In the Romney excerpt @mckaycoppins Paul Ryan, already out as speaker, calls Romney and lobbies him not to vote to convict Trump in 1st impeachment trial — for all the self serving cynical reasons that you might imagine. https://t.co/Kl8qwjpbTX
— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) September 13, 2023
Yep:
Shortly before 2 p.m. on the day of the vote, Romney left his office and walked to the Capitol, where he waited in his hideaway for his turn to speak. Minutes before going on the floor, he received an unexpected call on his cellphone. It was Paul Ryan. Romney and his team had kept a tight lid on how he planned to vote, but somehow his former running mate had gotten word that he was about to detonate his political career. Romney had been less judgmental of Ryan’s acquiescence to Trump than he’d been of most other Republicans’. He believed Ryan was a sincere guy who’d simply misjudged Trump.
And yet, here was Ryan on the phone, making the same arguments Romney had heard from some of his more calculating colleagues. Ryan told him that voting to convict Trump would make Romney an outcast in the party, that many of the people who’d tried to get him elected president would never speak to him again, and that he’d struggle to pass any meaningful legislation. Ryan said that he respected Romney, and wanted to make absolutely sure he’d thought through the repercussions of his vote. Romney assured him that he had, and said goodbye.
I wonder who called Ryan to alert him about Romney’s impending apostasy? I’d bet on McConnell.
This is from an excerpt in the Atlantic from McKay Coppins’ new Romney biography. Romney seems to have said “fuck it” (or, more likely, “fudge it”) and decided to just let it all hang out. The stuff he says about McConnell is … well, totally unsurprising but damning nonetheless.
I have my issues with Romney. He is a plutocrat whose political philosophy is basically trickle down economics, low taxes and traditional religious cultural values. But he and a handful of others have been unique during the Trump years in his willingness to buck the cult. It hasn’t been easy for him, I’d imagine. So kudos to him for that.
But, you know, he could have done something really useful in those first two years. He could have left the GOP and become a Democrat or an Independent. That would not have been unprecedented. Sure, he would not have been re-elected in Utah, but so what? He’s retiring anyway. According to Coppins, he thought about it. But even Romney couldn’t bring himself to switch parties.
If he wanted to make a statement that would have been a very important one: he was the Republican nominee for president and just 10 years later he was forced to leave the party. That says everything.