Utah Republicans Seek to Censure Romney for Voting to Convict Trump

The Utah Platform Republicans PAC issued a resolution Monday censuring Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) for his vote to convict former President Donald Trump in his two Senate impeachment trials.

In 2020, Romney was the only GOP senator to vote in favor of conviction. The follow year, Romney again voted for conviction along with seven other Republicans.

The censure resolution states that Utah GOP Platform, a political action committee, believes Romney's votes were "unjust and unethical." Read the resolution in its entirety below.

2News has reached out to Romney for comment.

In February, 2News reported rumblings among Utah Republicans about censuring Romney over his impeachment vote.

The Utah Republican Party defended Romney in February, along with Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) after talk of censuring and a motion, signed by thousands of people, accused Romney of being a deep state agent.

Their statement read: "..The difference between our Utah Republicans showcase a diversity of thought, in contrast to the danger of a party fixated on 'unanimity of thought. There is power in our differences as a political party, and we look forward to each senator explaining their votes to the people of Utah. Disagreement is natural and healthy in a party that is based on principles—not on persona. In fact, those principles are the reason behind unprecedented American prosperity during the last four years."

A censure does not remove a senator from office, but is a formal statement of disapproval, according to the U.S. Senate's website.

MSN has more context and the list of republicans who declared their censure of Romney:

Whereas, at the first impeachment trial, on February 5, 2020, without evidence of a federal crime or misdemeanor and ignoring the unconstitutional House impeachment process, Utah’s junior U.S. Senator Mitt Romney was the lone Republican voting with the Senate Democrats to convict Pres. Trump, becoming the first Senator in 231 years of U.S. presidential history to vote against a President of his own party in an impeachment trial; and

Whereas, on January 13, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an article of impeachment claiming that President Trump had incited an insurrection against the U.S. government, without any evidence to prove he incited violence, given that President Trump had, on January 6th, asked his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard” and that the FBI had concluded that the occupation of the Capitol building by the rioters had been pre-planned in advance of the President’s speech; and

Whereas, on January 26, 2021, after President Trump had concluded his term and left office, Sen. Romney voted together with all of the Senate Democrats to proceed with an unconstitutional Senate show trial (at which the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court refused to preside) on the House's article of impeachment; and

Whereas, on February 13, 2021, Sen. Romney voted together with all of the Senate Democrats to convict Donald Trump on the House's impeachment charge; and

Whereas, Republicans in the other six States from which Republican Senators voted to convict President Trump have held their Senators accountable for their wrongful votes; and

Whereas, the Utah Republican Party Platform requires us to hold elected leaders accountable to ethical standards, and voting to convict a former President without sufficient evidence to prove any of the elements of the charge of incitement of insurrection is both unjust and unethical;

Therefore, be it resolved that: We, the Board of Directors of the Platform Republican PAC, hereby declare our united censure of Sen. Mitt Romney.

Layne Beck, Cache County
Matt Bell, Utah County
Aaron Bullen, Utah County
Mary Burkett, Washington County
Dalane England, Davis County
Brad Green, Iron County
Teena Horlacher, Davis County
Bob McEntee, Weber County
Larry Meyers, Washington County
Lowell Nelson, Utah County
David Pyne, Salt Lake County
Helen Redd, Salt Lake County
Lisa Shepherd, Utah County
Ed Wallace, Washington County

To many, Romney and others like Liz Cheney have already left the republican party anyways.

Good riddence to them.