Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein says US is in 'cold civil war' of 'different truths'

Carl Bernstein, the former Washington Post reporter involved in revealing the Watergate scandal, characterized the current political landscape of the U.S. on Sunday as being divided by conflicting facts.

He called the situation a, "cold civil war."

His comments came during an appearance on CNN's 'Reliable Sources,' and as part of a discussion about the impact of the fast-paced revelations regarding Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Bernstein described news today as a "different...universe" than what existed during the Watergate era and commented, "Part of the cold civil war itself is the configuration of media, with Fox News, with CNN being perceived by different sets of viewers as representing different truths."

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He further commented, "It's a cauldron taking place in this hothouse of political debate, in which a fact based debate is becoming impossible in this culture."

An example of the divide among news outlets is the reporting on Donald Trump Jr.'s June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer said to have damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

A CNN report Sunday on the development stressed that, "the President's son, was open to receiving information from the Russian government that could influence the election."

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Meanwhile, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro defended Trump Jr.'s decision to meet the lawyer, commenting on Saturday, "As someone who has run for office five times, if the devil called me and said he wanted to set up a meeting to give me opposition research on my opponent, I'd be on the first trolley to Hell to get it."

During a press conference on Thursday, President Trump echoed similar thoughts.

"I think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting. It's called opposition research," Trump said. "That's very standard in politics. Politics is not the nicest business in the world, but it's very standard where they have information and you take the information."