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Last Wednesday, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) announced in an interview with the Washington Post that he will not run for re-election in 2024. Washington Post
Also last Wednesday, The Atlanticpublished an excerpt from a forthcoming biography of Romney. The Atlantic
The right is critical of Romney’s changes of heart on numerous issues.
“Throughout his political career, Romney has been the right man in the wrong time… If you were choosing a leader for any sort of enterprise, Mitt Romney is the kind of man you would pick: smart, polished, incorruptible, tireless, focused on the goal and on leaving nobody in his charge behind… Political leadership in America, however, is not just about management. It is fundamentally a contest of ideas…
“For all of Romney’s earnestness, he always struck me as a man deeply cynical about politics (in large part because of the traumatic experience of seeing his father’s reputation destroyed over a single poor word choice) and utterly lacking in political principles. That’s how he told equally persuasive stories about his conversions to the pro-choice and pro-life causes at different stages of his career. As I wrote in 2012, ‘The dual conversion narrative leaves both positions sounding hollow and insincere: St. Paul only went to Damascus the one time.’”
Dan McLaughlin, National Review
“Mitt Romney’s first and final belief is in Mitt Romney. This is why he left his home state of Michigan first to build a fortune… As chairman of one of the largest private investment firms on the planet, Romney was complicit in the theft of innumerable American jobs… It is why, in that first successful campaign, Romney abandoned any pretense of both principle and conservatism, racing his opponent to the left on abortion, homosexuality, and just about everything else besides a promise to cut taxes…
“It is why he ran for president of the United States in 2012. It did not matter that Rick Santorum could win half a dozen crucial Rust Belt states where the chairman of Bain Capital would not have a prayer in a general election…
“It did not matter that he would have to reverse or deny virtually every position he had taken in the previous ten years if he hoped to deceive a Republican electorate, nor that this duplicity would crush his party’s chances in November. It did not matter that, through all of this, he had the gall to call his opponents two-faced.”
Declan Leary, American Conservative
“Romney has a reported net worth of more than a quarter-billion dollars, a Park City ski chalet, a New Hampshire vacation home, a 6,000 square-foot mansion in Utah, a Washington townhome, a still-silver vixen of a wife, five sons, 24 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. If you were a still-able-bodied and spry 76-year-old with all of the above, why on Earth would you choose to squabble with Biden or Trump in the swamp rather than rotate through your multiple properties and dozens of happy family members?…
“While fiscal hawks and pragmatic moderates will surely miss Romney's pursuit of policy deals rather than Twitter clout, Romney is right to quit while he's ahead. In demonstrating his dignity, Romney has shown respect for an electorate that deserves better than to be governed by decrepit despots so consumed with their power that they cannot fathom a younger generation can represent themselves any better.”
Tiana Lowe Doescher, Washington Examiner
The left highlights Romney’s criticism of the GOP, and particularly his statements about threats of far-right violence.
The left highlights Romney’s criticism of the GOP, and particularly his statements about threats of far-right violence.
“[The book excerpt] is a horror movie of GOP cowardice and hypocrisy, delivered with astonishing specificity: We learn of Sen. Mitch McConnell describing Trump as ‘an idiot. He doesn’t think when he says things.’ We meet various Senate Republicans who ‘played their parts as Trump loyalists,’ in public, yet in private, ‘they ridiculed his ignorance, rolled their eyes at his antics, and made incisive observations about his warped, toddlerlike psyche.’ Trump briefs a fawning GOP caucus lunch that gives him a standing ovation, then explodes in laughter when he leaves the room.”
Dahlia Lithwick, Slate
“‘One Republican congressman confided to Romney that he wanted to vote for Trump’s second impeachment, but chose not to out of fear for his family’s safety,’ Coppins writes. ‘The congressman reasoned that Trump would be impeached by House Democrats with or without him — why put his wife and children at risk if it wouldn’t change the outcome? Later, during the Senate trial, Romney heard the same calculation while talking with a small group of Republican colleagues.’…
“Even if there was no credible threat against the legislators with whom Romney spoke, the threat was perceived as credible and it affected their decision-making. Sure, they might simply have been pointing at this fear as a rationale for taking the position popular with their base but, again, this was in the immediate aftermath of the riot. What senator present in the Capitol that day wouldn’t think a viable threat existed?”
Philip Bump, Washington Post
“The significance of this admission cannot be understated. It reveals that the violent threat from the extremist right did not end after the Capitol was retaken on January 6; indeed, the threat of violence had more effect in the days afterward, swaying the votes of terrified legislators. The failure to convict Trump is one of the most consequential decisions in American history. Had Republicans kept their nerve, Trump would now be disqualified for the presidency, rather than poised to retake it. That decision was arrived at not through conviction, or even political calculation, but functionally at gunpoint…
“What comes through with depressing clarity in Coppins’s account is the vast disconnect between Romney’s public and private assessments of his party. Behind closed doors, he scathingly indicts the GOP as a proto-authoritarian formation. In public, he only hints at these beliefs.”
Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine
“Romney’s announcement wasn’t all doom and gloom. He expressed hope that his vision for the party might ultimately win the day. ‘If it can change in the direction of a populist,’ Romney told Balz of his party, ‘it can change back in the direction of my wing of the Republican Party.’ He added, ‘I think we have the leverage of being right, and in the final analysis, right will prevail.’ The problem is that those willing to try to push the party in that ‘right’ direction keep leaving, often voluntarily or with a not-so-friendly nudge from GOP primary voters.”
Aaron Blake, Washington Post
