Dem Senator: Republicans Complain Privately About Trump All The Time

WASHINGTON ― Senate Republicans are privately unhappy with President Donald Trump, barely two weeks into his administration, according to a Democratic senator who said he’s heard a range of complaints.

“I’m not going to tell you any names, but I’ve heard all kinds of comments from Republican senators about the president’s ethics, the president’s leadership style, the president’s performance, the president’s incompetence, the president’s recalcitrance,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) told reporters Tuesday.

“It doesn’t manifest itself yet in anything,” he said. “Eventually it will.”

HuffPost tried to trick Brown into naming one of those senators. It did not work.

“I’ll tell you this: you’ve heard of them,” he said. “You’ve heard of every one one of them.”

The Ohio Democrat said the fact that his GOP colleagues “grumble quietly to us” is why he’s not too worried they’ll push to get rid of the Senate filibuster rule to confirm the president’s newly announced Supreme Court pick, Neil Gorsuch. The rule requires 60 votes, instead of a 51-vote majority, to advance a Supreme Court nominee.

Trump has been telling Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to go “nuclear” and nix the rule if Democrats line up in opposition to Gorsuch and block his confirmation. There are currently 52 Republicans and 48 Democrats (including two independents, who caucus with them) in the Senate, so it’s a slim margin.

“I think a lot of Republicans don’t want to do the nuclear option,” said Brown. “I’m amazed that Republicans have stuck with this guy [Trump] all along on everything.”