I have read through the comments, and I understand the frustration with Romney, but I have to disagree that we should basically ignore him or what he has exposed because he should have done so sooner. Romney clearly believes himself to be a Republican, which in context puts him to the right of Joe Manchin. To expect by way of principle is already a stretch. So I will take this as a win, because it far exceeded expectation.
And, when speaking to party colleagues, one should expect a certain level of confidentiality. Although the party had changed, Romney was still operating with a certain class and decorum his fellow Republicans had abandoned. He chose to share his truth even though he knows it will be denied by the GOP, he and his family will be at risk of physical harm, and he will lose many longterm friendships- both personal and professional. He must have gone on quite a transformational journey to reach the conclusion that what he had previously considered private work conversations were in fact important historical dialogues that shed light on terrible shifts in politics. I am grateful.
I think the whole GOP will be shaking like a bunch of rats gauging how soon to jump ship. That single revelation that they were terrified of putting their families at serious risk is a powerful reason. It’s a gut punch.
I disagree. Romney’s disclosures will not harm the party. It will only embolden them to continue. Remember, they’re in too deep now. Any movement towards the rational middle will only bring greater threats of violence against their families (real or perceived). Trump has so completely corrupted the part they won’t dare cross him. The only hope is a swift trial and full exposure of the facts. But even then the threat of violence won’t subside.
I finished the Miles Taylor podcast, the Whistleblowers, yesterday (highly recommended) and I agree the cost of coming forward goes down as more people do it. So thank you Mitt. BUT, the false equivalency drives me nuts. So many of the never-Trump coming out against Trump won’t take the next step of saying that the Republican Party is deeply infected with autocracy, and the best remedy is for more Democratic wins at every level of government.
Jay, there's probably millions of Americans who share Romney's take on today's GOP, but they won't be voting Repub next year, and the ones who will don't give a toss about his critiques...they're wedded to tRump come hell or high water, it is what it is.
Millions do agree with Romney, but will vote for Trump, or any GOP nominee, b/c for 30 years now, thank you, Newt, Fox, talk radio, etc., they've been convinced that a vote for ANY R is better than voting for a Dem. They'll tell you "its the lesser of two evils" or some nonsense. Some excuse their vote b/c of fundamental policy disagreements, ignoring the threat to America.
There's someone I love dearly in my family, who's far smarter and more successful than me, an "old school Reagan republican in NH, who's become a bit more progressive thanks to his Gen Z kids. In 2016 he said he could never vote for Trump and wrote in Romney. When I asked why he said "I could never vote for Hillary...she's corrupt and a phony."
This shit is baked in now. Our only hope is that real patriots keep outnumbered the crazies, in every single election. And we all do everything we can to make that happen.
My issue is that he should of spoke sooner and he took lots of money from the NRA ! I can't forgive him for that when there has been so many innocent people being murdered by gun -toting lunatics !!
Like all Never-Trumper Republicans, Romney seems to forget that his party has been working inexorably towards becoming the vile thing it is today since Tricky Dick and Saint Ronnie. I find it amusing (and terrifying, of course) to see the dog finally catch the car. As "principled' as he was, Romney and all the others helped to create the nightmare we are living today.
Bingo, right in the center of the target. Trump is the culmination of Newt Gingrich's declaration of war on American self-government, and THAT was just a public formalization of the attitude of "ruling the stupid populace" that Republicans have followed at LEAST since Reagan (the money hired an actor to play president) and Bush (we elite Skull and Bones types have a duty to rule the serfs who don't deserve to know or choose our futures). Every GOP president since before my birth in 1970 committed crimes, sometimes treasonous crimes, to obtain office and maintain power.
He did, after all, divide the world into takers and makers, considering the majority of the population as unworthy. This tempers his supposed "spine" and "man of principle" positions.
Hawley, Cruz, McConnell, et al, the entire rogue's gallery of poltroons name-checked by the Mittster, will simply shrug off his revelations in the book, in exactly the manner that they treated his prescient warnings about tRump and the events surrounding Jan6. Do you know why? Because (1), they are so without shame and (2), they know that NOBODY CARES what Romney thinks amongst Repub voters. Such is the dismal state of this miserable excuse of a major political party.
