Legendary reporter Carl Bernstein this week threw down the gauntlet at Republican senators who secretly despise President Donald Trump, even as they publicly remain silent about his attacks on American democracy.

Writing on Twitter late Sunday night, Bernstein revealed that nearly two dozen GOP senators regard Trump with “extreme contempt,” even though most of them would never dare say so publicly.

“I’m not violating any pledge of journalistic confidentially in reporting this: 21 Republican senators — in convos with colleagues, staff members, lobbyists, White House aides — have repeatedly expressed extreme contempt for Trump & his fitness to be POTUS,” Bernstein wrote.

He then got right down to naming and shaming.

“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,” he revealed. “With few exceptions, their craven public silence has helped enable Trump’s most grievous conduct — including undermining and discrediting the US the electoral system.”

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

The entire Buffalo Police Department Emergency Response Team — a total of 57 officers — has resigned from the team in support of the two officers who pushed 75-year-old Martin Gugino to the ground, seriously injuring him.

They are still employed, but no longer on ERT.

According to Buffalo Police Benevolent Association president John Evans, the cops who pushed Gugino down were just following orders.

“Fifty-seven resigned in disgust because of the treatment of two of their members, who were simply executing orders,” Evans, said in a statement.

This is a developing story. Check WIVB4 for updates.

At the close of his Wednesday evening show, MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell played clips from the 2012 Republican Party convention where everyone from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and others celebrated Mitt Romney. After Romney refused to vote for acquit President Donald Trump, he’s become a pariah.

Former Republican Rick Wilson explained that this was the example of the way that Trump has become a parasite that isn’t just leaching it away, “it ate the Republican Party from the inside out. And the shell that still remains, everything has to be years here, it has to be reset because it’s all about Donald now.”

He explained that there are now two groups of Republican senators: the “coward caucus” who privately rails against Trump and hate him. Then there are the “Trumpers” who think they can parlay Trump’s support into their own presidency someday.

O’Donnell noted that if the GOP collapses after Trump, it could mean Romney rises from the ashes.

“Well, if it collapses after Trump — they’ve lost 650 seats across the country since Donald Trump took office at various levels of government,” said Wilson. “So the collapse is underway, and you know, I think there will be principled Republicans at the end of the day, there won’t be a lot. I joke sometimes you could sit us around a Waffle House table. But people today watched Mitt Romney display political courage.”

Wilson said that Romney and Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) displayed huge political courage. Jones is up for reelection after winning Jeff Sessions’ Senate seat when Trump appointed him to the Justice Department. Trump then fired Sessions and spent the better part of a year attacking him. Now Sessions is trying to get his seat back.

“It’s so dangerous to the Trump people that instead of taking their victory lap today, what have they done? The line-up on that other network tonight was basically about ‘they hate Mitt Romney,’” Wilson continued. “It was the screaming fest about ‘Romney, the traitor,’ and all this. It really tells you what happens when these Republicans hear a message like that. They feel pain. It’s their souls trying to re-enter their bodies. But it’s this physical sense of anxiety they get from someone opposing Trump.”

Watch the full commentary below: