Mitt Romney Says He's Already Cast His 2020 Ballot and It Wasn't for Trump
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah has already voted in the 2020 election, and like in 2016, the former GOP presidential nominee did not vote for President Donald Trump, according to a report.
CNN’s Manu Raju posted on Twitter that he had a brief conversation with Romney on Wednesday in which the former Massachusetts governor disclosed he voted early.
Romney told the CNN reporter he had already cast a ballot, but did not disclose which candidate he voted for, other than to say he ruled out one man on the ballot.
“I did not vote for President Trump,” he said, per Raju.
Mitt Rommey told me he already voted in the elections but he wouldn’t say if he voted for Joe Biden or wrote someone else in.
“I did not vote for President Trump,” he said
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 21, 2020
The report, if true, would come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Romney’s strained relationship with both Trump and his GOP colleagues in the Senate.
Romney of course made history earlier this year when he became the only sitting senator to vote to impeach a president when that president was a member of his own party.
Romney voted to convict Trump in the largely partisan House impeachment proceedings on one of two counts brought to the Senate by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
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He voted to convict Trump on a charge of “abuse of power.”
The New York Times reported Romney later said, “Attempting to corrupt an election to maintain power is about as egregious an assault on the Constitution as can be made.”
Romney also called Trump “guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust.”
Since losing by a wide margin to former President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, Romney has become somewhat of a fringe outlier in Republican politics.
He courted Trump’s endorsement for his 2012 presidential bid, and after gaining that endorsement, Time reported Romney said, “Donald Trump has shown an extraordinary ability to understand how the economy works. … it means a great deal to me to have the endorsement of Mr. Trump.”
Romney also later accepted Trump’s endorsement during his 2018 bid for Utah’s Senate seat.
In the run-up to Trump clinching the GOP nomination in 2016, both men sniped at each other online:
The difference between @SenJohnMcCain and @realDonaldTrump: Trump shot himself down. McCain and American veterans are true heroes.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) July 18, 2015
Why would anybody listen to @MittRomney? He lost an election that should have easily been won against Obama. By the way,so did John McCain!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2015
Romney posted a congratulatory tweet regarding Trump’s stunning 2016 election victory.
Best wishes for our duly elected president: May his victory speech be his guide and preserving the Republic his aim.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) November 9, 2016
Trump responded with kind words of his own:
Mitt Romney called to congratulate me on the win. Very nice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2016
But the rest is now history, and Romney’s attitude toward Trump since 2015 has made him a GOP pariah.
CNN reported that Romney revealed following the 2016 election he did not vote for Trump, but instead wrote in the name of his wife on his ballot.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