Chilling is not a strong enough word. Appalling not an ugly enough description. Fear for not just yourself but your family is an unthinkable possibility in describing our elected representatives at any and all levels and is tough to wrap your head or heart around because this did not become a reality overnight. It’s obviously been fomenting for decades.
An attitude the GOP shares with the KGB Tsar currently atop the Kremlin, boasting how glorious it is he doesn't count or care how many of his serfs he wipes out pursuing the addition of more serfs to his ownership (to be used to kill more people who resist being made serfs to be used as cannon fodder in an eternal spiral of slavery and destruction...)
we urgently need to realize the vulnerability represented by public interests controlled by private hands-- our national security and our allies' successful warfare must not depend on individuals (like, say, Musk) whose naive susceptibility to flattery and fright for enables our enemies to damage us through manipulating them. My acquaintance with Sun Tsu is limited to secondhand lessons-- does the text advise at all concerning intelligence/influence operations and strategy? More than, say, the idea of using subterfuge when cornered? I must rustle up a copy and peruse it.....
Romney was a good governor of Massachusetts per liberal friends who live there. The ACA was modelled on the health care plan he devised for that state. He kept his presidential campaign clean. He does seem to have integrity.
But. A couple of things. Why did he and Angus King not confer with the FBI, the Pentagon, Capitol Police at the time rather than approaching McConnell? This turns to the stand-down exposed by the 1/6 committee. Underlying it all was the fact that TFG was never evacuated from DC that day, but was allowed to wander about, watch TV, ignore the violence. The Secret Service is supposed to evacuate the President to a secure location at any hint of this sort of mayhem.
Second, the image in my mind is of Romney groveling at that dinner with TFG when he wanted to be Secretary of State. If he had integrity without hard political convictions, he never would have gone. But, no, like all the rest he debased himself and still didn't get the job.
Actually, we are overlooking the courage of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who KNEW they were putting their lives in peril and kissing they're political careers goodbye, and still sat on the Jan. 6 committee.
He can afford it. What's unspeakable is his failure to act while he held office and power (and received a salary) as a representative whose oath was to the Constitution. He owed US his service, but in fact served only his party, and I haven't seen anything from his book that suggests even now he cares for the nation more than his party.
Maybe not evacuated from DC, but yeah--a lot of people at the time noticed that they stuffed him into a bunker under the White House when some kids marched up the street in the summer of 2020 but when an armed mob tried to kill Congress nobody thought he was in any danger.
Oh FFS listen to me I’m still trying to “prove” Donald Trump had something to do with Jan. 6, which he brags about when he’s not denying it.
Because they are actually authoritarians, who believe the essence of decency is obedience to command. If one cannot obey the boss, one goes quietly home to enjoy one's private estate and wait for a new Boss to serve. Remember Barr telling Trump he was full of crap, then eagerly proffering his resignation, to vanish into the heather rather than DO HIS JOB as a public servant responsible to the American people? That's how they see government office, analogous to the cartoon caricature of the military they worship: as a hierarchy of automatic obedience to one's superior, unburdened by law or conscience or one's actual job definition. One giveaway of this authoritarian attitude is found as far back as Plato's Republic, where it's claimed any moral criticism should be PRIVATE, not letting the hoi polloi see any disagreement between the rulers, because that would damage the illusion of perfect lockstep loyalty to themselves as True Rulers never to be challenged by the ruled. Barr's job, like Romney's was to RESIST TRUMP on the behalf of the American people according to the Constitution.... but they failed, and kept silent as long as their JOB required speaking out!
The Intel was likely coming from DHS , FBI and Pentagon. The issue of Intel and what to do with it was multifaceted, Trump controlled the call button to activate the dc national guard (or call other states for theirs). Loyalists in the DHS, capitol police, FBI etc likely underestimated the threat or suppressed it altogether. Even Romney acknowledged that only Trump has the power to intervene. I don't believe he was mincing words. He meant Trump knew he controlled hearts and minds via Twitter and could deploy the anti-inaurrection forces when needed.
It makes for an even worse nightmare and hopefully if teump is found guilty of Jan 6 this is all accounted for come sentencing.
I am not a fan at all of Romney, and yet I am not comfortable with our tendency to focus on the messenger here. I by no means intend this as a defense of Romney - he's a big boy, and can handle the consequences for his oppressive worldview. But what happens to the *message* here when we focus so much on the *messenger* instead? What's important to figure out here is not whether or how much his reveal might let Romney off the hook. What's urgent is for us to determine what the info he has provided means, whether it is believable, and what to do with it. For example, I hope to find out more about Romney's and McConnell's apparent awareness, days ahead, of what was likely to happen on 1/6, and if that information is useful to Smith and/or Wllis in their prosecutions.
