Incoming Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, who has ludicrously been branded as some sort of bastion of the #Resistance, made it abundantly clear how moronic that thinking is during a CNN interview with Jake Tapper on Wednesday.
The 71-year-old failed former GOP presidential nominee, who has also been referred to as a member of the Senate’s “new generation of mavericks,” spoke to Tapper following his Washington Post op-ed in which he wagged his finger at President Donald Trump for being openly racist and sexist instead of just passing racist and sexist policies and calling it a day.
Not to fear, establishment Republicans! Papa Romney is here to comfort you in your time of need, telling Tapper that he will continue to push back if he and the president butt heads once more! And by push back, he means offering a vocal “tsk tsk,” and just agreeing to disagree.
Here’s Romney, via CNN’s clip of the interview:
The president is of course entitled to his perspectives, his own views, and I respect his right to express those things, just as I do, and we’ll work together on things that I think are in the best interest of the country, and my state, and where we disagree, why, we’ll just have to disagree.
But that doesn’t mean that Romney is just going to fall in line with Trump, right, even though Romney accepted Trump’s Senate endorsement way back when? He’ll still stand up to Trump’s sexist and racist rhetoric when it comes time to endorse someone for 2020:
After he was elected president, it was very much my hope that he would rise to the occasion, rise to the mantle of the office. After all, becoming President of the United States is quite an elevation for anybody. And he had said during the campaign that he had been extremely presidential...And I think that while that was my hope, I don’t think he’s followed through on that front...I haven’t decided who I’m going to endorse in 2020, and I want to see what the alternatives are.
Seeing as Republicans likely won’t run against Trump, Romney will more than likely default to endorsing him amid his lack of “alternatives,” huh?
For all the waves Romney’s pointless op-ed has created—especially his vow to criticize Trump for “significant statements or actions that are divisive, racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, dishonest or destructive to democratic institutions”—he, uhh, sure doesn’t seem to care too much about actual actions that are divisive, racist, anti-immigrant, and destructive to democratic institutions, such as Trump’s push for his U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Yes, lest you worry Romney’s Strong Words have pushed him too far to the left, think again (emphasis mine):
...I think the president is very sincere when he says he wants to secure the border, and how you get there is a real question, it’s going to be worked out on a bipartisan basis. But clearly, we have to have a more secure border...I would vote for the border wall, I’ve made that part of my platform for many, many years...And whether it’s a wall or a fence or technology, and perhaps in some cases the natural landscape prevents people from coming into the country easily, but we’ve got to secure our border, but that’s necessary but insufficient.
So, no. Mitt Romney is no Senate Maverick, but he sure is good at writing pretty, meaningless words.