The Atlantic’s McKay Coppins is out with the first excerpt of his highly anticipated biography of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), timed to the 2012 GOP presidential nominee’s announcement today that he will not seek re-election.
Why it matters: Romney — the only GOP senator to vote to convict former President Trump in his first impeachment trial — was brutally honest about his Republican colleagues over the course of two years of interviews with Coppins, a fellow Utahn.
Highlights:
- On Jan. 2, 2021, Romney texted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to warn about extremist threats law enforcement had been tracking in connection with pro-Trump protests on Jan. 6. McConnell never responded.
- Romney kept a tally of the dozen-plus times that Republican senators privately expressed solidarity with his criticism of Trump. “You’re lucky,” McConnell once told him. “You can say the things that we all think.”
- Romney shared a unique disgust for Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who he thought were too smart to believe Trump won the 2020 election but “put politics above the interests of liberal democracy and the Constitution.”
- He also was highly critical of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), who reinvented his persona to become a Trump acolyte after publishing a best-selling memoir about the working class that Romney loved. “I don’t know that I can disrespect someone more than J. D. Vance,” Romney said.
Zoom in: After House impeachment managers finished a presentation about Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, McConnell told Romney: “They nailed him.”
- Taken aback, Romney said Trump would argue he was just investigating alleged corruption by the Bidens — the subject of House Republicans’ present-day impeachment inquiry.
- “If you believe that,” McConnell replied, “I’ve got a bridge I can sell you.”
The bottom line: Romney said he never felt comfortable at a Senate GOP conference lunch after voting to convict Trump in 2020. “A very large portion of my party really doesn’t believe in the Constitution,” he told Coppins a few months after Jan. 6.
As a Utah resident, I like Romney, and I’m glad to see him go. I like him because he’s the best senator we’ve had in years. He took Orrin Hatch’s position, who had been around for decades, and Mike Lee replaced Bennett, who I think is actually worse than Lee.
I’m not a fan of Romney in isolation, but given the options we tend to get, he’s pretty good by comparison.
Yup, absolutists don’t realize that, despite his shortcomings, he definitely a fairly reasonable representative given most the actual alternatives that Utah is willing to offer.
Y’all need help. Your reps are trash.
Yup, they suck. I try voting, but it really doesn’t matter when my district votes like 70-80% GOP. It’s probably a little less now because they gerrymandered SLC to avoid getting another Democrat rep after McAdams won (was a great rep too).
I respect that he realizes he’s getting to old to run again. I wish some of the other politicians, on both sides of the aisle, would agree. He’s one of the most moderate Republicans. I worry about who might replace him.
We here in Utah are going to give you a real doozy. I can guarantee that. From the state that brought you Mike Lee…
Fortunately Chaffetz and Stewart are gone, but we still have Owens and Moore (Curtis is okay imo).
I’m not sure who will run, but surely they’ll be a disappointment.
Almost guarantee it will be Sean Reyes.
Ew. Unfortunately, that’s probably pretty likely. At least we’ll get to spin the wheel and maybe get a better AG…
Oh, the irony. The ever malleable man, nay, tofu golem, Mitt Romney, panderer to the masses, who massacred “God Bless America” at the behest of insipid political strategists, who disavowed his own legislative achievements on gay marriage and universal healthcare, this, this… flip-flopper extraordinaire, populist marionette of yore… Mitt Fucking Romney finally comes clean and summons, with a final, dying determination, the strength to unmask the traitorous republican beast, the most heinous superorganism, to the extent even of dissecting its composition and naming its ugly organs. There it lies, for all to see.
Mitt Fucking Romney.
Its amazing how critical republicans are of Republicans… after they retire and remove themselves from the power structure
Fucking self serving pieces of shit.
I have glad to see him go. I will always remember him as Bain
