On Saturday, following Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-UT) remarks about President Trump’s call for China to investigate former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, the president sent a series of tweets attacking the senator:
Somebody please wake up Mitt Romney and tell him that my conversation with the Ukrainian President was a congenial and very appropriate one, and my statement on China pertained to corruption, not politics. If Mitt worked this hard on Obama, he could have won. Sadly, he choked!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2019
Mitt Romney never knew how to win. He is a pompous “ass” who has been fighting me from the beginning, except when he begged me for my endorsement for his Senate run (I gave it to him), and when he begged me to be Secretary of State (I didn’t give it to him). He is so bad for R’s!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2019
I’m hearing that the Great People of Utah are considering their vote for their Pompous Senator, Mitt Romney, to be a big mistake. I agree! He is a fool who is playing right into the hands of the Do Nothing Democrats! #IMPEACHMITTROMNEY
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2019
Somebody please wake up Mitt Romney and tell him that my conversation with the Ukrainian President was a congenial and very appropriate one, and my statement on China pertained to corruption, not politics. If Mitt worked this hard on Obama, he could have won. Sadly, he choked!
Mitt Romney never knew how to win. He is a pompous “ass” who has been fighting me from the beginning, except when he begged me for my endorsement for his Senate run (I gave it to him), and when he begged me to be Secretary of State (I didn’t give it to him). He is so bad for R’s!
I’m hearing that the Great People of Utah are considering their vote for their Pompous Senator, Mitt Romney, to be a big mistake. I agree! He is a fool who is playing right into the hands of the Do Nothing Democrats! #IMPEACHMITTROMNEY
When Fox News White House correspondent Kevin Corke wondered on Twitter if Sen. Mitt Romney was the “new Jeff Flake,” the president replied: “No Kevin, Jeff Flake is better!”
The attack continued into Sunday, when Trump tweeted: “The Democrats are lucky that they don’t have any Mitt Romney types. They may be lousy politicians, with really bad policies (Open Borders, Sanctuary Cities etc.), but they stick together!”
The Democrats are lucky that they don’t have any Mitt Romney types. They may be lousy politicians, with really bad policies (Open Borders, Sanctuary Cities etc.), but they stick together!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2019
The feud between President Trump and Sen. Romney has ebbed and flowed over the course of the last three and a half years.
In March of 2016, Romney gave a public address condemning then-candidate Trump as “a con man” and “a fake,” asking that Republican voters choose one of the three other remaining candidates in the field.
Once Trump won the general election in November of 2016, the tenor of the relationship changed. Romney even met with President Trump as a possible contender for Secretary of State.
During his 2018 midterm campaign for United States Senate, Romney wrote in an op-ed that he would “support the president’s policies when … they are in the best interest of Utah and the nation.”
While then-candidate Romney wrote about various Trump administration policies with which he agreed and some that he didn’t, he also added:
I have and will continue to speak out when the president says or does something which is divisive, racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, dishonest or destructive to democratic institutions. I do not make this a daily commentary; I express contrary views only when I believe it is a matter of substantial significance.
In a January 2019 op-ed, Romney castigated Trump, writing that “his conduct over the past two years, particularly his actions last month, is evidence that the president has not risen to the mantle of the office.”
Following the whistleblower allegations regarding Trump and Ukraine, Romney tweeted: “If the President asked or pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate his political rival, either directly or through his personal attorney, it would be troubling in the extreme. Critical for the facts to come out.”
If the President asked or pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate his political rival, either directly or through his personal attorney, it would be troubling in the extreme. Critical for the facts to come out.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) September 22, 2019
After President Trump suggested on Thursday that China investigate Joe Biden, Romney tweeted: “When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China’s investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated.”
When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China’s investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) October 4, 2019
Aside from Romney, few other elected Republicans have expressed concern over potential corruption on the president’s part.
In a written statement to the Omaha World-Herald regarding Trump’s China ask, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) said: “Hold up: Americans don’t look to Chinese commies for the truth.” He added: “If the Biden kid broke laws by selling his name to Beijing, that’s a matter for American courts, not communist tyrants running torture camps.”
However, Sasse also accused Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) of “running a partisan clown show in the House.”
Sasse had previously stated after having read the whistleblower complaint: “We need to slow down. This place is terrible at deliberation. Democrats ought not to be using the word ‘impeach’ before they had the whistleblower complaint or read any of the transcript. Republicans ought not to be rushing to circle the wagons and say there’s no there there when there’s obviously a lot that’s very troubling there.”