‘A malignant presidency’ - Carl Bernstein

Journalism legend Carl Bernstein called on the US press, CNN, to rise to the challenge of the Donald Trump presidency, which he characterized as “malignant.” “We’re in foreign territory,” Bernstein said.” “We have never been in a malignant presidency like this before. It calls on our leaders, it calls on our journalists to do a different kind of reporting, a different kind of dealing with this presidency and the President.” Bernstein went on to argue that the Trump presidency’s deepest problems are becoming an open secret in Washington.

Carl Bernstein

Carl Bernstein is an American investigative journalist and author. While a young reporter for The Washington Post in 1972, Bernstein was teamed up with Bob Woodward; the two did many of the original news reporting on the Watergate scandal. These scandals led to numerous government investigations and the eventual resignation of President Richard Nixon. The work of Woodward and Bernstein was called "maybe the single greatest reporting effort of all time".

Bernstein's career since Watergate has continued to focus on the theme of the use and abuse of power via books and magazine articles. He has also done reporting for television and opinion commentary.

Analysis

The concerns

Reporters need to go out and talk to the leaders either off the record, on background, about the question of their confidence in this President and whether or not he is capable of being the President of the United States.

The underlying story here is a lack of confidence in the abilities and character of the President of the USA. Trump is not in control of the presidency in a way that it is functioning; every aspect of Trump’s presidency should be examined since many aspects are not functioning. 

Trump has battered the media with insults, including an early morning tweet last week in which he attacked the intellect and appearance of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. Those tweets drew wide condemnation from across the political spectrum in Washington and beyond.

Trump presidency, is not functioning partly because of his character, partly because of his attacks on the press, which is totally moving the needle that the American people are watching. But it’s really not functioning because the character and capabilities of the President.

President Trump is compared to Richard Nixon, the presidency of Nixon began on January 20, 1969, and ended on August 9, 1974. He resigned in the face of almost certain impeachment and removal from office, the first U.S. president ever to do so.

Congress is taking back power from President Donald Trump on national security matters. From Russia to the Pentagon budget, Republicans in Congress are proposing new checks to curb the White House's power and in some cases simply ignoring the Trump administration's desires on national security and foreign policy.

Assessment

Our assessment is that, as in 1974, fearing a collapse of Richard Nixon’s presidency and worried that the President was becoming unstable; his defense secretary, James Schlesinger, secretly instructed the military not to carry out any White House order to use nuclear weapons unless confirmed by him or Henry Kissinger. Schlesinger also prepared secret plans to deploy troops in Washington in the event of problems with the presidential succession. Would history repeat itself.