Legendary Watergate reporter names names: These 21 GOP senators ‘despise’ Trump — but won’t say so publicly

Although some Republican senators are making no secret of the fact that Joe Biden is the president-elect — including Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine — many others are afraid to publicly acknowledge Biden's decisive victory in the 2020 presidential election. But the fact that a GOP senator is afraid to criticize President Donald Trump publicly doesn't necessarily mean that they aren't doing it behind closed doors, and veteran journalist Carl Stein is aggressively calling them out for it on Twitter.

Bernstein, now 76, is famous for his historic reporting on the Watergate scandal with fellow journalist Bob Woodward at the Washington Post during the 1970s — and Bernstein has stressed, on many occasions, that he considers Trump much more dangerous than President Richard Nixon. In a scathing Twitter thread posted on November 22, Bernstein lists "21 GOP senators who have privately expressed their disdain for Trump." And he goes on to say, "With few exceptions, their craven public silence has helped enable Trump's most grievous conduct—including undermining and discrediting the US electoral system."

The Republicans senators Bernstein lists include, among others, Arizona's Martha McSally (who was voted out of office this year), Florida's Rick Scott, Iowa's Chuck Grassley, Tennessee's Lamar Alexander, Florida's Marco Rubio, North Carolina's Richard Burr, Texas' John Cornyn and Ohio's Rob Portman.

Bernstein didn't hold back during an appearance on CNN's "New Day" on November 22, telling hosts Alisyn Camerota and John Berman, "We are witnessing the mad king in the final days of his reign, willing to scorch the earth in his country and bring down the whole system to undermine our whole democracy, strip it of its legitimacy, (and) poison the confidence of our people in its institutions for Donald Trump's own petulant, rabid, selfish ends."

Trump, Bernstein added, is making it abundantly clear that he doesn't respect democratic norms — and too many Republicans are afraid to call him out. Berman cited Romney and Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska as two GOP senators who are willing to speak out but joined Bernstein in lamenting that so many others are not.

Bernstein responded that many Republican senators "really disdain and even despise Donald Trump" and were "happy to see Donald Trump defeated in this election" but won't say so publicly.

"We're going to have to live with the legacy of this sabotage by the president," Bernstein warned.

Watch the video below:

Carl Bernstein - CNN's New Day With Alisyn Camerota and John Berman - November 20, 2020youtu.be