Romney Shows Signs Of Spine: Trump’s ‘Brazen’ Appeals To China, Ukraine Are ‘Appalling’

WASHINGTON, DC - September 23: Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) speaks to journalists before votes on the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on Monday September 23, 2019. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) speaks to journalists before votes on the Senate floor on Capitol Hill on September 23, 2019. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) on Friday issued his strongest statement yet calling out President Trump’s efforts to pressure foreign governments to dig up dirt that could benefit Trump politically.

Referring to Trump’s public calls for Ukraine and China to investigate a political rival, Joe Biden, Romney said it strained credulity to see them as anything but politically motivated.

And that, he said, was “appalling.”

While some senators have advocated for the whistleblower rights of the official who filed a complaint about the events surrounding Trump’s July call with Ukrainan President Volodymyr Zelensky — in which Trump repeatedly pressured Zelensky to look for dirt on the Bidens — the Senate’s Republican majority has not publicly taken issue with the President’s conduct itself.

Last month, before the White House released a memorandum of the call in question, Romney’s comments were a bit more hedged. He tweeted that it would be “troubling in the extreme” if the President had pressured Zelensky to investigate a political rival.

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