Journalist Carl Bernstein accused Senate Republicans of staging a "cover-up" in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, calling the episode a "shameful episode in our history."
Bernstein made the remarks on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" Thursday evening.
"They have covered up what the president of the United States has done in his grievous action when they had the ability to find out more. And reach a bipartisan, as it were, decision if we could hear from the witnesses, if Mr. [John] Bolton could come in and tell us, is there anything else there? No. Maybe it would be exonerating," Bernstein said.
"This is a cover-up. Plain and simple. And there has been no attempt throughout this proceeding by the Republicans in this Senate of the United States — the so-called world's greatest deliberative body, which we now can see how deliberative it is — that we have seen now a really shameful episode in our history that's going to read down for many, many years."
Mediaite posted a clip of Bernstein's comments.
Many Senate Republicans, including Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., oppose calling witnesses in Trump's trial and would like to see it end with an acquittal soon. Others in the party, along with Democrats, are eager to hear from Bolton, the former national security adviser, and other current and former officials about what Trump may have said or done concerning Ukraine last year.
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