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READ IT: Here’s The Note Romney Gave To Every Republican Ahead Of The Impeachment Vote

   DailyWire.com
Senator Mitt Romney(R-UT)speaks to the media as he arrives during the impeachment trial of US President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill January 29, 2020, in Washington, DC. - The fight over calling witnesses to testify in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial intensified January 28, 2020 after Trump's lawyers closed their defense calling the abuse of power charges against him politically motivated. Democrats sought to have the Senate subpoena former White House national security advisor John Bolton to provide evidence after leaks from his forthcoming book suggested he could supply damning evidence against Trump. . (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

After weeks of speculation about which senators might vote against the party line, the U.S. Senate voted on the Democrats’ two articles of impeachment against President Trump on Wednesday, and only of the 100 senators defected on one of the articles —frequent Trump critic Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) voted “guilty” on “Abuse of Power,” which ultimately failed 48-52. Ahead of the vote, the Utah senator delivered a hand-signed note to each of his Republican colleagues.

The note, obtained and published by Axios, was delivered to Republican senators’ individual boxes in the Senate cloakroom ahead of the vote Wednesday. In it, Romney defends the decision that he predicts will result in immense backlash against him, including from President Trump, insisting that his vote is “an act of conviction” stemming from the seriousness with which he takes his oath, “before God, to exercise ‘impartial justice.'”

“Does anyone seriously believe I would consent to these consequences other than from an inescapable conviction that my oath before God demanded it of me?” he asks in the letter, which is an excerpted version of his official statement on his decision.

“As a Senator-juror, I swore an oath, before God, to exercise ‘impartial justice,'” Romney’s hand-signed letter to his peers begins. “I am a profoundly religious person. I take an oath before God as enormously consequential. I knew from the outset that being tasked with judging the President, the leader of my own party, would be the most difficult decision I have ever faced. I was not wrong.”

“Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and disruptive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine,” he continues.

“I am aware that there are people in my party and in my state who will strenuously disapprove of my decision, and in some quarters, I will be vehemently denounced,” he states. “I am sure to hear abuse from the President and his supporters. Does anyone seriously believe I would consent to these consequences other than from an inescapable conviction that my oath before God demanded it of me?”

“As it is with each senator, my vote is an act of conviction,” he concludes. “We have come to different conclusions, fellow senators, but I trust we have all followed the dictates of our conscience.”

Romney was correct that his fellow Republicans would “strenuously disapprove” of his decision and he would be “vehemently denounced.” As The Daily Wire reported Wednesday, “calls exploded either to expel Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) from the Republican Party or recall him from the Senate immediately after he sided with the Democrats during the Senate’s vote to acquit President Donald Trump on Wednesday afternoon.”

The calls to remove Romney from the GOP were led by Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, who tweeted: “Mitt Romney is forever bitter that he will never be POTUS. He was too weak to beat the Democrats then so he’s joining them now. He’s now officially a member of the resistance & should be expelled from the @GOP.”

Among those criticizing Romney’s decision is Romney’s own niece, Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. “This is not the first time I have disagreed with Mitt, and I imagine it will not be the last,” tweeted McDaniel. “The bottom line is President Trump did nothing wrong, and the Republican Party is more united than ever behind him. I, along with the @GOP, stand with President Trump.”

The full text of Romney’s letter to his Republican colleagues below:

As a Senator-juror, I swore an oath, before God, to exercise “impartial justice.” I am a profoundly religious person. I take an oath before God as enormously consequential. I knew from the outset that being tasked with judging the President, the leader of my own party, would be the most difficult decision I have ever faced. I was not wrong.

Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and disruptive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine.

I am aware that there are people in my party and in my state who will strenuously disapprove of my decision, and in some quarters, I will be vehemently denounced. I am sure to hear abuse from the President and his supporters. Does anyone seriously believe I would consent to these consequences other than from an inescapable conviction that my oath before God demanded it of me?

As it is with each senator, my vote is an act of conviction. We have come to different conclusions, fellow senators, but I trust we have all followed the dictates of our conscience.

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