Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins was “appalled” by the Utah GOP’s censure vote on Saturday of Sen. Mitt Romney, who was met by a chorus of boos when he took the stage.
Utah Republicans voted 798-711 to defeat the censure resolution toward the end of the party’s meeting. Romney moved to “remove Trump from office in two illegitimate impeachment trials,” which “hurt the constitution and hurt the party,” said Davis County Del. Don Guymon, who wrote the resolution.
Collins defended Romney on Sunday and said the party should not be helmed by “one person,” potentially referring to former President Donald Trump.
UTAH GOP MOTION TO CENSURE MITT ROMNEY NARROWLY FAILS
“I was appalled,” Collins told CNN’s Jake Tapper of the censure vote and jeering. “Mitt Romney is an outstanding senator who serves his state and our country well.”
She continued: “We Republicans need to remember that we are united by fundamental principles such as belief in personal responsibility, individual freedom, opportunity, free markets, a strong national defense. Those are the principles that unite us. We are not a party that is just led by one person. There are many prominent, upcoming, younger men and women in our party who hold great promise for leading us.”
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a Trump critic, was another prominent Republican who faced backlash from her party after she was seen elbow-bumping President Joe Biden ahead of his first congressional address Wednesday.
Collins backed Cheney, who told her colleagues that she and Biden are not “sworn enemies.”
“Liz Cheney is a woman of strength and conscience, and she did what she thought was right, and I salute her for that,” Collins said. “We need to be accepting of differences in our party. We don’t want to become like too much of the Democratic Party, which has been taken over by the progressive left.”
Collins herself nearly faced a censure vote after she moved forward with the effort to convict Trump of inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection. She, alongside Romney and Cheney, has quickly become a leading voice in opposing the former president after he departed the White House on Jan. 20.
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The Maine senator refused to indicate who she voted for in the 2020 presidential election and said she continues to keep her ballot “private.”
“Nice try, Jake. I got asked that a great deal, and I’m going to keep my vote private,” she said. “To me, the election was all about who could better represent Maine and the country. I will work with whomever is the president.”
