Cornyn disputes assertion he scorns Trump
Sen. John Cornyn is among 21 Republican senators who have privately “expressed extreme contempt” for President Donald Trump while publicly avoiding outright criticism of the president, according to veteran journalist Carl Bernstein.
In Sunday tweets and an appearance Friday on CNN, Bernstein said the GOP senators he named have challenged Trump’s fitness for office behind closed doors.
“With few exceptions, their craven public silence has helped enable Trump’s most grievous conduct — including undermining and discrediting the US electoral system,” Bernstein wrote.
A Cornyn spokesman said Bernstein’s allegation was false.
“Carl Bernstein has not spoken with anyone in our office and has no clue what he’s talking about,” said spokesman Drew Brandewie. “It’s irresponsible and disappointing the Express-News chose to blindly run this without even
verifying whether it was true.”
A spokeswoman for Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican who also was among the 21 senators identified by Bernstein, called the report “absolutely false” and said: “The senator has never talked to Mr. Bernstein.”
Florida Sen. Rick Scott, through a spokesman, called the report “dumb” and said Bernstein “has no idea what he’s talking about.”
Bernstein is the former Washington Post investigative reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for reporting on the Watergate scandal with then-colleague Bob Woodward.
He made his assertion about the senators in tweets and in an interview with CNN, where he is an on-air political analyst. Bernstein did not say he had spoken directly to any of the senators he listed. He said he based his report on conversations over the last two to three years with other senators, Senate staff members, lobbyists and White House aides.
In his Friday interview with CNN, he referred to 15 senators. The tweets used the number 21.
In recent months, Cornyn has cautiously backed away from endorsing some of Trump’s claims, including those downplaying the severity of the coronavirus pandemic. In comments to Hearst Newspapers in October, Cornyn said Trump’s rhetoric had created confusion as the country deals with swelling case numbers.
Still, Cornyn has been reluctant to denounce Trump’s unfounded allegations that massive voter fraud swung the Nov. 3 election to former Vice President Joe Biden, though Cornyn indicated he expects to see Biden in office come January.
“It will probably be Joe Biden,” Cornyn told reporters last week. “I haven’t seen anything that would change the outcome.”
Trump has repeatedly refused to accept the results of the election, has pressured election officials in Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania not to certify Biden’s victories in those states and has appealed to Republican legislators to disregard the verdict of the voters and approve substitute slates of pro-Trump electors.
From early on, two GOP senators, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah and Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, have publicly opposed the president’s tactics.
Cornyn, meanwhile, has largely skirted the issue of election integrity, though he seemed to signal his support for a peaceful transition of power.
“I agree briefings should occur,” he wrote before pointing out that Sen. Kamala Harris, the vice president-elect, is a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and had access to classified briefings.
Cornyn was responding to comments on ABC News from Ron Klain, Biden’s incoming chief of staff, who said Biden’s team has not received important intelligence briefings.