Romney expects 'it's going to get very lonely' after he votes to convict Trump

"You realize," Fox News' Chris Wallace told Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Wednesday, "this is war."

He was referring to the fact that Romney announced on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon he plans to vote to convict President Trump for abuse of power. After this news hit, Fox News aired an interview with Romney taped earlier in the day, during which the Utah Republican spoke about the inevitable fallout within the Republican Party to this decision.

"It is the last decision I wanted to take," Romney said. "The personal consequences, the political consequences that fall on me as a result of that are going to be extraordinary."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

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.

Sign up

But Romney said he feels he "has to" vote this way after concluding that "what the president did was grievously wrong." Going forward, Romney agreed with Wallace's assessment that it's going to get quite "lonely" for him in Washington, D.C.

"Yeah, it's going to get very lonely," Romney said. "And again, the consequences are significant. ... There has not been a morning since this process began that I slept beyond 4 a.m."

Wallace reminded Romney that Trump "will never forgive you for this," which seems like a safe assumption. Already, Donald Trump Jr. has tweeted that Romney "should be expelled from" the Senate Republican Conference. Brendan Morrow