Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 192
November Surprises
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is defending Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-UT) vote to convict former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial. Although Lee disagrees with Romney’s conclusion, he does not see it as a “cause for alarm,” the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Said Lee: “Although Senator Romney and I usually vote together — and with a majority of Senate Republicans, we voted differently. It shows neither one of us blindly defers to anyone.”
After Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) rebuked President Trump for not conceding the presidential election, actor Scott Baio threatened to challenge Romney for U.S. Senate in 2024, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
“A sleepy Utah Senate race was always a small playing field for a former presidential nominee. Now, Mitt Romney is going national again,” Politico reports.
“After spending most of the past year quietly tending to his own race, Romney is using his formidable national profile and expansive political network to elect embattled Republicans across the country. Weeks before his virtually assured election to the Senate, the 2012 Republican standard bearer is issuing endorsements, appearing in TV ads, and fundraising for hopefuls up and down the ballot.”
Amber Phillips: “During the 2016 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney was one of the leading voices encouraging his party to pick someone — anyone — but President Trump. Romney was very clear, and very public, about how he felt about Trump.”
“So it’s disingenuous for Romney to try to claim, as he did Friday, that he wasn’t a leader of the ‘Never Trump’ movement.”
“But the fact that Romney is trying to distance himself from himself underscores how even one of the president’s former top critics has come to accept that the Republican Party is Trump’s party. And that means as Romney cruises to become the possible next senator from Utah, we shouldn’t expect him to become Trump’s next Republican antagonist in Congress.”
A new UtahPolicy.com poll shows Mitt Romney (R) has a huge lead over Jenny Wilson (D) for U.S. Senate, 55% to 29%.
Mitt Romney, writing in the Salt Lake Tribune:
“I have and will continue to speak out when the president says or does something which is divisive, racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, dishonest or destructive to democratic institutions. I do not make this a daily commentary; I express contrary views only when I believe it is a matter of substantial significance.”
“Mitt Romney is mapping out plans to become a major player in the Senate — positioning himself to be the spokesman of a listless Republican Party establishment that’s been steamrolled by President Trump,” Politico reports.
“The failed presidential candidate turned Utah Senate hopeful has made it clear to senior party officials that he intends to make a splash with his all-but-certain arrival on Capitol Hill next year… He’s conveyed a desire to be a loud voice on fiscal issues, railing against the ballooning federal deficit and how Congress approves last-minute spending bills. He’s expressed an interest in joining the foreign affairs committee, saying he wants to speak out on the importance of the country’s role abroad and the threat posed by Russia.”
“And his top aides have broached the prospect that Romney could tap into the expansive national fundraising network that he established during his 2012 presidential bid to bankroll GOP candidates.”
Mitt Romney told the Deseret News that he wrote in his wife, Ann Romney, as his vote for president in 2016.
Said Romney: “I wrote in the name of a person who I admire deeply, who I think would be an excellent president. I realized it wasn’t going to go anywhere, but nonetheless felt that I was putting in a very solid name.”
A new UtahPolicy.com poll finds Mitt Romney (R) leading Mike Kennedy (R) in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, 67% to 24%.
“My favorite meat is hot dog, by the way. That is my favorite meat. My second favorite meat is hamburger. And, everyone says, oh, don’t you prefer steak? It’s like, I know steaks are great, but I like hot dog best, and I like hamburger next best.”
— Utah U.S. Senate candidate Mitt Romney (R), quoted by the Washington Examiner.
“I’m not in this race because I have some political career I’m trying to foster.”
— Mitt Romney, quoted by the Washington Examiner, as he embarks on his 5th political race since 1994.
Salt Lake Tribune: “After 11 hours of political elbowing and shoving at the Utah Republican Convention — held appropriately at a hockey arena — delegates forced Mitt Romney into a primary election against state Rep. Mike Kennedy in the U.S. Senate race.”
“In fact, Kennedy — a doctor and lawyer — finished in first place at the convention with 51 percent of the vote to Romney’s 49 percent. The former GOP presidential nominee fell far short of the 60 percent needed to clinch the nomination outright.”
U.S. Senate candidate Mitt Romney (R) sees President Trump’s proposed $100 billion in new tariffs on China as a shot across the bow but doesn’t think it would lead to trade war, the Deseret News reports.
Said Romney: “I think the president is leading with some policies that will wake up our friends in China and they’ll recognize that business as usual is going to have to change. China over the years has taken advantage of the attitude in America, which is we haven’t watched very closely and they’ve been cheating.”
Retiring Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) told Roll Call that the Senate needs someone like Mitt Romney to be an “independent voice.”
Said Flake: “We need Mitt Romney in the Senate. We need an independent voice, somebody who will enter the Senate chamber with immediate gravitas and someone who can work across the aisle, and actually, I think, create a whole new power center in the Senate. I think that’s desperately needed.”
UtahPolicy.com: “You may have thought the internal workings of the Utah Republican Party were really screwed up before.”
“But now get this: If former U.S. GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney continues gathering signatures as part of his U.S. Senate run this year, he may well be kicked out of the Utah Republican Party via a bylaw change adopted Saturday over the objections of party chairman Rob Anderson.”
“Romney has already announced that he’s taking the signature route, as well as attending the April convention.”
Jonathan Swan: “He could either endorse Romney, stay silent, or oppose the man he likes to say ‘choked like a dog’ in the 2012 election. Either of the latter two options would have resulted in cable news blaring “Utah rejects Trump” headlines after an eventual Romney win. Now Trump can claim credit for Romney’s victory, and be on the side of a winner.”
Said a GOP source: “This was totally predictable. The President who (usually) has good political instincts got ahead of any stories (which press is dying to write) about a Romney victory (primary) being a repudiation of Trump, by endorsing him so now Trump can take credit for win and say it’s because he endorsed!”
A new UtahPolicy.com poll finds Romney leading likely challenger Jenny Wilson 60% to 14%.
President Trump endorsed former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s run for a U.S. Senate seat in Utah despite Romney often being critical of Trump, Reuters reports.
“Mitt Romney’s extensive resume has many Republicans looking to him to take on a role in the Senate as a political and moral counterweight to a president many in the GOP see as divisive and undignified,” the AP reports.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who often has taken on Trump, was quick to welcome Romney in a tweet saying that the former Massachusetts governor “has shown the country what it means to lead with honor, integrity and civility. The people of #Utah and the nation need his strong voice, resolve and service now more than ever.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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