I tend to agree. It’s important to highlight the main points of his case against the GOP, even if we don’t like who is giving them. (If Romney had more integrity, he would have left the party, after all.)
Thank you for calling this out! So many people want to fawn all over Liz without checking her record. For all of her bluster, she is NO FRIEND of democracy, and she’s voted in line with Trump overwhelmingly. In the end, Liz and Trump just don’t like each other, but they share almost all of their political ideals.
Ooh, I would be interested in that too. I like what Kinzinger said in an interview with Colbert some months ago - that he feels "politically orphaned" and doesn't know what to do next.
The thing I never understood about those Republicans who wanted to vote to convict but didn't out of fear for their own and their family's safety, why didn't they go public with these threats?
Why didn't they hold a special press conference and say something like, "As a matter of conscience, I will vote to convict despite being threatened not to do so. My family has been threatened also so I want you to know my vote is still a vote to convict even though my life could be in danger."
If members of Congress were threatened, why wasn't the FBI investigating this?
I'm sure some were threatened. I'm also sure others used this excuse so they could appear to want to convict but didn't because they had to "save" their family.
It was an obvious excuse. I'm not buying it. Nor am I buying the excuses for not evacuating Trump. The only explanations that make sense take us to a very dark place.
They didn’t evacuate Trump because he wasn’t in danger from his J/6 mob. Remember....”They’re not here to hurt me”? That’s cause the whole thing was an inside job. If you can’t see that by now you’re either blind, or facts just don’t matter to you. 😎
Too little too late, Mittens. Far too little. We needed him to stand up for the Constitution years ago. To stand up to racism in his own party years ago. A spine? I think not.
Far too little far too late. He helped fuel the fire -- remember "makers and takers"? -- and now is telling us that it's burning out of control?
OK, he has a few shreds of moral fiber, but only a few. Recall his groveling before Inmate P01135809 for the SoS job. With the exception of casting the lone R vote for impeachment conviction, he apparently went along for quite a long time with the dishonesty, unprincipled power politics, and naked authoritarianism among his R colleagues in the Rich White Men's Club.
To whom much is given, much is expected. Mittens fell well short. He's just another person who could have made a positive difference in the Rich White Men's Club at many different points in the last several years. But he didn't. He could've spoken out about what was going on, could've dragged the truth of different events and interactions into the daylight, could've lent his voice to others standing up for honesty and principle (think: Cheney, Kinzinger, Jan 6 committee). But he didn't.
And now we're supposed to be interested in his "revelations" -- which have been manifest for years to anyone paying attention -- on his way out about his craven, corrupted, power-crazed colleagues?
Romney is a coward. Just like all of the other Republicans who saved their tales for a profitable book deal. Romney could switch parties and vote with the Democrats while he's still there, but he won't. I have little sympathy left for Republicans who fear the base they built. They were fine with the threats of violence when it was aimed at Democrats and marginalized communities. Good riddance.
On May 24, 2001, Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords withdrew from the Republican party to become an Independent who caucused with the Democrats and, in doing so, switched control of the Senate from the Republicans to the Dems (at least until the following midterms). He'd been a Republican since his first state election in 1967 but felt his party was moving too far for him to continue. He is the only Republican I've ever voted for on a federal level and I remember being proud of him when he did that. He said "Increasingly, I find myself in disagreement with my party... I understand that many people are more conservative than I am and they form the Republican Party. Given the changing nature of the national party, it has become a struggle for our leaders to deal with me and for me to deal with them."
Yet he did not expose the rot. He failed to alert the citizens of the USA. Romney has opened the eyes of those who were sitting on the fence. It takes courage and a deep re erence
I'm not sure the rot had progressed as far then as it has now. I also doubt the media would have jumped on it as much as they likely will this one...however briefly they make note of it. Not to mention the events 15 weeks later (aka 9/11) would have drowned it out anyhow.
It doesn't seem like most politicians find courage today until they've decided they're not running again. If there's any argument for term limits, that's probably it. It's the only time they grow a spine. Unfortunately, it's a book spine.
