Republican Lawmakers Back Trump on Ukraine Call, While Romney Calls It ‘Deeply Troubling’

One of the most notable Republican reactions to the Ukraine controversy has been Sen. Mitt Romney’s, and after the release of the call memo from the White House today, he called it “deeply troubling.”

Romney said at the Atlantic Festival event, “We’ll see where it leads. But the first reaction is troubling.”

He said the issue isn’t so much on “the quid pro quo element,” but the question of “if the President of the United States asks or presses the leader of a foreign country to carry out an investigation of a political nature.”

“That’s troubling, and I feel that,” Romney continued. “Clearly if there were a quid pro quo that would take it to an entirely more extreme level.”

On the question of potential “consequences” for the president, he said, “The consequences are being considered by the House, and I’m not going to give advice to Speaker Pelosi. She will do whatever she thinks is in the best interests of the country and in the best interests of her position of power and her party. And she’s pursuing that. We will see where that leads. There will be additional information that comes out as the whistleblower is heard from.”

For the most part — and as expected — Republicans are defending Trump and saying the call is not a big deal:

Wow. Impeachment over this?

What a nothing (non-quid pro quo) burger.

Democrats have lost their minds when it comes to President @realDonaldTrump.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) September 25, 2019

GOP defending Trump. Chris Stewart: “I think this is a great example of what the president said is true.“
Rep. Mike Conaway says there’s nothing wrong with Trump bringing up Bidens. “This is in context of draining the swamp. Both of them were talking about draining the swamp.”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) September 25, 2019

THIS is why @SpeakerPelosi launched impeachment? REALLY?

-No quid pro quo
-No discussion of foreign aid

To top it off, President Trump was asking Ukraine to look into serious and troubling issues regarding foreign interference in American elections.

— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) September 25, 2019

Besides @MittRomney, have not heard a single Republican senator express any concern.

Lankford, Grassley and Scott all dismiss or downplay the transcript

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) September 25, 2019

Justin Amash, the independent congressman who left the GOP earlier this year, also expressed serious concern about the call:

Again, it’s not just about a call, but even the call is a devastating indictment of the president.

Trump: We do a lot for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy: We are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes.

Trump: I would like you to do us a favor though.

— Justin Amash (@justinamash) September 25, 2019

Trump: I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike.…

The other thing, there’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do…

— Justin Amash (@justinamash) September 25, 2019

You can watch above, via CNN.