Watergate journo Bernstein says ‘craven public silence’ of Cornyn and other GOPers enabled Trump
- Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons
- Cornyn speaks during a past appearance at the conservative CPAC conference.
In a tweet, Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein publicly named 21 Republican senators he says have “repeatedly expressed extreme contempt for [Donald] Trump and his fitness” to be president.
Citing information from “colleagues, staff members, lobbyists [and] White House aides,” the veteran journalist named Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and 20 others, who have either been largely silent as Trump has run roughshod over democratic norms or only offered muted public criticism of his behavior.
In addition to Cornyn, Bernstein listed the following senators:
Rick Scott and Marco Rubio (Florida), Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Rob Portman (Ohio), Lamar Alexander (Tennessee), Ben Sasse (Nebraska), Roy Blunt (Missouri), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), John Thune (South Dakota), Mitt Romney (Utah), Mike Braun and Todd Young (Indiana), Tim Scott (South Carolina), Richard Burr (North Carolina), Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania), Martha McSally (Arizona), Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts (Kansas), and Richard Shelby (Alabama).
“With few exceptions, their craven public silence has helped enable Trump’s most grievous conduct — including undermining and discrediting the US the electoral system,” Bernstein tweeted.
The 21 GOP Senators who have privately expressed their disdain for Trump are: Portman, Alexander, Sasse, Blunt, Collins, Murkowski, Cornyn, Thune, Romney, Braun, Young, Tim Scott, Rick Scott, Rubio, Grassley, Burr, Toomey, McSally, Moran, Roberts, Shelby. (2/3)
— Carl Bernstein (@carlbernstein) November 23, 2020
Cornyn has largely avoided any public criticism of Trump, only stating during his own heated reelection battle that he’d chosen to confront the president in private when he had concerns.
Since the November election, whose results Trump has sought to overturn, Cornyn has only offered tempered criticism of the outgoing commander in chief. Last week, he told reporters he wasn’t yet ready to call Democrat Joe Biden the president-elect.
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