Sorry too little, to late. The "I was the sole voice of reason" act won't do it. I seem to remember you sucking up to trump for a cabinet position after his election.
The suits are afraid of the working class. We have arrived at this moment because of physical cowardice. Having fed their base with rancor for decades they now retire to play golf and write their memoirs. Why do so many moral mediocrities populate one party? That's what the donor class wants and has paid for. When you hire people based on their willingness to fuck mother earth this is what you get.
“People in Utah carry guns.” Could that possibly be more ironic coming out of the mouth of the congressman most beholden to the nra? These people are exhausting!
“You’re lucky,” McConnell continued. “You can say the things that we all think. You’re in a position to say things about him that we all agree with but can’t say.” (A spokesperson said that McConnell does not recall this conversation and that he was “fully aligned” with Trump during the impeachment trial.)"
Someone is lying about the incident and my money is on McConnell since he has proven himself a proficient snake in the grass.
Little to admire about anyone who stays mostly silent until he's ready to leave. Seriously doubt Jack Kennedy would include Romney in his "Profiles in Courage II."
I have read through the comments, and I understand the frustration with Romney, but I have to disagree that we should basically ignore him or what he has exposed because he should have done so sooner. Romney clearly believes himself to be a Republican, which in context puts him to the right of Joe Manchin. To expect by way of principle is already a stretch. So I will take this as a win, because it far exceeded expectation.
And, when speaking to party colleagues, one should expect a certain level of confidentiality. Although the party had changed, Romney was still operating with a certain class and decorum his fellow Republicans had abandoned. He chose to share his truth even though he knows it will be denied by the GOP, he and his family will be at risk of physical harm, and he will lose many longterm friendships- both personal and professional. He must have gone on quite a transformational journey to reach the conclusion that what he had previously considered private work conversations were in fact important historical dialogues that shed light on terrible shifts in politics. I am grateful.
I agree. Requiescat in pace, Republican party.
But by saying these things, he also exposed the rot to a level none of have seen before, but only suspected.
I think the whole GOP will be shaking like a bunch of rats gauging how soon to jump ship. That single revelation that they were terrified of putting their families at serious risk is a powerful reason. It’s a gut punch.
I disagree. Romney’s disclosures will not harm the party. It will only embolden them to continue. Remember, they’re in too deep now. Any movement towards the rational middle will only bring greater threats of violence against their families (real or perceived). Trump has so completely corrupted the part they won’t dare cross him. The only hope is a swift trial and full exposure of the facts. But even then the threat of violence won’t subside.
“Requiescat in pace, Republican party.”
No. They should burn.
If they are forced to carry MAGA to term, we will be presented with a bouncing baby Reich.
This needs to become a meme. Nice analogy.
(grin) Have you seen the awesome meme of the MAGA Gadsden flag? A coiled rattlesnake with a red MAGA hat, with the motto "DON'T READ TO ME"
I finished the Miles Taylor podcast, the Whistleblowers, yesterday (highly recommended) and I agree the cost of coming forward goes down as more people do it. So thank you Mitt. BUT, the false equivalency drives me nuts. So many of the never-Trump coming out against Trump won’t take the next step of saying that the Republican Party is deeply infected with autocracy, and the best remedy is for more Democratic wins at every level of government.
Jay, there's probably millions of Americans who share Romney's take on today's GOP, but they won't be voting Repub next year, and the ones who will don't give a toss about his critiques...they're wedded to tRump come hell or high water, it is what it is.
Millions do agree with Romney, but will vote for Trump, or any GOP nominee, b/c for 30 years now, thank you, Newt, Fox, talk radio, etc., they've been convinced that a vote for ANY R is better than voting for a Dem. They'll tell you "its the lesser of two evils" or some nonsense. Some excuse their vote b/c of fundamental policy disagreements, ignoring the threat to America.
There's someone I love dearly in my family, who's far smarter and more successful than me, an "old school Reagan republican in NH, who's become a bit more progressive thanks to his Gen Z kids. In 2016 he said he could never vote for Trump and wrote in Romney. When I asked why he said "I could never vote for Hillary...she's corrupt and a phony."
This shit is baked in now. Our only hope is that real patriots keep outnumbered the crazies, in every single election. And we all do everything we can to make that happen.
R Weber, can you explain further what you are saying? Your references are unclear to me.
