Beautiful: Trump calls Watergate self-legend Carl Bernstein a ‘degenerate fool,’ slams CNN lies

If you don’t choose at this point to be entertained by all of this, I think you’re doing yourself a disservice. American politics has been beset long enough by its own sense of severe self-importance, and the rest of us have had no choice but to endure this slog.

So, Carl Bernstein of Woodward and Bernstein fame? You sir, are a degenerate fool

The rise of Donald Trump has ripped apart so many norms, and one of them is the heretofore deification of Beltway icons who are nowhere near the legends they and everyone else pretend that they are. Every president, regardless of party, has felt the need to genuflect to these people and their supposed legendary status – regardless of what total hacks some of these people may be. Donald Trump has no interest in this nonsense, and fortunately for those of us who like to be entertained, this manifests in some very colorful ways. So, Carl Bernstein of Woodward and Bernstein fame? You sir, are a degenerate fool. The president of the United States says so:

CNN is being torn apart from within based on their being caught in a major lie and refusing to admit the mistake. Sloppy @carlbernstein, a man who lives in the past and thinks like a degenerate fool, making up story after story, is being laughed at all over the country! Fake News

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2018

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Rob dealt with this on the radio show today, so he also told you about CNN’s sanctimonious response:

Make no mistake, Mr. President, CNN does not lie. We report the news. And we report when people in power tell lies. CNN stands by our reporting and our reporters. There may be many fools in this story but @carlbernstein is not one of them. — CNN Communications (@CNNPR) August 29, 2018

The basis of this was a report by CNN and Bernstein that claimed Michael Cohen lawyer Lanny Davis was running around implicating Trump for having prior knowledge of his son’s meeting with that screwball Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in 2016. CNN can stand by its story all it wants, but Lanny Davis himself has come out and said it’s not true, and that neither he nor Cohen had any such knowledge. So is it “presidential” for Trump to call a member of the media “sloppy” and a “degenerate fool”? I’d say it is now. The electorate knew that Trump did this sort of thing before the election, and it didn’t stop them from putting him in the White House. Apparently this sort of thing isn’t a disqualifying issue, especially if the alternative to you is the most corrupt woman on the face of the Earth. But look: When media run with falsehoods like this, refuse to cop to the mistake, and hide behind their reputations based on a story from 45 years ago, they deserve to be called out as sloppy degenerate fools. And if nothing else, it makes the slog of following politics entertaining for at least one day for those of us who have to do it.