WASHINGTON — Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah said Wednesday he will vote to convict President Donald Trump in the Senate impeachment trial, becoming the first and likely only Republican to break with his party and join Democrats seeking to remove the president from office.
Though Romney’s decision will allow Democrats to claim bipartisan support for convicting Trump, they are still certain to fall short of the needed 67 votes for conviction.
“The president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust,” said Romney, who at one point appeared to choke up while delivering his statement. “Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine.”
Romney will vote to convict Trump on the first article of impeachment regarding abuse of power, but to acquit the president on the second article involving obstruction of Congress.
Romney, a former presidential candidate who won’t be up for Senate reelection until 2024, has been a vocal critic of Trump.
He acknowledged that he could face the wrath of the president, his party and some of his constituents.
“Does anyone seriously believe that I would consent to these consequences other than from an inescapable conviction that my oath before God demanded of me?” he said. Later he acknowledged to Fox News, “It’s going to get very lonely.”
Despite Romney’s vote, the Senate is poised to acquit Trump Wednesday of abusing the power of his office and obstructing Congress’ investigation into his conduct, ending the third presidential impeachment trial in American history.
The vote will be sharply divided along party lines with only a handful of lawmakers still undeclared as of Wednesday afternoon, including Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia. Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., who said he was struggling with his vote and is facing an uphill reelection bid this year, said Wednesday he will vote to convict.
The 12-day trial is the shortest in presidential impeachment history, and the only one that did not include subpoenas for witnesses or documents. Democrats say that exclusion delegitimized the process and as a result, Trump’s name will never be cleared.
“If the president is acquitted with no witnesses, no documents, any acquittal will have no value because Americans will know that this trial was not a real trial,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. “It’s a tragedy on a very large scale.”
The House impeached Trump in December for withholding nearly $400 million in U.S. aid to Ukraine while pressing the country’s leaders to announce investigations into his political rivals, including former Vice President Joe Biden.
Trump and the White House were able to stonewall the House impeachment inquiry, refusing to allow administration officials to testify or turn over documents except for a memo of a phone call between Trump and the president of Ukraine. When the issue of subpoenas came to the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was able to keep enough of his Republicans together to oppose issuing them, arguing that the House — not the Senate — should have fought the court battle over whether Trump could block his aides from testifying.
Romney and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine were the only Republicans who voted to demand witnesses, along with all Democrats. But the motion was still two votes short of the tally required.
Trump’s Republican allies blasted the process, accusing House Democrats of pursuing a partisan impeachment out of spite for the 2016 election.
