Utah Sen. Mitt Romney announced Wednesday before the U.S. Senate that he planned to vote to convict President Donald Trump on one of the articles of impeachment — abuse of power.
- Romney became the only Republican senator to find Trump guilty during the impeachment trial.
- Romney will be the only senator to ever vote for conviction of a president of the same party.
Interview: Romney spoke with FOX News Channel’s Chris Wallace about the decision. We’ve pulled six highlights of note, which we’ve broken down for you.
1. Romney believes Trump should be removed from office: “I do believe he should be removed from office. That’s the vote that I will take in just a short while.”
2. Romney knows he’ll be lonely in Washington: “Yes, it’s going to get very lonely. And again, the consequences are significant. They’re enough that it made this a very difficult process for me.”
3. Romney followed his conscience with the decision: “There’s a hymn that is sung in my church. It’s an old Protestant hymn, which is, do what is right, let the consequence follow. I know in my heart that I’m doing what’s right. I understand there’s going to be enormous consequence and I don’t have a choice in that regard. That’s why I haven’t been anxious to be in the position I’m in. ... I had to follow my conscience.”
4. Romney expects blowback: “I understand it will be substantial and I have to recognize that it was one or the other. ... I don’t want to face the blowback, I don’t want to — whether it not just from the president, but from my party, from my state, from Republican voters. They’ll ascribe all sorts of motives and so forth, and those are all the consequences.”
5. Romney spoke with his family: “Well, as you can imagine, I have spoken a good deal with my family because this will have consequence — the blowback will have consequence, not just for me, but for my family, for my wife, for my sons, for my daughters-in-law, for my 24 grandkids. I’ve not spoken with the grandkids, but I’ve spoken with my sons and daughters-in-law and wife extensively. We recognize the extent of the consequence. That’s why the burden has been so substantial as I’ve done this, but they all said, you’ve got to do what you believe is right.”
6. Romney doesn’t see this as the end of his career: “Well, a friend of mine once said that the worst thing that ever happened to them politically already happened, and the worst thing that ever happened to me politically was losing the presidency in 2012.”