late in the campaign, bryan was hurt by his ties with democratic national committee treasurer and oklahoma governor charles haskell. william randolph hearst revealed that both haskell and ohio republican u.s. senator joseph foraker accepting bribes in an attempt to stop the antitrust suit against the standard oil company. while taft quickly cut off all of his ties with senator foraker, bryan refused to do the same with governor haskell due to his refusal to believe the charges against haskell. in response, outgoing u.s. president roosevelt called bryan's association with and support of haskell a "scandal and disgrace."