Corporate leaders say Trump is racist -- but are too scared to call him out: CNN's Brownstein

CNN political analyst Ron Brownstein on Thursday warned that the United States is failing to contain President Donald Trump even as he makes grander and more disturbing assertions of his own executive power.

While critiquing former special counsel Robert Mueller's performance before Congress on Wednesday, Brownstein said that Mueller's problem is that he's determined to play by rules that Trump has spent the last three years gleefully stomping on.

He then emphasized that Mueller is not the only person in America who is not meeting the task of checking the president.

"It is kind of symptomatic," he said. "Our institutions are having trouble adapting to a president who is this far outside the norm."

As an example, Brownstein then discussed a recent discussion he'd had with business leaders who all admitted that Trump telling four Democratic lawmakers to "go back" to their home countries was obviously racist.

"I did a story this week talking with corporate leaders and other institutions, educational institutions, nonprofits, who all said that telling someone to 'go back' to where they came from in their own institution would unquestionably lead to discipline or firing," he said. "And yet, almost none of them are willing to say so publicly."

In conclusion, Brownstein said, "Our leaders are failing."