Aftermath: Republicans Launch Attack On Principled Colleague For His Principled Stand
[guest post by Dana]
In a follow-up to Mitt Romney’s impeachment vote, it’s interesting to see the Trump loyalists go after him. Instead of lauding one of their own for standing on his principles and voting his conscience, especially knowing the fallout would be hard and swift, Romney has not just been attacked by Trump, which we expected, he is also being attacked by fellow Republicans who clearly want to stay in the good graces of their boss:
A state representative called Thursday for U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney to be censured for his vote to convict President Donald Trump for abuse of power, the same day Romney came to Utah’s Capitol to meet privately with Republicans leaders of the Legislature to explain his action.
The censure resolution pairs with a bill filed last week that would give Utah voters the ability to recall their U.S. senators that is attracting even more attention now that Romney broke with his party. Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, also filed a resolution “paying tribute” to Trump.
[…]
The sponsor of the censure resolution, Rep. Phil Lyman, R-Blanding, said he didn’t want Utah’s relationship with Trump to be “damaged by the actions of Sen. Romney.” …
“I wanted to send a message that Utah supports President Trump,” Lyman said. “I didn’t want that message to be lost.”
According to the report, the GOP state Senate was not interested in pursing the resolution, but would rather move on from the impeachment.
Also, Rep. Matt Gaetz, bootlicker from Florida, has called for Romney to be expelled from the Senate Republican caucus:
“If I were [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell I would expel Mitt Romney from the Republican caucus,” Gaetz said in an interview on Fox News’ Lou Dobbs Tonight. “He is not acting like a Republican. He has shown no interest in working with this administration, or with Republicans who are eager to seize the opportunity of the Trump presidency.”
“Frankly, I don’t know what the difference is between Mitt Romney and a Democrat at this point,” Gaetz continued.
And here are some more jabs coming from Republicans:
Florida Senator Rick Scott tweeted that his colleague “is wrong”. “His decision to buy into [Democratic Congressman] Adam Schiff’s partisan charade is disappointing. And he will ultimately be judged by the voters of Utah.”
Florida Republican Congressmen Matt Gaetz of Florida and Lee Zeldin of New York both called Mr Romney a “sore loser”.
“Mitt Romney absolutely despises that Donald Trump was elected POTUS & he was not,” tweeted Mr Zeldin.
“The sore loser mentality launched this sham impeachment & corruptly rigged & jammed it through the House. It looks like Schiff recruited himself a sore loser buddy on the GOP side to play along.”
Sam Nunberg, a former adviser to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, rhetorically asked if Mr Romney was “making a last ditch effort to become” the Democratic 2020 nominee.
Anyway, Romney was prepared for the fallout:
Speaking with The New York Times podcast “The Daily,” Romney said he expects “unimaginable” consequences for his vote, adding that he does not yet know what they will be.
“My personal and political and team affiliation made me very much not want to convict,” he said. “I mean, I want to be with my colleagues in the Senate. I don’t want to be the skunk at the garden party. I don’t want to have the disdain of Republicans across the country.”
I was unsurprised that two-faced Democratic leaders would do a quick turn-around and sing Romney’s praises after the vote – a politican they happily smeared to win an election. It would have been a shock to see Republicans attack Romney for choosing fidelity to his conscience over loyalty to Trump and the Party, if I didn’t already understand that Republican talk about values, principles, and foundational beliefs doesn’t amount to a hill of beans these days. But then you already knew that, too.
By doing the right thing, @MittRomney made thousands of new enemies yesterday. Help us thank him for standing up for the rule of law.https://t.co/Ppoa9Op2m2 pic.twitter.com/u1J43dvb9q
— Republicans for the Rule of Law (@ForTheRuleOfLaw) February 6, 2020
–Dana