Veteran investigative journalist Carl Bernstein reported that President Trump is exploring various ways to hold onto power.
The Watergate sleuth told CNN host Chris Cuomo on Monday that there is chatter in the White House about gaming the system as Trump’s critics raise concerns about voter suppression.
“Because everything is about the base, as he calls it,” Bernstein said. “And getting the base to somehow reelect him or get him close enough to reelection that he can then put into authoritarian practice. Some kind of mechanism that will allow him to hold onto power, perhaps throw the election into the House of Representatives, which indeed is being talked about in the White House.”
Indeed, the Twelfth Amendment, which altered Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, empowers the House to decide who will be president if no candidate wins a majority of electors. This may give Trump an advantage over his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, with each state having one vote.
Biden is leading Trump by a wide margin in national polling roughly 90 days until Election Day. Trump has cast doubt on mail-in voting, which many states are embracing during the coronavirus pandemic, and even suggested that the November election be postponed “until people can properly, securely and safely vote.” The date of the election is set by federal law, and the Constitution gives Congress the power to change the date.
Bernstein, who along with Bob Woodward helped bring down President Richard Nixon through Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Watergate scandal in the Washington Post, said there is a “national emergency” in the United States with Trump being “demonstrably unfit” to lead.
He called for a “political and cultural protectorate in the country between now and Election Day,” urging Republicans in Congress to take a page from the Nixon-era playbook and confront the president about their lack of confidence in him.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the White House for comment on Bernstein’s reporting.
