Donald Trump acquitted: why Mitt Romney rebelled
Longstanding critic spoke of God and his own place in history
Mitt Romney of Utah was the only Republican senator to cross the aisle and vote to convict Donald Trump, as the US president was cleared overnight in his impeachment trial.
In what CNN describes as a “stirring and emotional speech on the Senate floor”, Romney broke with his party and voted to convict Trump on abuse of power.
In doing so, he became the only senator in history to vote to remove a president from his own party in an impeachment trial.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“Wow,” tweeted Ben Riley-Smith, the US editor of The Daily Telegraph. “Just been in Senate as Mitt Romney delivered an absolutely scathing rebuke of Trump.”
He added that Romney “held hands clasped as if in prayer” during a speech “heavy with history and God”.
Romney said it was his faith that guided his decision to rebel against his party. “I am a profoundly religious person,” he said. “I take an oath before God as enormously consequential.”
He also spoke of his place in history, adding: “My promise before God to apply impartial justice required that I put my personal feelings and biases aside.
“Were I to ignore the evidence that has been presented, and disregard what I believe my oath and the Constitution demands of me for the sake of a partisan end, it would, I fear, expose my character to history's rebuke and the censure of my own conscience.”
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––For a round-up of the most important stories from around the world - and a concise, refreshing and balanced take on the week’s news agenda - try The Week magazine. Start your trial subscription today –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
The Atlantic reminds us that Romney “famously opposed Trump’s candidacy in 2016, and while the rest of his party has fallen in line since then, he has remained stubbornly independent”.
It says Romney found the case presented by the president’s defence team “unpersuasive” and was “unmoved” by the Trump attorney Alan Dershowitz’s arguments.
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jnr, had his own theory for the rebellion. “Mitt Romney is forever bitter that he will never be POTUS,” he tweeted. “He was too weak to beat the Democrats then so he's joining them now.”
The president himself has held a grudge against Romney since 2016, when the senator denounced him as a “phony”, a “fraud” and warned of “trickle-down racism” if he became president.
“In our increasingly predictable partisan world”, Romney’s rebellion “was as close to a surprise as Washington is still capable of”, writes Susan B. Glasser in the New Yorker.
But she says the “wrenching truth” about Romney’s vote is that it “did not matter to the final, preordained outcome”.
In the end, says Glasser, Trump’s acquittal “makes him the president he always wanted to be: inescapable and utterly unaccountable”.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Today's political cartoons - November 24, 2024
Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - taped bananas, flying monkeys, and more
By The Week US Published
-
The Spanish cop, 20 million euros and 13 tonnes of cocaine
In the Spotlight Óscar Sánchez Gil, Chief Inspector of Spain's Economic and Tax Crimes Unit, has been arrested for drug trafficking
By The Week UK Published
-
5 hilarious cartoons about the rise and fall of Matt Gaetz
Cartoons Artists take on age brackets, backbiting, and more
By The Week US Published
-
What might happen if Trump eliminates the Department Of Education?
Today's Big Question The president-elect says the federal education agency is on the chopping block
By Theara Coleman, The Week US Published
-
Gaetz bows out, Trump pivots to Pam Bondi
Speed Read Gaetz withdrew from attorney generation consideration, making way for longtime Trump loyalist Pam Bondi
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Brendan Carr, Trump's FCC pick, takes aim at Big Tech
In the Spotlight The next FCC commissioner wants to end content moderation practices on social media sites
By David Faris Published
-
'This needs to be a bigger deal'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
The political latitude of Musk's cost-cutting task force
Talking Points A $2 trillion goal. And big obstacles in the way.
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
John Prescott: was he Labour's last link to the working class?
Today's Big Quesiton 'A total one-off': tributes have poured in for the former deputy PM and trade unionist
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
New York DA floats 4-year Trump sentencing freeze
Speed Read President-elect Donald Trump's sentencing is on hold, and his lawyers are pushing to dismiss the case while he's in office
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Last hopes for justice for UK's nuclear test veterans
Under the Radar Thousands of ex-service personnel say their lives have been blighted by aggressive cancers and genetic mutations
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published