Ex-GOP Lawmaker Says His Former Colleagues In The Senate Are ‘Disgusted And Exhausted’ By Donald Trump
Former Republican Representative Charlie Dent says that he has spoken to several of his former colleagues in the House and they have expressed frustration and discontent over President Donald Trump’s continued behavior, despite a relatively united public front among GOP lawmakers.
According to Mediaite, Dent, who left his office in 2017, said that “there’s no question, having spoken to many of them privately, they’re absolutely disgusted and exhausted by the president’s behavior. They resent being put in this position all the time.”
As an example, Dent pointed to Trump’s announcement that he was hosting the G7 summit at one of his Florida resorts, resulting in a public outcry that ultimately forced the president to cancel his plans. The former Representative said that these types of mistakes are “infuriating” to many House GOP lawmakers.
It’s not the first time that insiders have suggested that, behind closed doors, Republicans are less supportive of the president than they appear to be.
In October, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough spoke with commentator Mike Barnicle, who said that Trump would be impeached and removed from office right away if the vote to remove him was held in secret, according to a previous report from The Hill.
“We all know that privately in the cloakroom they speak very disparagingly of him,” Barnicle said.
Scarborough suggested that he believed the president would be voted out 90-10 if the ballot were anonymous, and said that most conservatives want Trump out of the office and Mike Pence in.
Dent, moderate member of the party who has been critical of Trump for a long time, was asked to weigh in on the impeachment proceedings and to say whether or not he thinks the president should be removed from office for his role in the alleged attempt to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden in order to help his 2020 re-election bid.
“Based on the facts as I understand them now, I do think this rises to the level of impeachment, I would probably support it,” Dent said.
Still, Dent said that he believes lawmakers in the House should wait until they hear from all the witnesses, including John Bolton, before deciding whether or not to impeach Trump.
When asked why these Republicans who are concerned about Trump’s behavior don’t speak up, Dent said that they are concerned about upsetting the conservative voting base, a majority of which don’t support impeachment.
“I would argue to many of them your legacy is more important than the next election,” he said.
