Watergate is the modern benchmark for dangerous presidential behavior. Carl Bernstein knows a thing or two about it, considering he was one-half of the team who broke the story for The Washington Post. So when Bernstein was on CNN Sunday tasked with making a comparison between Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal and whatever it is we're destined to call President Donald Trump's behavior around the Russia investigation, it was worth a listen.

Bernstein's verdict? This is "different" from Watergate, but "a potentially more dangerous situation."

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Carl Bernstein: “This is a potentially more dangerous situation than Watergate … there is a cover-up going on” https://t.co/dZohQ2xKSR — Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) May 14, 2017

The reason, according to Bernstein, is that the president's conduct already amounts to a cover-up. That doesn't just apply to his firing of FBI Director James Comey, which Trump openly admitted in an interview with NBC's Lester Holt had to do with the Russian inquiry. That revelation came just days after his team, including Vice President Mike Pence, staked out the position that he was merely acting on the recommendation of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

The White House also intervened in the House Intelligence Committee's investigation of the Russian question, ultimately turning Devin Nunes into James-Bond-drowning-in-flop-sweat. (He had to recuse himself from the investigation.) The administration also reportedly tried to prevent former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates from testifying before a Senate committee. When she did, Yates told the world she'd warned the White House that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn lied to the vice president about discussing sanctions with the Russian ambassador, and thus could be compromised—and potentially blackmailed—by the Russians.

This is a pattern of behavior that indicates President Trump and his White House are determined to impede any investigation into his associates' ties to Russian officials, and whether the two colluded as part of Russia's larger interference in the 2016 election. While that isn't evidence in and of itself that there was collusion—though it could amount to obstruction of justice—it certainly doesn't strengthen Trump's case that the Russian issue is all a hoax.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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