Poor Sen. Mitt Romney.
The Left is determined to dislike the guy, even though he is probably the most outspoken congressional Republican when it comes to President Trump’s excesses. It just goes to show you can be in complete agreement with the Left on certain issues, and they’ll still treat you as an enemy so long as you have an “R” next to your name.
The Utah senator appeared Sunday on CNN to discuss Trump’s latest alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, including reports that the commander in chief has privately floated the idea of declaring martial law and seizing voting machines.
“President Trump held a meeting on Friday in which he reportedly discussed with his disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn this deranged idea to declare martial law to force new elections in states that Biden won,” said cable host Jake Tapper.
The newsman added, “They also discussed appointing conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell as a special counsel to investigate her baseless claims of election fraud, and also issuing an executive order to seize voting machines. This is, needless to say, quite alarming and scary to a lot of people. What’s your response? What will Senate Republicans do to make sure none of this madness happens?”
Romney could not have been blunter in his response.
“Well, it’s not going to happen. That’s going nowhere,” said the senator. “And I understand the president is casting about, trying to find some way to have a different result than the one that was delivered by the American people. But it’s really sad, in a lot of respects, and embarrassing, because the president could right now be writing the last chapter of this administration with a victory lap with regards to the vaccine. After all, he pushed aggressively to get the vaccine developed and distributed. That’s happening on a quick time frame.”
Trump could end his presidency on a high note, Romney said, adding that the commander in chief could go out as the leader who helped lead the way on developing a vaccine for the virus.
“Instead,” Romney said, “he’s leaving Washington with a whole series of conspiracy theories and things that are so nutty and loopy that people are shaking their head, wondering, what in the world has gotten into this man?”
“And I think that’s unfortunate,” concluded the senator, “because he has more accomplishments than this last chapter suggests he’s going to be known for.”
A frank and unflattering assessment of the president by a member of his own party. It is the sort of criticism that the talking heads at networks such as CNN and MSNBC have been demanding of Republicans since Trump first rose to prominence within the GOP.
Yet, at MSNBC, even Romney’s remarks Sunday could not save him from the usual criticism from the usual suspects.
“[W]hat do you make of all this,” weekend host Jonathan Capehart asked of frequent MSNBC guest Brittney Cooper, “and do you share Senator Romney’s certitude that this isn’t going to happen: the martial law, the appointment of the special counsel, any of this?”
Responded Cooper, “Look, it must be so nice to be a white man in America today.”
“To have this sort of certainty to say that, you know, that this man who has flirted with staging a coup wouldn’t do it,” she added.
Later, Cooper parroted Romney’s exact point about the inevitability of the transition.
“And while I don’t think that he is going to avoid transition,” she said, “I do think that he is trying to create blows that we’re going to have scars and wounds from for many years and potentially many decades to come. And so is the moment to stay we incredibly vigilant and watch every move he makes.”
So, she agrees with Romney that there will be a transition, Trump’s protestations notwithstanding. It’s just that Cooper cannot help but reflexively attack the senator because, for the lefty talking head, he’s a Republican and Republican bad, even when there is agreement.
