Democratic senator claims many of his Republican peers secretly support Hillary Clinton

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images))

published 26 August 2016

Though they may not admit it, Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) told BuzzFeed News that his Republican colleagues are actually pretty fond of Hillary Clinton. "From a Senate perspective, in a secret ballot, Hillary gets a lot of votes out of the Republican caucus," Whitehouse said. "Potentially she even commands a majority of the Republican caucus in a secret ballot because people really do respect her."

Whitehouse said he remembers one instance in particular, when his Republican peers were especially impressed with how Clinton handled a "highly classified matter." "Two of them, her very prominent antagonists in this election, and one looked over at the other and said, 'Boy, she's good.' The other one leaned back and said, 'Yeah, she's really good,'" Whitehouse said. "And that's the Hillary that they know. Not the talking points Hillary or the caricature, but the real person."