Legendary journalist Carl Bernstein said that Trump is different from Nixon because Trump came into office as unstable and incapable of being president.
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Bernstein said on CNN’s Reliable Sources, “It’s an unprecedented situation, it’s very different than either Bob’s other books on the presidents and presidencies including our books together about Nixon presidency. Nixon presidency in its final days was teetering with an unstable president. This president, if you read this book carefully has been teetering from the beginning with an unstable president…. This is not about one person in the trump orbit calling the President Of The United States a moron or an idiot, this is about being in the room with the president of the United States where he demonstrably is not capable of being the President Of The United States.”
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The United States Has Never Faced This Challenge
The presidency can survive stupidity. There have been more than a few presidents who were not that bright. Intelligence is different from temperament and stability. Hillary Clinton made this argument during the presidential campaign, and most voters didn’t connect the dots, because they had no point of reference.
America has had bad presidents, dumb presidents, and incompetent presidents, but the country has never had a president who was mentally unfit for office. The Watergate scandal caused Nixon’s sanity to crumble, but Nixon was a competent all be it, corrupt public official, before it all came crashing down.
Trump came into office mentally unstable, and on top of his mental health issues, he is incompetent. Trump presents a different challenge than Nixon and Watergate.
America needs to wake up
Carl Bernstein’s words were a wake-up call. If the American people sit on their hands, everything will not be ok. This problem isn’t going to fix itself. Trump isn’t tolerable. He is a danger and a national emergency. That is the message the NYT op-ed was sending, and that is what every voter needs to have in the front of their mind when they go to vote in less two months.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
