CNN analyst and legendary investigative journalist Carl Berstein appeared on CNN’s Reliable Sources Sunday to talk about two bombshell reports on the Trump administration.

One, from the New York Times, found that the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation into whether Trump was secretly “working on behalf of Russia against American interests.” And the other, dropped shortly afterwards by the Washington Post, reported that Trump tried to hide his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin from senior officials in his own administration.

Bernstein first dismissed Trump’s attempts to claim that “unless there is some type of smoking gun… then there is no collusion.”

“That’s nonsense,” Bernstein said. “This is about the most serious counterintelligence people we have in the U.S. government saying, ‘Oh, my God, the president’s words and actions lead us to conclude that somehow he has become a witting, unwitting, or half-witting pawn, certainly in some regards, to Vladimir Putin.'”

“Look, Trump keeps going back to the idea we need better relations are Russia,” Bernstein continued. “Could be. He could well be right. But from a point of view of strength… rather, he has done what appears to be Putin’s goals. He has helped Putin destabilize the United States and interfere in the election, no matter whether it was purposeful or not.”

“And that is part of what the draft of Mueller’s report, I’m told, is to be about,” Bernstein said. “We know there has been collusion by [Michael] Flynn. We know there has been collusion of some sort by [Paul] Manafort. The question is, yes, what did the president know and when did he know it?”

“What the hell happened in Helsinki!?” he asked, referring to Trump’s meeting with Putin before their joint press conference. “Why is he so beholden?”

“There’s a question of competence,” he concluded. “We do not have an effective governance from the White House right now. We have chaos, misinformation, disinformation, lying.”

Watch above, via CNN.

[Featured image via screengrab]

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