'That's terrifying': Anderson Cooper shaken after hearing Harvard scholars' 'dark' predictions on US democracy

CNN host Anderson Cooper was left shaken on Tuesday after two Harvard scholars explained how the Republican Party has radicalized itself against democracy.

Political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, authors of the bestselling book How Democracies Die, appeared on Cooper's program to explain how their studies of democratic failures bode ill tidings for the future of the American republic.

"It is pretty dark," said Levitsky. "When we wrote How Democracies Die four years ago, we were worried about the Republican Party because they allowed Donald Trump to be elected. They sort of dropped the ball and failed to protect our democracy from an authoritarian demagogue. But we did not expect that the entire Republican Party would evolve into an anti-democratic force, and that's where they are today."

Ziblatt, meanwhile, compared past instances in which democracies in European countries survived anti-democratic insurgencies, but he said that stopping those insurgencies depended on members of establishment parties standing firmly against them.

The Harvard scholar did not think that today's Republican Party is currently up to the task.

"Looking where we are compared to other countries, it's not looking very promising," he said.

"That's terrifying," Cooper replied.

Watch the video below.

'How Democracies Die' authorswww.youtube.com

In other news Tuesday, a Pro-Trump candidate suggested taking "all the boats of of the water" to lower sea levels. WATCH:

Pro-Trump candidate suggests taking 'all the boats out of the water' to lower sea levelsyoutu.be