Republicans who sided with Democrats in the failed impeachment efforts against former President Trump are finding out there are political consequences for their actions.
The latest to learn that lesson is Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), who has been censured by the Weber County Republican Party in Utah over his votes to convict former President Donald Trump in two separate impeachment trials, The Hill reported.
According to County Party Secretary Jill Koford, the measure to formally censure Utah’s junior senator was passed with a vote of 116-97.
Formally censured for impeachment votes
The two-page resolution noted that Romney was the “lone Republican” to vote with Democrats to convict Trump in the first impeachment trial in early 2020. The senator again sided with Democrats in 2021, voting to convict Trump in the second impeachment trial.
The resolution pointed out that the other six Republican senators who voted to convict Trump in the second impeachment trial received some measure of accountability for their actions in their home states, and decried Romney’s vote to convict Trump “without sufficient evidence” as being “both unjust and unethical.”
Thus, “The Weber County Republican Convention censures Mitt Romney for his votes to convict President Trump in two U.S. Senate impeachment trials which denied the President due process, allowed falsified evidence, did not provide adequate time for an investigation, and did not follow the U.S. Constitution which states a President may only be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Other GOP impeachment votes suffering consequences
The Hill also noted that while Romney was the sole Republican vote for conviction in the 2020 impeachment trial, he was joined in 2021 by six other Republican senators — Sens. Richard Burr (NC), Bill Cassidy (LA), Susan Collins (ME), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Ben Sasse (NE), and Pat Toomey (PA).
Of those, Sens. Burr, Cassidy, Murkowski, and Toomey have faced censure from a county or state GOP entity.
Meanwhile, this censure of Romney from the Weber County GOP comes roughly a week after the senator barely dodged a censure from the statewide Utah GOP over the same issue after he was loudly booed and jeered by Republicans at the Utah GOP Convention, according to The Daily Wire.
Trump: “BAD NEWS for our Country!”
There is little love lost between Romney and Trump, as the two have clashed repeatedly since the 2016 election cycle and neither has been hesitant to speak ill of the other.
In a statement issued Monday, Trump said, “After being loudly booed at the Utah Republican Party Convention, Utah’s Weber County censured RINO Mitt Romney in the strongest of terms. Washington County Republicans also censured Romney in April. He is BAD NEWS for our Country!”
The impact these county party-level censures will have on Romney’s political future remains unclear, given that he was elected in 2018 and doesn’t face Utah voters again until 2024. Nevertheless, this issue likely won’t go away entirely between now and then, and Utah voters may well remember what Romney did when he shows up on the ballot once again.
The post Sen. Romney censured by Utah county GOP over votes to impeach Trump first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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