Romney the Truth Teller

In “Romney: A Reckoning,” Senator Mitt Romney discloses his concerns about Trump and his current Republican colleagues. The book is due out Oct. 24 and excerpted by The Atlantic, author McKay Coppins.

“A very large portion of my party,” he told Coppins, “really doesn’t believe in the Constitution.”

“I don’t know that I can disrespect someone more than J. D. Vance. I do wonder, how do you make that decision? How can you go over a line so stark as that — and for what?” the veteran politician vented. “It’s not like you’re going to be famous and powerful because you became a United States senator. It’s like, ‘Really? You sell yourself so cheap?’”

On January 2, 2021, Senator Angus King (I-ME) warned Romney that credible information showed extremists online planning to attack the government on January 6 to stop what Trump had told them was the stealing of the 2020 presidential election. They talked of guns and arson and bombs, and they talked of targeting the traitors in Congress. Romney promptly texted then–Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to recount the conversation.

“There are calls to burn down your home, Mitch; to smuggle guns into DC, and to storm the Capitol,” Romney wrote. “I hope that sufficient security plans are in place, but I am concerned that the instigator—the President—is the one who commands the reinforcements the DC and Capitol police might require.”

McConnell never answered.