policy
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — With Mitt Romney set to retire from the U.S. Senate, Washington might be without one in all its harshest conservative critics of Donald Trump when the president retakes the White House in the brand new yr.
At a final news conference Friday in Salt Lake City, the outgoing senator reflected on his two-decade political profession, which included the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, a term as governor of Massachusetts and several other clashes with Trump loyalists in Congress.
In what can have been his final swipe at Trump, Romney reiterated his concerns concerning the recent president's character and his “relaxed relationship with the truth.” He said he hopes his own legacy might be that he stayed true to his values.
Romney, 77, decided to not run for re-election this yr after representing Utah within the Senate since 2019. He said he has reached the top of his profession as an elected official and needs to concentrate on bringing more young people into politics after he leaves office in January.
Romney, once the standard-bearer of the Republican Party, watched his brand of moderate conservatism morph from establishment to outlier as Trump swept the party.
“I'm just a small part of what we used to call the mainstream Republicans, if you will,” Romney told reporters Friday. “The stream has become a little smaller. It's more like the Main Creek Republicans. At some point it will be under the sand and we will have to dig it out.”
He became the voice of Congress's centrist core, leading negotiations on the bipartisan $550 billion infrastructure bill – one in all the Biden administration's crowning achievements – and a significant COVID-19 relief package.
Political observers fear his departure could create a vacuum of strong centrist voices that may keep bipartisanship alive at a time of accelerating polarization in Washington.
Under Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress, bipartisanship could well be dormant, Romney said. But he doesn't think moderates should hand over hope that the GOP could reverse its rightward shift.
“There's kind of a divide between Republican voters and Republican politics that could provide an opportunity for some kind of realignment,” he said, noting that the party now includes many working-class voters but tends to oppose the minimum wage Raises and pro-union policies.
Romney's successor within the Senate might be Republican U.S. Rep. John Curtis, who has developed a fame for pushing back against party leaders like Trump who falsely claim that climate change is a hoax. Eyes might be on Curtis and other moderate Republicans who could break with the party within the votes to substantiate Trump's Cabinet picks.
In 2020, Romney became the primary senator in U.S. history to vote to convict a president of his own party in an impeachment trial. He was the one Republican in Congress to vote to convict Trump in each impeachment trials. Trump was acquitted by the Senate each times.
Earlier this yr, Romney pledged to not vote for Trump but declined to affix another senior Republicans in supporting Democrat Kamala Harris, saying he desired to preserve his future ability to assist transform the Republican Party .
image credit : www.boston.com