Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) has been censured by a county in Utah as punishment for his two votes to convict former President Donald Trump on articles of impeachment.
Weber County’s vote on Saturday follows another statewide party vote last week in which Romney narrowly escaped censure at a GOP convention.
“The Weber County Republican Convention censures Mitt Romney for his votes to convict President Trump in two U.S. Senate impeachment trials,” the resolution censuring Romney reads.
The resolution also says the impeachment proceedings against Trump “denied the President due process, allowed falsified evidence, did not provide adequate time for an investigation, and did not follow the U.S. Constitution which states a President may only be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors.”
The county GOP approved the resolution in a convention by a vote of 116-97.
Last week, Republican delegates at a statewide convention booed Romney over his two impeachment votes, with some calling him a “traitor.”
Romney appeared to address his party’s 2021 state convention, but the boos rained down on him just as he walked onto the stage. The 2012 presidential loser quickly turned the tables on his detractors.
“Aren’t you embarrassed?” Romney said as he stood on the stage at the Maverik Center in West Valley City, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Romney, who has repeatedly clashed with Trump, went on to defend himself to the crowd.
“I’m a man who says what he means, and you know I was not a fan of our last president’s character issues,” said Romney, the only Republican senator to vote to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial and one of seven to vote to convict after a second impeachment trial for the Capitol breach on January 6.
Delegates were unimpressed, with some shouting “traitor” and “communist.”
“You can boo all you like,” Romney fired back. “I’ve been a Republican all of my life. My dad was the governor of Michigan, and I was the Republican nominee for president in 2012.”
“So yeah, I understand that I have a few folks that don’t like me terribly much and I’m sorry about that. But I express my mind as I believe is right and I follow my conscience as I believe is right,” Romney added.
Later in the convention, delegates moved to censure Romney for his actions, but the effort narrowly failed, with a final vote on the motion with 798 for and 711 against.
One convention delegate, Salt Lake County delegate Emily de Azavedo Brown, said they delivered a message to Romney. “If the point of all this is to let Mitt Romney know we’re displeased with him, trust me, he knows,” he said, according to the Daily Mail. “Let’s not turn this into a Trump or no Trump thing. Are we a party of principle or a party of a person?”