A lawmaker from Utah is calling upon Republican colleagues to censure Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) after he voted to convict President Trump under the first article of impeachment.
State Rep. Phil Lyman announced on Thursday that he filed a resolution to censure the senator, claiming that Romney’s judgment was “questionable even if his motives were pure,” according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
“We’re not censuring him for voting his conscience. We’re censuring him for the positions that he’s taken through this whole process,” Lyman said. “And to send a message that we want to have good relationships with the White House, we want to have good relationships with President Trump.”
Lyman also said that Romney’s statements were harmful not only to the Republican Party, but to the country as well.
The text from Lyman’s resolution has yet to be publicly released, according to the Tribune.
Liz Johnson, Romney’s spokeswoman, said the senator visited with Utah state lawmakers for around 90 minutes to take the opportunity “to talk about his decision and sit down with them and kind of hear from them.” She declined to comment on Lyman’s resolution.
Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson (R) recounted the discussion with Romney as “frank.”
“Many of us here are disappointed in what happened yesterday and disagree, at least to some degree, with the decision that was made,” Wilson said. “But we appreciate him coming out and explaining his decision.”
Wilson said that Trump’s administration has been an ally in the past, citing tax cuts and restructuring federal land maps from former Obama administration regulations such as the millions of acres allocated to Bears Ears monuments.
Polls for Romney still show majority approval in the last four months, though it’s dropped from 65 percent to 57 percent, according to the Tribune report.
Author: Kaelan Deese
Source: The Hill: Utah state lawmaker files resolution to censure Romney over impeachment vote
