Romney Reveals Republicans Wanted to Impeach Trump but Were Afraid of MAGA

Gage Skidmore | Flickr.com

Republican Senator Mitt Romney revealed to his biographer that threats of physical violence against them and their loved ones deterred elected Republicans who wanted to impeach or convict Donald Trump from doing so.

Romney’s biographer, McKay Coppins, announced this revelation during an interview with ex-CNN anchor Brian Stelter.

Coppins explained that Romney told him “story after story about Republican members of Congress, Republican senators, who at various points wanted to vote for impeachment—vote to convict Trump or vote to impeach Trump—and decided not to, not because they thought he was innocent, but because they were afraid for their family’s safety. They were afraid of what Trump supporters might do to them or to their families.”

Romney was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump for one of the charges levied against him in 2020. He became visibly emotional on the Senate floor as he announced his vote and explained his reasons for it. After Trump’s second impeachment in 2021, Romney and six other Republican Senators voted to convict.

These votes and Romney’s increasingly public criticism of Trump have been met with intense ire from MAGA supporters. So much so that he’s paid $5,000 per day since the January 6th insurrection “to cover private security” for his family.

The concerns of the nameless Republican officials Romney mentions are not without merit. The culture of fear and violence which animates the MAGA contingent of the Republican Party is well documented, from Trump’s ever-intensifying violent rhetoric to that of his supporters.

There are no signs of abatement. Nor do there seem to be signs of courage from elected Republicans who have allowed their party to devolve to this point.

The exception, of course, being Romney himself. Naturally, he’s retiring in 2024.