Bennett says anti-government sentiment as a whole is what cost him his job

Broad anti-government sentiment cost Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) his job, the Utah Republican said today.

Bennett lost a convention-based primary last weekend, placing third in a three-way primary.

Speaking to CNN this morning, Bennett said anger at the federal government is so overwhelming that it’s harming all incumbents regardless of party.

“People do not differentiate between their representative in Congress and, quote, ‘the federal government,'” he said.

“It isn’t just the Congress they’re mad at. It’s ‘the federal government,'” he said. “And ‘the federal government’ is seen as this overpowering entity, accountable to no one, completely out of control, that somehow we have to fight against, and the best way we can fight against it is remove everybody who’s connected with it, regardless, conservative, liberal, black, white, male, female — it doesn’t matter; get rid of them all.”

Bennett, however, said he would have kept his seat had he been able to run in a regular statewide primary rather than facing the anger of convention delegates.

“I could have won the primary. I could have won the primary very handily,” he said. “I very clearly did not even come close in the convention. And there have been studies being — there are studies being made to how different the convention delegates are from the primary voters as a whole.”