A reporter who broke the Watergate scandal says Nixon's lies don't compare to Trump's

Carl Bernstein, one of the two reporters who uncovered President Nixon's Watergate scandal, appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources Sunday to say Nixon's questionable relationship with the truth does not compare to President-elect Donald Trump's.

"Trump lives and thrives in a fact-free environment," Bernstein told host Brian Stelter Sunday. "No president, including Richard Nixon, has been so ignorant of fact and disdains fact in the way that this president-elect does." 

In Bernstein's rebuke, he went on to say Trump's leadership style reveals a penchant for authoritarianism. 

"And it has something to do with the growing sense of authoritarianism that he and his presidency are projecting and the danger of it is obvious," he added. "And he's trying to make the conduct of the press the issue, not his own conduct."

Trump's lies on the campaign trail and since his election victory are seemingly innumerable. He was awarded PolitiFact's 2015 Lie of the Year. "Bending the truth or being unhampered by accuracy is a strategy he has followed for years," PolitiFact wrote in the explanation of their selection. 

Trump has demonstrated a systematic disregard for facts in his political rhetoric. On Nov. 27, for instance, he alleged to have won the popular vote, which rival Hillary Clinton won by nearly 3 million votes. He claimed the numbers were distorted by "millions of people who voted illegally." 

Bernstein and Bob Woodward's reporting for the Washington Post in the early 1970s helped uncover the scandal linking Nixon campaign funds to burglars who were sent to bug the Democratic National Committee offices prior to the general election. Ultimately, Nixon was forced to resign to avoid an otherwise likely impeachment.

Watch Bernstein's full CNN segment here: