BREAKING: Mitt Romney Will Vote to Convict Trump Over ‘Appalling Abuse of Public Trust’

Charlie NashFeb 5th, 2020, 2:14 pm
 

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) announced he would vote to convict President Donald Trump on abuse of power in the Senate impeachment trial, Wednesday.

Romney made the announcement on the Senate floor, where he said that he didn’t believe President Trump would have sought an investigation into Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden and his dealings in Ukraine were it not for his name.

The senator, however, also revealed that he would vote to acquit President Trump on obstruction of Congress.

“I knew from the outset that being tasked with judging the president, the leader of my own party, would be the most difficult decision I have ever faced. I was not wrong,” he declared, adding, however, that, “There’s no question in my mind that were there names not Biden, the president would never have done what he did.”

Romney then called the president’s action’s “an appalling abuse of public trust,” and “a flagrant assault on our electoral rights, our national security, and our fundamental values,” before claiming that “corrupting an election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine.”

“I acknowledge that my verdict will not remove the president from office. The results of this Senate court will, in fact, be appealed to a higher court, the judgment of the American people. Voters will make the final decision, just as the president’s lawyers had implored,” Romney continued. “My vote will likely be in the minority in the Senate, but irrespective of these things, with my vote, I will tell my children and their children that I did my duty to the best of my ability believing that my country expected it of me.”

As noted by MSNBC host Chris Hayes, Romney will be the first senator in US history to “vote to remove a president of his own party.”

The story is developing and this article will be updated.

Watch above via CNN.

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