Jay,
All that matters in this exercise is that Romney votes for Biden.
Nothing else matters, at this point.
To discuss any other “expectations” is nothing more than verbal masturbation. It feels good, and relieves stress. Then what?
☮️🇺🇸☯️
My issue is that he should of spoke sooner and he took lots of money from the NRA ! I can't forgive him for that when there has been so many innocent people being murdered by gun -toting lunatics !!
I have to agree with you Jay. He is risking his and his family’s lives to tell the truth. Our country is in deep trouble.
Like all Never-Trumper Republicans, Romney seems to forget that his party has been working inexorably towards becoming the vile thing it is today since Tricky Dick and Saint Ronnie. I find it amusing (and terrifying, of course) to see the dog finally catch the car. As "principled' as he was, Romney and all the others helped to create the nightmare we are living today.
You are so correct
Bingo, right in the center of the target. Trump is the culmination of Newt Gingrich's declaration of war on American self-government, and THAT was just a public formalization of the attitude of "ruling the stupid populace" that Republicans have followed at LEAST since Reagan (the money hired an actor to play president) and Bush (we elite Skull and Bones types have a duty to rule the serfs who don't deserve to know or choose our futures). Every GOP president since before my birth in 1970 committed crimes, sometimes treasonous crimes, to obtain office and maintain power.
So true. Sad, but true.
He did, after all, divide the world into takers and makers, considering the majority of the population as unworthy. This tempers his supposed "spine" and "man of principle" positions.
Hawley, Cruz, McConnell, et al, the entire rogue's gallery of poltroons name-checked by the Mittster, will simply shrug off his revelations in the book, in exactly the manner that they treated his prescient warnings about tRump and the events surrounding Jan6. Do you know why? Because (1), they are so without shame and (2), they know that NOBODY CARES what Romney thinks amongst Repub voters. Such is the dismal state of this miserable excuse of a major political party.
Chilling is not a strong enough word. Appalling not an ugly enough description. Fear for not just yourself but your family is an unthinkable possibility in describing our elected representatives at any and all levels and is tough to wrap your head or heart around because this did not become a reality overnight. It’s obviously been fomenting for decades.
Or as Jeff Teidrich eloquently says, “Because fuck you, that’s why!” These repubs don’t care about anything but absolute power!
An attitude the GOP shares with the KGB Tsar currently atop the Kremlin, boasting how glorious it is he doesn't count or care how many of his serfs he wipes out pursuing the addition of more serfs to his ownership (to be used to kill more people who resist being made serfs to be used as cannon fodder in an eternal spiral of slavery and destruction...)
we urgently need to realize the vulnerability represented by public interests controlled by private hands-- our national security and our allies' successful warfare must not depend on individuals (like, say, Musk) whose naive susceptibility to flattery and fright for enables our enemies to damage us through manipulating them. My acquaintance with Sun Tsu is limited to secondhand lessons-- does the text advise at all concerning intelligence/influence operations and strategy? More than, say, the idea of using subterfuge when cornered? I must rustle up a copy and peruse it.....
Romney was a good governor of Massachusetts per liberal friends who live there. The ACA was modelled on the health care plan he devised for that state. He kept his presidential campaign clean. He does seem to have integrity.
But. A couple of things. Why did he and Angus King not confer with the FBI, the Pentagon, Capitol Police at the time rather than approaching McConnell? This turns to the stand-down exposed by the 1/6 committee. Underlying it all was the fact that TFG was never evacuated from DC that day, but was allowed to wander about, watch TV, ignore the violence. The Secret Service is supposed to evacuate the President to a secure location at any hint of this sort of mayhem.
Second, the image in my mind is of Romney groveling at that dinner with TFG when he wanted to be Secretary of State. If he had integrity without hard political convictions, he never would have gone. But, no, like all the rest he debased himself and still didn't get the job.
To realize that Romney is the most courageous of the bunch is depressing, no?
Actually, we are overlooking the courage of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who KNEW they were putting their lives in peril and kissing they're political careers goodbye, and still sat on the Jan. 6 committee.
Oh, and how.
He can afford it. What's unspeakable is his failure to act while he held office and power (and received a salary) as a representative whose oath was to the Constitution. He owed US his service, but in fact served only his party, and I haven't seen anything from his book that suggests even now he cares for the nation more than his party.
