McConnell and “his craven Republicans” established a precedent “in which the president of the United States can do almost anything without being held accountable,” the famed Watergate journalist told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

“The checks and balances that have been the basis of our republic, if we can keep it, have now been, perhaps, probably obliterated to some extent by what McConnell has allowed,” he explained.

Bernstein said McConnell had led “his troops into a cover-up” with Trump and “trampled the most basic prerogatives of the Senate that he supposedly loves.”

McConnell had “capitulated so that the executive, be it a Democrat, be it a Republican, from here henceforth can do what he wishes and to restrain him is going to be much more difficult than ever in our history,” Bernstein added.

CNN’s chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin earlier in the segment called the blocking of witnesses “a shocking disgrace” that he predicted would “haunt this Senate for decades.”

Check out the segment here:

Attorney @JeffreyToobin calls the Senate voting down a motion to allow witnesses in Trump's impeachment trial "a shocking disgrace."



It will "haunt this Senate for decades," he adds, saying, "Good luck to them."https://t.co/5BockBfUUC pic.twitter.com/e9BsxA8xHF — Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) February 1, 2020