Mitt Romney announced his retirement from the U.S. Senate on Thursday afternoon. He will not run for re-election in 2024. He didn’t want to retire quietly.
As he was being questioned by reporters following the news, a Utah Senator gave Joe Biden an enormous gift regarding the newly launched impeachment investigation targeting the current President. Romney said he had not heard of any allegations that could be considered a misdemeanor or a crime.
Romney, who voted to remove Donald Trump from office over a phone call where he asked Zelenskyy a question about Biden’s corruption, says on the Biden impeachment inquiry “I haven’t heard any allegation that would rise to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor.” pic.twitter.com/31a0FK03Gr
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 13, 2023
ROMNEY: I’ve heard that the House has begun an impeachment investigation. I’ve never heard of anything that would be considered a serious crime or misdemeanor. It would be unusual for an impeachment to be referred. I didn’t expect it.
It’s usually better to keep quiet if there is nothing to say. This applies in this case. Romney tells the press whatever they want to hear, ignoring the allegations and the level of evidence.
The primary accusation is bribery. Even though I am not a constitutional scholar or expert, I believe that bribery is a serious crime. How do I know this? The impeachment provision in Article II, section 4 of the U.S. Constitution lists bribery. The idea that “allegations” do not currently reach the level of high crimes and misdemeanors is absurd.
There is plenty of evidence to support your argument. Joe Biden has hosted his son’s business partners both on the phone as well as in person, multiple times. In one instance, a Russian businessman who had paid the Bidens millions of dollars received a formal dinner and was also left off the sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine. Hunter Biden’s emails and texts that implicate his dad, including accusations of money being exchanged, are not important.
It’s laughable to say that there isn’t enough smoke for an impeachment investigation. Remember that Donald Trump’s impeachment investigation was opened based on the words of a single witness. We are told, however, that multiple whistleblowers or multiple connections are not enough. Intellectual honesty would not allow anyone to believe this.
The worst thing about Romney’s comments is that they pre-judge the issue before it has even been thoroughly investigated. How does he even know that it would be “very uncommon” to refer to an impeachment case? Has he seen the documents which will be eventually subpoenaed by the court? Has he a deep understanding of Joe Biden’s financial situation? Again, it is prudent to refrain from commenting. Even if Romney was skeptical, he had no authority to say what the result of the investigation should or would be.
Romney’s decision to defend Biden in the end is one of the main reasons why he is not popular with Republican voters. This is part of a pattern where Romney has sided with Democrats to the detriment of his own party.
