President Trump rebuked Carl Bernstein for harsh criticism the veteran reporter directed at the president for holding a crowded indoor campaign rally in Nevada over the weekend during the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump called Bernstein a “total nut job” and said he doesn’t “have a lot of respect” for him during a Tuesday morning interview on Fox & Friends.
“Well, I know Carl Bernstein a little bit. He’s a nut job. He’s been a nut job for many years. He was the second wing. I don’t have a lot of respect for either of them, frankly, but he was a total nut job, and I see him and he’ll say anything,” the president said. “No matter what you do with some of the fake news, doesn’t make any difference.”
The president also took a shot at Bernstein’s partner in exposing the Watergate scandal that led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation, Bob Woodward, who is in Trump’s crosshairs for his new book, Rage. Trump was interviewed more than a dozen times for the book but criticized it and the author during the interview.
“Carl Bernstein is a dummy. He’s a dumb guy, and Woodward’s book last night, I read it. It’s like lightweight reading, and he doesn’t get it,” Trump said.
Bernstein, in an interview on CNN Monday night, chastised the president for holding an indoor rally in Nevada on Sunday that defied state regulations and his administration’s own health guidelines.
“We are witnessing a homicidal president convening, purposely, a homicidal assembly to help him get reelected as president of the United States instead of protecting the health and welfare of the people of the United States, including his own supporters, whose lives he is willing to sacrifice,” Bernstein said.
The president said he “would have preferred being outside” but claimed that Nevada’s Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak prevented that from happening. Sisolak said the campaign showed “callous disregard” for the supporters’ health.
