Republican Leaders Are Privately Raising Concerns About Donald Trump’s ‘Emotional Maturity And Stability,’ Says Carl Bernstein

Republican leaders are already raising doubts about Donald Trump’s ability to lead the country, according to investigative author and journalist Carl Bernstein.

Donald Trump’s first week in office has been a roller coaster for the country, with him signing executive orders that pulled United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, imposed a federal hiring freeze, launched a war against reproductive rights internationally by reinstating the so-called global gag order, and made sure that 20 million Americans who were medically insured because of the Affordable Care Act were left to face an uncertain future. Apart from that, his administration also launched an all-out war on the media concluding in the coinage of the term “alternative facts” by Trump’s adviser, Kellyanne Conway, while the U.S. witnessed what was arguably the biggest protest in its history when millions of women took to the streets to register their protest against the election of Donald Trump, according to the Telegraph.

It has been a frenetic week to say the least, and Donald Trump’s own response to the developments have been bizarre and bellicose. He doubled down on unsupported theories about voter fraud, while also claiming during a speech at CIA headquarters that journalists who were critical of his government were “going to pay,” as reported by the Guardian.

All of this has led members of his own party to cast aspersions on the president’s “emotional maturity and stability,” according to one of the veteran journalists who broke the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, Carl Bernstein. During an appearance on CNN Tonight, where he is a regular political commentator, Bernstein said reports that Republicans are worried about Donald Trump’s ability to run the country efficiently are both highly disconcerting and totally unprecedented in the modern history of the United States.

“It is unlike anything that I have seen in 50 years of being a reporter,” Bernstein told CNN Tonight host Don Lemon.

“I am hearing from Republicans, and other reporters are as well, that there is open discussion by members of the President of the United States’ own party about his emotional maturity, stability.”

Such aspersions about a sitting president with only one on the job are indeed troubling. Not only does it speak of the unease within some groups of the GOP which have not been entirely pleased with how Trump has ascended to the presidency, such reports also betray a fear within supportive Republicans that Trump might eventually be unsuited for the rigors of the American president’s job.

Carl Bernstein also warned journalists not to become consumed with Trump’s social media antics, which he believes are hugely demonstrative of what goes on in the president’s mind. He said it is a tendency which is dangerous because the American people tend to get distracted because Donald Trump comes up with something un-presidential almost every day. Bernstein urged journalists to remain focused on his policies for the welfare of an informed citizenry.

“People are saying his psyche is driving the news cycle.

We are in uncharted territory here and we ought to talk to some of our colleagues about what they are hearing.. I’ve never heard [people] talking about a president… the way this subtext is now a talking point.

I talked about the tweets [on a separate CNN panel] being an MRI of his psyche. These remarks are likewise an MRI of his psyche, and it’s not a very pretty place.”

Last night @CarlBernstein said DC Republicans are raising concerns about Trump's "emotional maturity, stability" https://t.co/dUe5eFRQSu

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 26, 2017

If Carl Bernstein’s comments about Republicans getting increasingly anxious about Donald Trump’s mental state are indeed true, one can only imagine what lies in store for the American people. But the way the first week under Trump has gone, it seems hardly plausible that the same can continue for another four years.

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