Oh, they knew fully. Their belief was that no one would take notice or care as the MSM didn’t say a word about this guy until he was forced to resign.
..or, through their own perspective, they saw nothing wrong with the statements until they became a liability.
Another example of the corrupt, biased, MSM carry the commies water for them. Until we eliminate this bias, democracy and freedom are dead in this country. The “progressives” are a small minority and yet they are in power today.