Right-wing media melt down over Mitt Romney's vote to convict Trump
Written by Eric Kleefeld
Research contributions from Courtney Hagle & Kayla Gogarty
Published
Updated
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), the Republican nominee for president in 2012, announced Wednesday that he is voting in the impeachment trial to convict President Donald Trump of abuse of power.
Rush Limbaugh's guest host for the day suggested selling Romney to Venezuela, Ukraine, Somalia, or Yemen:
And other right-wing media are rising up en masse against the man so many of them supported two elections ago.
Shashank Tripathi, who spread fake information during Hurricane Sandy, called for Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel — Romney’s niece — to expel him from the Republican Party.
Donald Trump Jr. also joined in the call for expulsion, as did others:
In a now-deleted tweet, Ryan Saavedra of The Daily Wire proclaimed: “They should expel him before the vote.”
Others even suggested kicking out the entire state of Utah.
Pro-Trump blog The Gateway Pundit cheered on Trump, Jr.
Some people regretted having ever voted for him at all.
And the more fetid parts of the right-wing Twittersphere made accusations of treason, or attacks on Romney’s religion or his person:
While Ben Shapiro seemingly spoke up to say in a partial dissent, “Romney is wrong about impeachment. But that's about it. He is not a traitor or a buffoon,” he also took the opportunity to slam his perennial enemy, the alleged liberal media:
Update (5:55 p.m. EST): Sebastian Gorka called Romney a “skirt-wearing little pajama boy millennial snowflake":
This piece will be updated as the meltdown continues.
Update (2/6/20, 9:00 a.m. EST): More right-wing personalities lashed out at Romney:
Fox host Lou Dobbs said that “Romney is going to be associated with Judas, Brutus, Benedict Arnold forever”:
Donald Trump Jr. told Fox host Tucker Carlson that Romney “blew his change, bigly”:
Reacting to Romney citing his faith in making his decision, Fox host Brian Kilmeade lashed out: “'My faith makes me do this'? Are you kidding? What about your faith and this case meld together? I mean, that is unbelievable for him to bring religion into this."