CNN host Fareed Zakaria lamented on Sunday that the U.S. Congress could no longer be considered a check on the power of President Donald Trump because the controlling party had become a platform that caters to the whims of the president and his family.
"Donald Trump in much of his rhetoric and many of his actions poses a danger to American democracy," Zakaria explained. "American democracy has a series of checks intended to prevent the accumulation and abuse of power by any one person or group."
"But there is one gaping hole in the system: the president," he continued. "The president in effect sits above the law. The Justice Department works for him."
According to the CNN host, Congress' power of impeachment is the only "real check" on the president.
"Since Trump's own party controls both chambers of Congress, there has been little resistance to him there," he noted. "It appears the Republican Party is losing any resemblance to a traditional western political party. Instead, turning into something more commonly found in the developing world: a platform to support the ego, appetites and interests of one man and his family."
Zakaria pointed out that the courts and the media provide limited limited checks on the presidency, but Trump "has relentlessly attacked both."
"The media must cover the administration's policies fairly but it also must never let the public forget that many of the attitudes and actions of this president are gross violations of the customs and practices of the modern American system," Zakaria insisted. "They are aberrations and they cannot become the new norms. That way, after Trump, the country will not start the next presidency with tattered standards and sunken expectations."
