Republican governor says Trump should have been removed from office

“I believe that the president abused his powers. It’s hard, in some respects for me, because I’m not a supporter. I didn’t vote for the president, and I don’t believe that he should be in office,” Scott said. “I think it’s for the voters to decide in November whether he should continue in that role.”

He also argued that additional witnesses should have been allowed to testify, adding, “If they’d taken more testimony, maybe they’d have had more information, and maybe other senators would have acted appropriately.”

Romney, the junior senator from Utah, was the Republican to vote against President Trump during the impeachment trial, and he has since taken a lot of criticism from fellow Republicans, including barbs from the president. Scott lauded Romney’s decision to vote against the president despite the backlash that was sure to follow.

“I believe, as Sen. Romney did, that he shouldn’t be in office,” Scott explained, later adding, “It shows a lot about his character and integrity. We can only hope that if we are in that same, similar situation that we’d do the same.”

Scott, who was elected in 2017, has routinely criticized Trump. He was the first Republican governor to announce support for the impeachment investigation in September and has supported several liberal policies, including strengthened gun control laws and support for abortion access.

Scott is one of few Republicans elected to major offices in Vermont. Both senators, Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy, caucus with Democrats in the Senate. In 2016, Hillary Clinton defeated Trump by more than 25 percentage points in Vermont.