Politics - News Analysis
Petty and Vindictive Trump Won’t Allow Mitt Romney on Coronavirus Task Force — The Only GOP Senator Left Off
Donald Trump’s pettiness knows no bounds.
Mitt Romney is the only Republican senator not on a congressional task force created by the White House to study reopening parts of the country shuttered by the coronavirus.
A list released by the White House on Thursday afternoon of the “Opening Up America Again Congressional Group” included nearly 70 senators, including all 52 of Romney’s GOP colleagues in the chamber.
A spokeswoman for Romney and a source familiar confirmed that the GOP senator was not asked to take part in the task force. Trump has viewed the Utah senator, and 2012 GOP presidential nominee, as a Republican antagonist since he joined the Senate in 2019.
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Romney was the only GOP senator to vote for one of the articles — abuse of power — during the Senate impeachment trial earlier this year.
The White House has released the names of the lawmakers on the bipartisan task force on reopening economy.
In the Senate, all Republican members, except Senator Mitt Romney, who voted to convict the president in his impeachment trial, are included. https://t.co/UKcYvPKowb
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 16, 2020
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins confirms that Romney “was not asked to be” on the task force or to join Trump on a call Thursday and that Trump himself “reviewed the list of which lawmakers would be on before it was finalized.”
Romney was not asked to be on Trump’s bipartisan congressional task force on reopening the country, per multiple people. Trump reviewed the list of which lawmakers would be on before it was finalized. Romney was not included and wasn't asked to be on the call happening right now.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) April 16, 2020
But the bad blood goes back years. Romney was critical of Trump during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, and Trump lashed out at Romney in February 2016 as “one of the dumbest and worst candidates in the history of Republican politics.”
The two appeared to reconcile with Trump considering Romney for a Cabinet post and endorsing his Senate bid in 2018.
But Romney has publicly broken with Trump at times since joining the Senate, including appearing critical of Trump’s rhetoric regarding the late Sen. John McCain and saying he was “sickened” by Trump’s behavior as described in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
Romney’s comments have made him one of the GOP senators most willing to break with Trump, after the death of McCain and retirement of former Sens. Jeff Flake and Bob Corker.
The White House announces that all Senate Republicans except Mitt Romney—who voted to impeach Trump on one of two counts in February—have ben invited to join a bipartisan task force on reopening the economy.
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) April 16, 2020
Trump has publicly lashed out at Romney, calling for him to be kicked out of the Senate GOP caucus and accusing him of being a “secret Democrat asset.”
Romney wasn’t the only senator not included on the new White House task force. More than two dozen Democrats were not included, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, who both ran for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination. Red-state Democrats Joe Manchin and Doug Jones also were not included, as well as Chuck Schumer.
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