“I have never seen a week where a president of our nation has behaved with such a cavalier disregard for the norms and institutions of our democracy.”
Dan Rather, one of the most well-known journalists in the United States, has once again hit out at Donald Trump after an eventful week for the US president, even by his standards.
Rather, who was news anchor on CBS News for almost 25 years, has publicly criticised Trump in the past and did so again in a message on his Facebook page after a week in which the president hit the headlines for firing James Comey, the Director of the FBI.
Following the events of the past week, which has led to serious questions about the President’s motivation, with accusations of a Watergate-style cover-up over his ties to Russia, Rather wrote that he has “never seen a week like the one we just had” in the “4,500 weeks of my life” to date.
Rather continued: “I have never seen so many members of a political party rally around incompetence, intemperance, and inanity” and went on to describe the current situation in the United States as “a moment of great peril for our nation”.
Rather ended on a note of optimism, saying that he has never seen a social movement “where so much power and numbers lie on the side of the opposition,” finishing with the line, “our destiny is in our hands”.
You can read the post in full below.
I have lived through nearly 4,500 weeks in my life, and I have never seen a week like the one we just had.
I have seen weeks of far greater darkness, of war, and death, and economic despair. I have seen weeks of more confusion and uncertainty. But I have never seen a week where a president of our nation has behaved with such a cavalier disregard for the norms and institutions of our democracy. And it now seems like the investigation is expanding into Trump’s business dealings. The comparisons with Richard Nixon are plentiful these days, but even he did not seem so untethered from our basic governance. And I have never seen so many members of a political party rally around incompetence, intemperance, and inanity.
The threats, the lies, the willful disregard for the rule of law should be limited to the world of Hollywood caricature. To see this played out each night on the news, to read about ramblings and inconsistencies in justifications for actions that should never have been taken, is to see a moment of great peril for our nation.
I remain, however, an optimist. I see the swellings of civic engagement and action. I hear the voices of those who demand that this subversion of our national ideals shall not stand. I have covered social movement of the past, and never have seen one where so much power and numbers lie on the side of the opposition. This is a clash for the values of our nation. Our destiny is in our hands.
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