Former Nixon official: 'I would be terribly worried' if I were in Trump's White House with the Mueller report imminent
President Donald Trump's staffers are reportedly terrified of the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's full report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, because of what the president might do if it is unflattering to him. On CNN Tuesday, David Gergen, a former White House official under four bipartisan presidents including Richard Nixon, suggested their fears are well-placed.
"Obviously there persists this question about whether [Trump's] going to, in the words of one Republican source who spoke to CNN as I mentioned, quote, go bonkers," said Cooper.
"Well, as I can tell you, in the Nixon administration as a staff assistant, and I knew a report were coming about who was doing what inside the White House, what was being said, what the president said, I would very worried," said Gergen. "Because there's just this temptation inside a place like that when tensions were so high for people to blow occasionally."
Gergen recounted what a mess the White House was during the Watergate scandal, with Nixon constantly drinking and Defense Secretary James Schlesinger telling the military outright to ignore a nuclear launch order if the president gave one.
In Trump's case, said Gergen, "I would terribly worried about what was said in the White House and what was done by the president with regard to the obstruction. We know from what [Attorney General William] Barr said himself, which wasn't all that transparent, but we know that Mueller found evidence that could add up to obstruction ... it was a close call. He decided not to make that close call. This means there is evidence in this report of a president that may the one hand may have been obstructing."
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