On Wednesday, former Fox News Military Analyst Lt. Col. Ralph Peters appeared on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.” During the segment, host Anderson Cooper asked Peters about the Trump administration, Russia, and the Constitution, and things got incredibly intense:
COOPER: Col. Peters, this so-called “Spy-Gate” conspiracy theory, it wasn’t just the president pushing the narrative, it wasn’t just his allies in Congress, it was also Fox News. They talk about a witch hunt. I know you believe the witch hunt is actually against Robert Mueller and it’s being led by Fox News.
PETERS: Yes, indeed I do. I mean, Robert Mueller is as noble – and I use that word carefully – as noble a public servant as you will find, and the assaults upon his character, upon his practices, upon his investigation just betray our fundamental principles.
COOPER: In the email that you sent your colleagues at Fox News back in March when you told them you weren’t renewing your contract, you said, and I quote, “Fox News is assaulting our constitutional order and the rule of law while fostering corrosive and unjustified paranoia among viewers.” How much damage do you believe they’ve done to this country and the institutions that uphold the law?
PETERS: Well, I think they’re doing a great deal of damage still. We won’t know how bad for years to come when we see the ultimate results. But Anderson, for years, I was glad to be associated with Fox. It was a legitimate conservative and libertarian outlet – and a necessary one. But with the rise of Donald Trump, Fox did become a destructive propaganda machine – and I don’t do propaganda for anyone.
And frankly, as a former military officer, I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and I saw, in my view, Fox – particularly the primetime hosts – attacking our constitutional order, the rule of law, the Justice Department, the FBI, Robert Mueller, and oh, by the way, the intelligence agencies. And they’re doing it for ratings and profit, and they’re doing it, knowingly in my view, doing a great, grave disservice to our country.
COOPER: Do you think, you know, some of the hosts in prime time, do you think they believe the stuff they’re saying about the deep state, what they’re saying about the Department of Justice, about the FBI?
PETERS: I suspect Sean Hannity really believes it. The others are smarter; they know what they’re doing. It’s bewildering to me. I mean, I [wanted] to just cry out and say, “How can you do this? How can you lie to our country? How can you knowingly attack our Constitution, the bedrock of our system of government, the bedrock of our country?” And when you go after the Constitution, you best beware because you are doing phenomenal, indeed immeasurable damage.
COOPER: Do you think we’re heading to a constitutional crisis?
PETERS: I think we are in a constitutional crisis right now. And we’ll end up either, barring unforeseen circumstances, either with impeachment or before the Supreme Court, or both. But when you have a president who believes he is above the law, who does not understand our system of government, does not respect our system of government, and willingly subverts our system of government, you’ve got a constitutional crisis.
I mean, Anderson, when the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence wrote that “all men are created equal,” they knew that we’re not all born with the same good looks or the same intelligence, or even the same privileges, the same strength and talents, they meant – they were sons of the enlightenment – they meant we are all equal before the law. No man is above it; no man falls below it.
Our president seems to genuinely believe that he is above the law, and this is a situation we haven’t been faced with before [with] this administration. Even Senator Joseph McCarthy in his witch hunt days never directly attacked the Constitution. This is utterly unprecedented.
COOPER: You referred to it as sort of a cult of Trump.
PETERS: Yeah, I think a lot of Trump supporters are so embarrassed by how it’s all turned out that they just cling to him – they won’t let any facts penetrate their reality. I’ve been startled by relatively well-educated people, and some military veterans, who still insist that Trump can do no wrong; that he’s some sort of messiah. And I’m afraid I part company with their views.
COOPER: You actually trained in Russian studies, the Russian language; you have first hand experience with how Russian intelligence operates. Do you believe that Vladimir Putin has some kind of grip on President Trump?
PETERS: I am convinced that Vladimir Putin has a grip on President Trump. And Anderson, when I first learned of the Steele dossier, it just rang true to me because that’s how the Russians do things. And before he became a candidate for president, Donald Trump was the perfect target for Russian intelligence. Here’s someone who has no self-control, a sense of sexual entitlement, and intermittent financial crises. I mean, that’s made to order for seduction by Russian intelligence. And look, I may be wrong – I hope I’m wrong. I hope Putin doesn’t have a grip on him, but the dossier rings true.
I think in the future, we’re going to look back on the much-maligned Christopher Steele, who took that dossier to the FBI, as something of a hero.
And again, I hope I am wrong, but when you look at Trump’s behavior patterns, his unwillingness ever to criticize Vladimir Putin, his slow-rolling sanctions, his unwillingness to create problems with Russia even as he attacks NATO, disrupts relations with the EU – how can you not draw the conclusions that Donald Trump, the President of the United States, is frightened of Vladimir Putin and his grip?
COOPER: So for you, the Mueller investigation is critical? It moving forward; it being allowed time to complete?
PETERS: Without exaggeration, the Mueller investigation is the most important of my lifetime, and I am 66 years old. I lived through Watergate. I can’t – Anderson, it’s about a fundamental assault on the Constitution by the President of the United States and his paladins. It cannot get graver short of a World War.