Why does he single out Harwley as the smartest guy? What haven’t we seen?
Maybe not evacuated from DC, but yeah--a lot of people at the time noticed that they stuffed him into a bunker under the White House when some kids marched up the street in the summer of 2020 but when an armed mob tried to kill Congress nobody thought he was in any danger.
Oh FFS listen to me I’m still trying to “prove” Donald Trump had something to do with Jan. 6, which he brags about when he’s not denying it.
Because they are actually authoritarians, who believe the essence of decency is obedience to command. If one cannot obey the boss, one goes quietly home to enjoy one's private estate and wait for a new Boss to serve. Remember Barr telling Trump he was full of crap, then eagerly proffering his resignation, to vanish into the heather rather than DO HIS JOB as a public servant responsible to the American people? That's how they see government office, analogous to the cartoon caricature of the military they worship: as a hierarchy of automatic obedience to one's superior, unburdened by law or conscience or one's actual job definition. One giveaway of this authoritarian attitude is found as far back as Plato's Republic, where it's claimed any moral criticism should be PRIVATE, not letting the hoi polloi see any disagreement between the rulers, because that would damage the illusion of perfect lockstep loyalty to themselves as True Rulers never to be challenged by the ruled. Barr's job, like Romney's was to RESIST TRUMP on the behalf of the American people according to the Constitution.... but they failed, and kept silent as long as their JOB required speaking out!
The Intel was likely coming from DHS , FBI and Pentagon. The issue of Intel and what to do with it was multifaceted, Trump controlled the call button to activate the dc national guard (or call other states for theirs). Loyalists in the DHS, capitol police, FBI etc likely underestimated the threat or suppressed it altogether. Even Romney acknowledged that only Trump has the power to intervene. I don't believe he was mincing words. He meant Trump knew he controlled hearts and minds via Twitter and could deploy the anti-inaurrection forces when needed.
It makes for an even worse nightmare and hopefully if teump is found guilty of Jan 6 this is all accounted for come sentencing.
I am not a fan at all of Romney, and yet I am not comfortable with our tendency to focus on the messenger here. I by no means intend this as a defense of Romney - he's a big boy, and can handle the consequences for his oppressive worldview. But what happens to the *message* here when we focus so much on the *messenger* instead? What's important to figure out here is not whether or how much his reveal might let Romney off the hook. What's urgent is for us to determine what the info he has provided means, whether it is believable, and what to do with it. For example, I hope to find out more about Romney's and McConnell's apparent awareness, days ahead, of what was likely to happen on 1/6, and if that information is useful to Smith and/or Wllis in their prosecutions.
I tend to agree. It’s important to highlight the main points of his case against the GOP, even if we don’t like who is giving them. (If Romney had more integrity, he would have left the party, after all.)
Will you please ask Liz Cheney to comment on his book? She and Adam Kinzinger seem to be the only other Rethuglikkkans to buck the MAGA idiots.
I think she will probably find much of what he says in it familiar territory.
Except for the fact that Liz aligned with Trump 90% of the time according to her voting record. She’s no voice of reason either!
Thank you for calling this out! So many people want to fawn all over Liz without checking her record. For all of her bluster, she is NO FRIEND of democracy, and she’s voted in line with Trump overwhelmingly. In the end, Liz and Trump just don’t like each other, but they share almost all of their political ideals.
I’ve read that Romney voted with him 95% of the time. Don’t know how to verify that statement.
Ooh, I would be interested in that too. I like what Kinzinger said in an interview with Colbert some months ago - that he feels "politically orphaned" and doesn't know what to do next.
The thing I never understood about those Republicans who wanted to vote to convict but didn't out of fear for their own and their family's safety, why didn't they go public with these threats?
Why didn't they hold a special press conference and say something like, "As a matter of conscience, I will vote to convict despite being threatened not to do so. My family has been threatened also so I want you to know my vote is still a vote to convict even though my life could be in danger."
If members of Congress were threatened, why wasn't the FBI investigating this?
I'm sure some were threatened. I'm also sure others used this excuse so they could appear to want to convict but didn't because they had to "save" their family.
What cowards.
It was an obvious excuse. I'm not buying it. Nor am I buying the excuses for not evacuating Trump. The only explanations that make sense take us to a very dark place.
