Washington (CNN) Reporting legends Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward on Wednesday compared the drama surrounding President Donald Trump's White House with the scandals that plagued the Nixon administration.

The duo, formerly of The Washington Post, are best known for their reporting on the Watergate cover-up, an effort by former President Richard Nixon to interfere with the Democratic Party during his re-election bid in the early 1970s.

"Nixon reacted, he was presiding over a criminal cover-up. That's what most of his efforts, I think, went into," Bernstein told CNN's Anderson Cooper on "AC360." "We see Trump's reactions every day. And yes, he is under siege and he thinks and feels he is unfairly under siege."

Bernstein recalled how Nixon's plan during the 1968 presidential election was to "undercut and destroy" the campaign of his Democratic opponents, Hubert Humphrey and Edmund Muskie.

"Watergate was about Richard Nixon's attempt to undermine the electoral system of the United States," Bernstein said.

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