Free Republic

Sen. Mitt Romney says if Congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden are set on passing a $3.5 trillion spending bill without a single Republican vote, then Democrats should be responsible for raising the nation’s debt limit. “Right now it’s my colleagues across the aisle who are raising the spending. They should be the ones who raise the debt ceiling,” Romney said during a wide-ranging visit with The Tribune’s editorial board. The fight over the debt limit is a high-stakes game of “chicken” playing out in Congress, where Democrats have very slim majorities in both the House and Senate. The debt...

Sen. Mitt Romney predicted President Trump will be reelected this fall despite breaking with the president several times during his first term in office. “I'm confident that we will keep the majority in the Senate," Romney said Wednesday, according to Politico reporter Jake Sherman. "And I actually have long predicted the president will be reelected ⁠— I continue to think that's the case.” Romney, who ran for president and lost in 2012, has been one of the few Republican senators to criticize Trump for his public remarks, tweets, or policies.

Inside the Mansfield Room at the Capitol, where Senate Republicans have held daily strategy sessions during President Trump’s impeachment trial, senators began walking through their arguments on why they should block witnesses from testifying in the proceedings. But at this lunch on Thursday, Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) was getting visibly annoyed. If this is meant to persuade me, Romney told his colleagues, it’s not helpful, according to two officials with knowledge of the exchange. The senator, a near-lone GOP voice in seeking witnesses for the trial, felt as if other Republicans were singling him out.... Trump’s acquittal was never in...

The conservative Club for Growth is going after Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) in a new television ad, accusing the first-term senator and former GOP presidential candidate of siding with Democrats in President Trump’s impeachment proceedings. “There’s Mitt Romney threatening to vote with Democrats again to trot out spotlight-seeking blowhards who will trash President Trump on the witness stand,” a narrator says in the 30-second spot, which is set to begin airing on Fox News on Thursday in Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C.

Shortly before Tuesday's trial session got underway, Sen. Mitt Romney (R., Utah) got busted by the Senate floor staff for bringing a bottle of chocolate milk into the chamber. Mr. Romney retreated to the Republican cloakroom after the staff member appeared gently to chide him. Politico has identified chocolate milk as Mr. Romney's vice. The brand he brought to the Senate floor on Tuesday was from Mr. Romney's alma mater, Brigham Young University, according to an aide.

Both in front of the cameras and behind closed doors, Republican Sen. Mitt Romney (UT) has embraced the role of leader of the Senate resistance to the party line on impeachment witnesses — and some of his colleagues are making brutally clear how they feel about it. In a private lunch with fellow Senate Republicans Monday, the frequent critic of President Trump reportedly “made a strong pitch” for calling additional witnesses for the Senate trial, according to Politico’s sources. In addition to trying to convince fellow Republicans to defect behind the scenes, Romney is going public with his plea. “The...

Equally predictable have been the reactions by the three most likely RINO Usual Suspects, Mitt Romney, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. Romney, who has been actively looking for any pretense to side with his Democrat pals, jumped almost immediately, telling a CNN reporter early Monday morning this: “I can’t begin to tell you how John Bolton’s testimony would ultimately play on a final decision but it’s relevant and therefore I’d like to hear it.” Ok, yeah, sure, uh-huh. Romney, by the way, refused to say whether or not he would also support calling witnesses the Trump defense would like to...

Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) on Monday lashed out at fellow GOP Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) over his apparent openness to call witnesses as part of President Trump's impeachment trial. Loeffler — who was just sworn into the Senate earlier this month after being appointed to succeed Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who was popular among members on both sides of the aisle — tweeted that it was "time to move on" from the impeachment effort. "Sadly, my colleague [Romney] wants to appease the left by calling witnesses who will slander the @realDonaldTrump during their 15 minutes of fame. The circus is...

Sen. Mitt Romney said Saturday that it's "very likely" that he'll be in favor of calling witnesses in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, but won't decide until after opening arguments. "I think it's very likely I'll be in favor of witnesses, but I haven't made a decision finally yet and I won't until the testimony is completed," the Utah Republican said, following the first day of the Trump team's opening arguments. Asked if he thought the defense team was effective, Romney replied, "I just don't have any comments on the process or the evidence until the trial is...

President Trump’s Senate trial may have witnesses after all. Sen. Susan Collins on Friday confirmed she is working with a “fairly small group” of fellow Republican senators to ensure witnesses can be called. “We should be completely open to calling witnesses,” Collins (R-Maine) said Friday, the Bangor Daily News reported. “I am hopeful that we can reach an agreement on how to proceed with the trial that will allow the opportunity for both the House and the president’s counsel if they choose to do so.” Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has also had recent conversations with the Senate’s minority Democratic leadership, one...

