Sen. Mitt Romney speaks with Doug Wright on Thursday Feb. 6, 2020 on Sunday Edition. (Colby Walker | KSLNewsRadio)
SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, doesn’t know how history will view him after he became the first senator in United States history to vote to impeach a president from his own political party.
Romney joined Doug Wright on KSL TV’s Sunday Edition to discuss his vote to convict President Donald Trump on Article 1, Abuse of Power.Preview Changes (opens in a new tab)
“I’m on the president’s team, I’m a Republican, I’m a conservative, I vote with him. But when asked, ‘did he do something that violates the constitution,’ the answer is yes,” Romney said.
“I have a hard time thinking of something that’s a more destructive abusive attack on our constitutional democracy than trying to corrupt an election. An election is a vehicle whereby the power of the people is given to a small number of people. To corrupt that to maintain power is about a serious a violation as I can imagine,” he added.
Romney says he spent a long time wrestling with his vote and was in close contact with his family.
The senator told Doug Wright he doesn’t know how history will view him, but he knows how his family will.
I will be comfortable as I face the judgment of God that I did what I believe was right. And to whether or not it was right, time will tell, but I do believe that I was doing exactly what I swore to do.
“This is a massive political risk,” Atlantic writer McKay Coppins told Dave and Dujanovic, a risk that will bring consequences to him and his family.
“He’s not going to be the only one that’s bearing the brunt of the backlash,” Coppins said, relating a story the senator told him of being in Florida the week before. Someone shouted at the window to him and his wife while they were walking, calling them traitors.
Coppins met with Romney on Tuesday in his office, where the senator spoke of his upcoming vote and quoted to him a popular Latter-day Saint hymn called Do What is Right.
“I just have to do what my conscience tells me,” Romney told Coppins.
You can see the full interview that Senator Mitt Romney had with Doug Wright this Sunday at 9 am on KSL TV’s Sunday Edition.