Mitt Romney’s Lonely Vote

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2020

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

President Trump was acquitted by the Senate on Wednesday of both articles of impeachment. While the vote largely fell along party lines, one senator crossed the aisle to vote to convict him. Today, we hear from Senator Mitt Romney about that choice. Guest: Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, who spoke with Mark Leibovich, the Washington-based chief national correspondent for The New York Times Magazine. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background reading: In a speech before voting to convict, Mr. Romney grew emotional as he pronounced the president “guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust.”“I think this is Senator Romney’s moment to shine,” Senator Amy Klobuchar said before the vote, “I hope he can bring some people with him.” Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at Mr. Romney’s isolation in the Senate and the expectations placed on him before his vote.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From New York Times, unlike Obabaro, this is the Daily.
0:11.0	Today, President Donald Trump is acquitted of both articles of impeachment.
0:19.0	Just one senator crossed party lines to vote to convict him.
0:26.0	A conversation with Mitt Romney about that decision.
0:39.0	It's Thursday, February 6th.
0:46.0	Mark Liepovich, tell me about these conversations that you've been having with Senator Mitt Romney.
0:51.0	Mitt Romney has always fascinated me as a wild card in his political life as a moderate governor of Massachusetts.
0:58.0	As a, quote, severely conservative presidential candidate in 2012.
1:03.0	Then, as a critic of Donald Trump, when Donald Trump took over the party, then as a potential Donald Trump cabinet member when he talked to him about being Secretary of State in 2016.
1:14.0	Then, as a Senate candidate, someone who, I wouldn't say embraced Donald Trump, but someone who certainly didn't push him away.
1:21.0	And then, as a senator, someone who has been fairly unshiet times about defying Donald Trump being critical of him.
1:29.0	Right. Somebody who has seen as ideologically malleable, someone who's seen as inconsistent.
1:34.0	Correct. And in this impeachment proceeding, he has been the ultimate wild card.
1:39.0	No one knew what he was going to do really. People had ideas back and forth, but you never know what you're going to get with Mitt Romney.
1:45.0	So, I had been asking his office, and I'm certainly not the only reporter who had been asking whether I could hang around with him a little bit, whether I could actually go through this process with him, which I figured was a bit of a long shot because he's been in such demand.
1:58.0	And to my surprise last week, like, right as we were leading up to the big vote on witnesses, Mitt Romney agreed to sit down with me.
2:06.0	Thank you again. You really are. We went up to his hideaway office, which is like a kind of real office.
2:13.0	It's like a remote office. Every senator gets one. I hear this question. We were taking a nap in here. I have not.
2:19.0	And Mitt Romney was just filled with M&Ms. Oh my God. He not M&Ms. This was like a little break in the proceedings. So we didn't have a lot of time.
2:26.0	I feel your body language. So I'm going to be real quick here.
2:30.0	And I was amazed at how open he was about the kinds of things he was thinking about.
2:37.0	Hello. Hi. Good to see you. Good to see you.
	...

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