Mitt Romney caught the notice of many folks in Washington when he signed onto a bill with his Democratic Senate colleague, Michael Bennet. Bennet is a serious lawmaker, and we’ve found some of his proposals appealing in the past, such as a lifetime ban on lobbying by former congressmen. Romney has a long history of bipartisanship, too. He was, after all, the governor of Massachusetts. But the latest Bennet-Romney proposal was startling because it represented almost a full reversal of where Romney stood in 2012, when he was the Republican nominee for president. Romney famously disparaged (or at least, that's...

Who might deliver us from this national train wreck? Who could restore a sense of balance to the Senate trial so that, whatever its outcome, it doesn’t feed Trump’s false narrative of victimization and populist rage? There’s one obvious answer: Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and custodian of what remains of his party’s moral and political balance. History is knocking on Romney’s door. This is his moment to step away from a president who holds him in contempt and to speak for principle — by insisting that the Senate conduct an actual trial and weigh...

While speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) reacted to calls to reveal the whistleblower’s identity by stating that whistleblowers, especially those speaking about government action, “should be allowed to remain confidential.” Romney said, “My own view is that whistleblowers, particularly those that are blowing whistles on action within the government, should be allowed to remain confidential.”

The newly rebellious senator has become an outspoken dissident in Trump’s Republican Party, just in time for the president’s impeachment trial..... Mitt Romney is leaning forward in his chair, his eyes flashing, his voice sharp. It’s a strange look for the 72-year-old senator, who typically affects a measured, somber tone when discussing Donald Trump’s various moral deficiencies. But after weeks of escalating combat with the president—over Ukraine, and China, and Syria, and impeachment—the gentleman from Utah suddenly appears ready to unload.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) ripped the administration over the recently announced cease-fire in Syria, calling President Trump's decision to withdraw troops "a bloodstain in the annals of American history." "The announcement today is being portrayed as a victory. It is far from a victory. Serious questions remain about how the decision was reached precipitously to withdraw from Syria and why that decision was reached," Romney said. Romney's Senate floor speech came after Vice President Pence announced a five-day cease-fire. Under the agreement Pence said Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan agreed to halt TurkeyÂ’s offensive in Syria for 120 hours in...

Sen. Mitt Romney on Thursday criticized President Trump’s deal with Turkey for a five-day cease-fire in its conflict with the Kurds in Syria. “The announcement today is being portrayed as a victory. It is far from a victory. Serious questions remain about how the decision was reached precipitously to withdraw from Syria and why that decision was reached,” the Utah Republican said on the floor of the Senate. “Given the initial details of the cease-fire agreement, the administration must also explain what America’s future role will be in the region. What happens now to the Kurds and why Turkey will...

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) confirmed Thursday that he will not mount a primary challenge to President Donald Trump, stating that the president will be the Republican presidential nominee and likely win re-election in 2020. Romney, a frequent critic of President Trump, made the remarks while hosting a roundtable discussion on anti-vaping policy at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. Three Republican challengers have launched longshot primary bids against President Donald Trump — former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, former Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC), and former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) — However, several GOP state parties have already canceled...

Mitt Romney — not for the first time — has reversed field when it comes to Donald Trump. This time, his change of heart is a good thing. The former Massachusetts governor, now a first-term US senator from Utah, has emerged as the most prominent Congressional Republican to question Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, implicitly supporting an impeachment inquiry. Being Mitt, his comments have been carefully calibrated: he is “deeply troubled” rather than outraged; he has called on other members of his party to “search their hearts and do what’s right” rather than supporting a particular course of action. But even...

On her MSNBC show, Friday, Nicolle Wallace, after boasting, "I've spent my career studying public opinion," said that independent/swing voters will be "a whole lot more likely" to believe what Nancy Pelosi says about impeachment when they hear Mitt Romney saying the same thing.

Well, this is certainly an odd coincidence! In fact, when you dig in, you find an amazing series of coincidences. If you believe in coincidences when the CIA is involved, that is. Mitt Romney’s national security advisor in his 2012 campaign -- a career CIA spook who rose to its top levels -- sits on the board of directors of Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company that formerly paid Hunter Biden $50k a month despite his complete lack of credentials or qualifications. And it also an odd coincidence that Mitt has as CNN puts it “been a lone Republican voice expressing...