Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) told the Atlantic on Sunday that he believes the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry investigating President Donald Trump will serve as an “inflection point in American history.”
Atlantic staff writer McKay Coppins released an interview on Sunday detailing extended conversations with Romney regarding his views on the U.S. Senate, his attacks on President Trump, as well as his opinions on impeachment.
Coppins wrote that while most Republicans have backed the president amidst the impeachment inquiry, Romney continues to stay “open to the idea that the president may need to be evicted from the Oval Office.”
Sen. Romney said that he believes that the potential impeachment will serve as a critical juncture in American history.
“I do think people will view this as an inflection point in American history,” Romney said.
“I don’t look at myself as being a historical figure,” the failed 2012 Republican presidential candidate said. However, Romney adds, “I do think these are critical times. And I hope that what I’m doing will open the way for people to take a different path.”
Sen. Romney also suggested that Trump’s performance in office is directly linked to his character.
“Berating another person, or calling them names, or demeaning a class of people, not telling the truth—those are not private things,” Romney said. “If during the campaign you pay a porn star $130,000, that now comes into the public domain.”
After Utah elected Romney to become the state’s junior senator, he wrote out a list of 50-plus priorities he hopes to accomplish in the U.S. Senate. These include “overhauling the immigration system, reducing the deficit, addressing climate change,” as well as “compensating college athletes and regulating the vaping industry.”
Sen. Romney also told the Atlantic that he does not have a strict definition of “high crimes and misdemeanors” or actions that might warrant impeachment. When asked how to identify an impeachable act, he cited Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s line for defining pornography, “I’ll know it when I see it.”
When asked whether he has seen impeachable offenses yet, the Utah senator said he would make up his mind after he sees the evidence at an impeachment trial, saying, “At this stage, I am strenuously avoiding trying to make any judgment.”
Romney then suggested that President Trump’s electoral coalition of working-class Americans will not be replicable in the long run.
“We have to get young people and Hispanics and African Americans to vote Republican,” Romney said.
However, despite Romney’s claim, President Trump outperformed Romney amongst Hispanics and black Americans.
Romney’s claim contrasts with Sen. Josh Hawley’s vision for the GOP, which revolves around the Republican Party representing the American middle class.
Sen. Hawley told Breitbart News in an interview in September that if the Republican Party “wants to have a future,” it will have to become a movement of working people.”
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
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