They didn’t evacuate Trump because he wasn’t in danger from his J/6 mob. Remember....”They’re not here to hurt me”? That’s cause the whole thing was an inside job. If you can’t see that by now you’re either blind, or facts just don’t matter to you. 😎
Too little too late, Mittens. Far too little. We needed him to stand up for the Constitution years ago. To stand up to racism in his own party years ago. A spine? I think not.
I suppose it’s all relative. A squishy spine?
A very bendy one. Like a snake.
Far too little far too late. He helped fuel the fire -- remember "makers and takers"? -- and now is telling us that it's burning out of control?
OK, he has a few shreds of moral fiber, but only a few. Recall his groveling before Inmate P01135809 for the SoS job. With the exception of casting the lone R vote for impeachment conviction, he apparently went along for quite a long time with the dishonesty, unprincipled power politics, and naked authoritarianism among his R colleagues in the Rich White Men's Club.
To whom much is given, much is expected. Mittens fell well short. He's just another person who could have made a positive difference in the Rich White Men's Club at many different points in the last several years. But he didn't. He could've spoken out about what was going on, could've dragged the truth of different events and interactions into the daylight, could've lent his voice to others standing up for honesty and principle (think: Cheney, Kinzinger, Jan 6 committee). But he didn't.
And now we're supposed to be interested in his "revelations" -- which have been manifest for years to anyone paying attention -- on his way out about his craven, corrupted, power-crazed colleagues?
If he stands up, he gets killed. Someone would have killed him. We are now at that point.
Romney is a coward. Just like all of the other Republicans who saved their tales for a profitable book deal. Romney could switch parties and vote with the Democrats while he's still there, but he won't. I have little sympathy left for Republicans who fear the base they built. They were fine with the threats of violence when it was aimed at Democrats and marginalized communities. Good riddance.
On May 24, 2001, Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords withdrew from the Republican party to become an Independent who caucused with the Democrats and, in doing so, switched control of the Senate from the Republicans to the Dems (at least until the following midterms). He'd been a Republican since his first state election in 1967 but felt his party was moving too far for him to continue. He is the only Republican I've ever voted for on a federal level and I remember being proud of him when he did that. He said "Increasingly, I find myself in disagreement with my party... I understand that many people are more conservative than I am and they form the Republican Party. Given the changing nature of the national party, it has become a struggle for our leaders to deal with me and for me to deal with them."
Show that kind of courage, Mitt.
Yet he did not expose the rot. He failed to alert the citizens of the USA. Romney has opened the eyes of those who were sitting on the fence. It takes courage and a deep re erence
I'm not sure the rot had progressed as far then as it has now. I also doubt the media would have jumped on it as much as they likely will this one...however briefly they make note of it. Not to mention the events 15 weeks later (aka 9/11) would have drowned it out anyhow.
It doesn't seem like most politicians find courage today until they've decided they're not running again. If there's any argument for term limits, that's probably it. It's the only time they grow a spine. Unfortunately, it's a book spine.
Sorry too little, to late. The "I was the sole voice of reason" act won't do it. I seem to remember you sucking up to trump for a cabinet position after his election.
Here is a link to the picture: https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-560w,f_auto,q_auto:best/newscms/2019_43/3070536/191025-donald-trump-mitt-romney-reince-prebius-ew-527p.jpg
The suits are afraid of the working class. We have arrived at this moment because of physical cowardice. Having fed their base with rancor for decades they now retire to play golf and write their memoirs. Why do so many moral mediocrities populate one party? That's what the donor class wants and has paid for. When you hire people based on their willingness to fuck mother earth this is what you get.
With 12 years to go (his words-not mine) Mitt, former vulture capitalist at Bain Capital and all around Republican - finds a soul?
Anyone in the market for a bridge ?
“People in Utah carry guns.” Could that possibly be more ironic coming out of the mouth of the congressman most beholden to the nra? These people are exhausting!
“You’re lucky,” McConnell continued. “You can say the things that we all think. You’re in a position to say things about him that we all agree with but can’t say.” (A spokesperson said that McConnell does not recall this conversation and that he was “fully aligned” with Trump during the impeachment trial.)"
Someone is lying about the incident and my money is on McConnell since he has proven himself a proficient snake in the grass.
Little to admire about anyone who stays mostly silent until he's ready to leave. Seriously doubt Jack Kennedy would include Romney in his "Profiles in Courage II."