Trump unloads on Romney as Ukraine crisis deepens
President Donald Trump tore into Sen. Mitt Romney in a series of tweets Saturday, renewing their on-again, off-again feud as Trump tries to fend off criticism from the Ukraine scandal threatening his presidency.
“Mitt Romney never knew how to win. He is a pompous ‘ass’ who has been fighting me from the beginning, except when he begged me for my endorsement for his Senate run (I gave it to him), and when he begged me to be Secretary of State (I didn’t give it to him). He is so bad for R’s!" Trump wrote in a pair of morning tweets.
Hours later, Trump turned his fire on Romney again, tweeting that he had heard that Utah voters regretted electing Romney to the Senate.
“He is a fool who is playing right into the hands of the Do Nothing Democrats! #IMPEACHMITTROMNEY” Trump wrote.
The president added that former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake — a frequent GOP critic of Trump — was "better" than Romney.
Later Saturday night, Trump retweeted a video from social media director Dan Scavino depicting Romney losing the 2012 presidential election and Trump's own presidential win, writing "Mitt, get off the stage, you’ve had your turn (twice)!"
Romney has long had a strained relationship with Trump. But in recent days, he’s become one of the president’s most vocal Republican critics for seeking foreign help to dig up dirt on a political rival.
As Trump looks to maintain GOP support in the face of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, Romney’s criticism represents a potentially dangerous crack in party unity.
On Friday, Romney denounced Trump’s “brazen and unprecedented” calls for Ukraine and China to investigate Joe Biden as “wrong and appalling.”
"When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China’s investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated," Romney wrote on Twitter.
Romney has yet to respond to Trump's tweets, and he’s typically shied away from engaging in a tit-for-tat with the president.
Over the years, Trump and Romney have been allies and enemies. Romney sought Trump’s endorsement in his presidential campaign against Barack Obama but was a fierce critic of Trump during the 2016 election.
Their relationship stabilized somewhat after Trump won the presidency. Romney was in the running to be Trump’s secretary of State and he later received Trump’s endorsement in his 2018 Senate run — though Trump tried to keep Orrin Hatch from retiring in a bid to keep Romney out of Washington.
The two have also clashed over Trump’s response to the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Trump’s behavior detailed in the Mueller report and trade policy, among other areas.
Now Trump is facing perhaps his greatest crisis as president and while the vast majority of Republicans are sticking by him, Romney’s criticism is surely only going to enrage him further.
Trump's move to pressure the Ukrainian president into investigating Biden and his son Hunter is at the center of the House's impeachment inquiry.
Democrats are issuing a series of subpoenas and are already obtaining damaging evidence, including text messages suggesting the White House was withholding military assistance until Ukraine launched a probe into Trump’s political adversaries.
If the House does pass articles of impeachment, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the Senate will take up the matter in some form, and Romney could be a critical player.
Twenty Senate Republicans would be needed along with every Democrat to convict Trump and remove him from office. For now, that’s clearly a long shot. But if more Republicans join Romney, Trump could be in trouble.
