we at the mercy of a delusional, unstable president, at the moment that we have lost more lives than in any events since World War II. And what are the prices that we are paying for a president who is more concerned with his re-election efforts, with attacks on the press rather than addressing through fact this horrible medical crisis that is afflicting this country and the world through sensible decision making instead of tirades.
CABRERA: Now, we've talked on this program about the president's relationship with science, with truth, but Dr. Deborah Birx has defended the president's suggestion regarding the disinfectants. She just called it amusing and sort of how he processes things. Listen.
DR. DEBORAH BIRX: But he turned to me. I made it clear. And he understood that it was not as a treatment. And I think that kind of dialogue will happen. I think the president made it clear that physicians had to study this. I think I've made it clear that this was amusing, as you describe, but I want us to move on to be able to get information to the American people that can help them protect each other.
CABRERA: Carl, what's your take on that?
BERNSTEIN: First of all, that's no defense of the president. That's just excuse making. And second of all, that he is reckless, he is dangerous, he is malfeasant, which is to say, he is using the powers of the presidency to spread and use and put out these notional ideas of his that a stable president of the United States ought to keep to himself. There is a special responsibility that goes with being a president of the United States, particularly in a moment when you want to be acting during this supposed war that we are fighting on the coronavirus. You want to be acting like a responsible, calm, informed commander in chief, not like somebody gone off half-cocked in the middle of a battlefield and is a sitting duck for the enemy, and that's what we're seeing here. We are not seeing a rational process.
We are not seeing a stable genius, as the president likes to call himself. We are seeing demonstrable instability, demonstrable inability to act like a responsible leader to bring this country together, to bring together the best people he can, and some of that has been done, and then let them act, and also to mobilize the huge powers he has as president through the Defense Production Act, through, for instance, calling up the national guard and using the military to do the kind of testing that the experts like Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx have told us. We are behind. We are at a deficit. We are losing lives because this president has not mobilized to get the testing that we need.
CABRERA: Carl, The Washington Post broke down the last three weeks of President Trump's briefings, and this is what they found. He has spent two hours on attacks, 45 minutes praising himself or his team, nine minutes promoting hydroxychloroquine, and just 4-1/2 minutes offering sympathy for the victims. Carl, as you've pointed out, in just six weeks, we have lost more Americans than we did in the Vietnam war, more than the Korean war, more than World War I. I know you talk to White House aides and friends of President Trump frequently. Is the death toll weighing heavily on him?
BERNSTEIN: Yes, I think it is. But his response to the death toll is to get angry at his enemies because I think there is some awareness he has of how slow he has been to act here. And the fact is that we are behind in fighting this. You know, one of the problems with this president in not dealing with fact and not knowing about history, he ought to look at some old newsreels. He likes to look at video of President Roosevelt in World War II and how he united this country, and how he appealed to the best in us, and how he put politics aside.
Who can imagine a president of the United States, while we are losing thousands and thousands of Americans on this battlefield, we have watched repeatedly this irresponsible, reckless president talk about how he's going to get himself re-elected and about his enemies and about the press, and about -- until four weeks ago how this was a hoax, this pandemic manufactured by his enemies? We have got a terrible problem in this country, and that is we are being facing an enemy, the pandemic, such as we've never faced in our lifetimes, and we have a president of the United States who is not addressing it in a responsible manner, who is not using the tools at his command, who sees this as yet another event in terms of himself, not the national interests, not the people who are suffering. His eyes ought to be every moment on those who are suffering and how to alleviate that suffering through using the powers of his office to bring us all together to fight, and to use the tools that he has that he refuses to use, partly because he's got this notion that somehow American companies, on their own, are going to step up and do their job without him compelling them to. And that has cost us a terrible, terrible loss --
CABRERA: Yes. That's --
BERNSTEIN: -- in some ways on the battlefield because he won't use that Defense Production Act or bring up the national guard or do these other necessary things to fight a real all-out war in real time.
CABRERA: Carl Bernstein, thank you very much for taking the time. We always appreciate having you on and hearing your perspective. Thank you.
