Romney Says a Trump Endorsement Won’t Affect How Republican Senators Choose McConnell’s Replacement
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that a potential endorsement from Donald Trump will not affect how his Republican colleagues vote when choosing a new leader.
On Wednesday, Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 82, (R-KY) announced he is stepping down as GOP leader. In all likelihood, he will be replaced by John.
Typically, new congressional party leaders are chosen among members of existing leadership. In the case of the Senate Republicans, the high-ranking non-McConnell senators are Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) and Conference Chair John Barrasso (R-WY). Also in the mix is former whip John Cornyn (R-TX).
Appearing on Wednesday’s edition of The Source, Romney, who is retiring from the Senate at the end of his term in January, discussed the GOP succession plan. Collins asked if he is worried Trump will hold sway over the outcome.
“Do you have a concern that the litmus test for that is going to be loyalty to Donald Trump?” she asked.
Here is how the senator responded to Collins, as well as their subsequent exchange:
ROMNEY: No, I don’t think that’s how senators will vote. I mean, there’ll be some, there’ll be some who’ll be interested in what the president thinks and who he might endorse, the former president. But I think, you know, we’ve got three leading candidates right now. The Johns, if you will – John Barrasso, John Thune, John Cornyn. People jokingly say, “I’m for John.” And I think they’re pretty safe and saying that.
If President Trump were to say, “I’m for this one versus that one,” I don’t think, again, these 49 or 50 Republican senators are going to say, “Oh, I’m gonna do what Donald Trump tells me to do.”
This is a pretty headstrong group. We think we’re pretty good, and people like me actually ran for president once. And we’ve got a bunch of guys who ran for president.
COLLINS: Yeah, but you’re different in this sense of how you stand up. I mean, we just saw Trump’s influence on the immigration bill in the Senate, that bipartisan bill with foreign aid that came out. He did have a lot of influence on at least some of those Republican senators.
ROMNEY: Yeah, I think on various issues he will have an influence. I think he has more influence in the House than he does in the Senate. But I think by and large, senators vote their conscience. They do what they think is the right thing for their constituents, for their reelection, for the country. And so I don’t, I don’t think that they salute and take direction either from Mitch McConnell or from Donald Trump.
Watch above via CNN.
