US election: Watergate journalist exposes 21 Republicans who shared Donald Trump’s ‘disdain’

Republican U.S. senators have been reported for privately expressing disdain for President Donald Trump while publicly supporting him.

Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein, who has been a consistent and energetic critic of Trump, released today a list of 21 senators who he said had “repeatedly expressed extreme contempt” for the president.

Bernstein based his reports on conversations with colleagues and employees of senators, lobbyists in Congress and aides in the White House.

Two of the people on the list, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney and Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, have also frequently denounced Trump in public.

A couple more, Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, have occasionally voiced their disapproval without falling into full-blown criticism.

The rest have maintained their public support for Trump throughout his presidency. Many of them have refused to recognize Joe Biden as president-elect since the election, for fear of contradicting the president’s unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud.

Several of Bernstein’s appointed senators responded by fighting to reiterate their loyalty to Trump.

“Since the day I stood by President Trump’s side when he was sworn in, he and I have had a good relationship,” Roy Blunt of Missouri told the Washington Examiner.

“This is absolutely false. The senator has never spoken to Mr. Bernstein and we do not know where he is getting his false information from,” said a spokeswoman for Rob Portman of Ohio.

“The senator supported the reelection of President Trump and believes his policies are better for Ohio and for the entire country.”

“Mr. Bernstein’s sources are clearly not what they used to be,” joked a spokesman for Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, currently the longest serving member of the Senate.

“This is simply not true. Grassley has been a strong supporter of the president and, at the same time, has made no secret of when he disagrees with the president. There is no difference between what you say in public and in private.

“Washington journalists may be wise to reconsider the trafficking of unfounded second and third hand rumors. It may restore some lost credibility.”

A spokesman for Todd Young of Indiana said the “rumors without origin” did not deserve a response and that he had a “great working relationship” with the president.

“This is more fake news from a CNN political analyst, as I was one of President Trump’s main advocates during the impeachment trial and I strongly support his legal efforts to ensure that all legal votes are counted,” he told Mediaite Young’s colleague from Indiana, Mike Braun.

Today’s Bernstein online post followed a fierce appearance on CNN’s New Day morning show. He was scathing with Trump, whom he called a “mad king,” and framed his legal efforts to overturn the election result as an attempt to undermine American democracy.

“We are witnessing the mad king, in the last days of his reign, ready to burn the land of his country and bring down the entire system. To undermine our democracy, strip it of its legitimacy, poison the confidence of our people in our institutions and the Constitution, for the petulant, selfish and rabid ends of Donald Trump, “said Bernstein.

“We have a president of the United States, for the first time in our history, sabotaging his country. That is where we are. And will these Republicans continue to allow it another day?

“Because every day, it seems more and more that our system cannot handle – was not designed to handle – an aberrant mad king like Donald Trump.”

At that point, he returned to his list and proceeded to name names in the air.

“Let me name, say, 15 or more Republican senators. And what I am doing is not violating a journalistic principle, because they have told me what I am going to say,” he said.

“For two or three years, I’ve talked to senators’ staff, committee members, staff, aides, aides, people who have worked for these people. Let’s look at 15 of these Republican senators who really despise and even despise Donald Trump, or they have told each other.

“Many, if not most of these individuals, from what I have been told, were happy to see Donald Trump defeated in this election, as long as the Senate could be controlled by the Republicans.

“They have experienced Donald Trump, and his dishonesty and his pathological lie, and they know what Donald Trump has done to undermine trust in our institutions. They have lived through the pandemic while his homicidal negligence is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people. Thousands of Americans. They know what’s going on. “