Chris Wallace Warns Mitt Romney: ‘This is War. Donald Trump Will Never Forgive You For This’
Senator Mitt Romney’s (R-UT) vote to convict President Donald Trump — which was announced Wednesday on the Senate floor and is all but certain to be a standalone among Republicans — is guaranteed to heighten tensions between the commander in chief and his party nemesis. Moments after the vote became public, one prominent journalist took pains to emphasize to Romney the implications of his decision to convict.
Speaking with the senator in an interview taped prior to the announcement (but one in which Romney had made his vote clear), Fox News anchor Chris Wallace warned that the president will not soon forget about this historic stand.
“You realize this is war,” Wallace said. “Donald Trump will never forgive you for this.”
“I know in my heart that I’m doing what’s right,” Romney replied. “I understand there’s going to be enormous consequence. And I don’t have a choice in that regard. That’s why I haven’t been anxious to be in the position I’m in. When I heard there was going to be an impeachment investigation, as I heard the evidence coming forward, I dreaded the responsibility I’d have. But I was not willing to abdicate the responsibility given to me by the Constitution, nor to ignore my conscience out of personal and political significance, considerations. I had to follow my conscience.”
Wallace referenced a Trump tweet from April in which he wrote, “If Mitt Romney spent the same energy fighting Barack Obama back in 2012 as he does fighting Donald Trump, he could have won the race (maybe)!”
“You’ve got to know that’s nothing compared to what he’s going to say about you now,” Wallace said.
Romney told Wallace that he realizes that the backlash will be intense.
“I understand it will be substantial,” Romney said. “And I have to recognize that it was one or the other. One is to say I don’t want to face the blowback, not just from the president but from my party, my state, from Republican voters. They will ascribe all sorts of motives and so forth. And those are all the consequences.
“But on the other side, there is: do you do what you know is right? Do you do what your conscience in your heart tells you? Do you abide by the oath that you swore to God? And I believe in God and I believe I have a responsibility to put that first went to put all the other consequences behind.”
Watch above, via Fox News.
