Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney will not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president regardless of his outspoken criticisms of former President Trump.
“I’ve made it very clear that I don’t need Donald Trump to be the following president of the US,” Romney mentioned on Tuesday on the Hinckley Institute of Politics on the College of Utah, the New York Occasions reported.
“I wish to proceed to have a voice within the Republican Social gathering following this election. I believe there’s a superb probability that the Republican Social gathering goes to must be rebuilt or reoriented,” he later added through the political discussion board.
Romney introduced final yr that he wouldn’t search re-election as a senator representing the Beehive State, and can go away workplace in January. The Republican has lengthy criticized Trump, and indicated in June that he was unlikely to assist the forty fifth president’s re-election.
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Sen. Mitt Romney speaks to the media in his workplace within the Russell Senate Workplace Constructing in Washington on Sept. 13, 2023. (Invoice Clark/CQ-Roll Name, Inc through Getty Pictures)
“With President Trump, it’s a matter of private character,” Romney informed CNN on the time. “I draw a line and say when somebody has been really discovered to have been sexually assaulted, that’s one thing I simply received’t cross over within the individual I would not wish to have as president of the US.” Romney’s feedback referred to a federal jury’s determination in New York Metropolis final yr, which dominated Trump was not answerable for the rape of E. Jean Carroll, although the previous president was answerable for sexual abuse and defamation.
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Vice President Kamala Harris speaks throughout a marketing campaign occasion in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Rebecca Droke/Bloomberg through Getty Pictures)
Romney has additionally slammed Trump for Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters of the then-president breached the U.S. Capitol, arguing Trump incited an rebel attributable to his “injured satisfaction” over the 2020 election. Romney subsequently was one in all seven Republican members of the Senate who voted to question Trump over Jan. 6.
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Romney was additionally the one Republican who voted to question Trump in 2020 over abuse of energy and obstruction of Congress fees. Trump was acquitted in each impeachment circumstances, and is the one president in historical past who was impeached twice and acquitted twice.
VP Kamala Harris, Sen. Mitt Romney and former President Trump (Getty Pictures)
Trump has additionally hit again at Romney, saying in 2020 that the Utah senator “cannot stand the truth that he ran one of many worst campaigns within the historical past of the presidency,” referring to his 2012 bid for the White Home, and calling him a “shame” that very same yr for voting to question.
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Although Romney has beforehand damaged with the GOP on different key points, he indicated Tuesday that he won’t provide his endorsement to Harris regardless of different Republicans not too long ago throwing their assist behind the vp. Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney formally endorsed Harris final week and joined her on the marketing campaign path in Wisconsin, whereas former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake additionally endorsed Harris.
Fox Information Digital reached out to Romney’s workplace for added touch upon the matter, however didn’t instantly obtain a reply.
Fox Information Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this text.
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