Right-wing media condemn Mitt Romney after GOP senator casts vote to convict Trump

Like everyone else, I expected the Senate’s impeachment trial of President Trump to end with a whimper. But then came one loud bang: Mitt Romney’s announcement that he would vote to convict Trump.

This was a first-line-of-his-eventual-obit decision. And he rolled it out accordingly, through interviews with The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Fox News. All of the interviews were embargoed until he formally broke ranks during a Senate floor speech.

“It was a deft public-relations move” by Romney “that apparently caught the White House off guard,” the NYT’s Michael Grynbaum wrote.

The W.H. and its media boosters have been pummeling Romney ever since. If you were watching CNN’s New Hampshire town halls, here’s some of what you missed on Fox News and on talk radio:

— Lou Dobbs said “Romney is going to be associated with Judas, Brutus, Benedict Arnold forever.”

— Tucker Carlson said Romney “shall go unnamed” on his show, “on the grounds that silly moral preening should not be rewarded with the publicity it is designed to garner.”

— One of the banners on Carlson’s show evoked Romney’s Bain Capital history: “PRIVATE EQUITY GUY VOTES GUILTY ON ‘ABUSE’ CHARGE”

— Breitbart’s home page led with a column accusing Romney of stabbing American workers in the back “long before he stabbed Trump.”

— Laura Ingraham called him “the ultimate selfish, preening, self-centered politician,” but allowed that he has a good head of hair.

— Sean Hannity’s take: “Clearly, losing a presidential election ruins people.”

— On Hannity’s show, Rep. Louie Gohmert wore a “Quit, Mitt” button.

— Donald Trump Jr. called Romney a “coward” who “blew his chance — bigly”

— Radio host Sebastian Gorka called Romney a “skirt-wearing little pajama boy Millennial snowflake.”

Proving Sherrod Brown right

The Democratic senator from Ohio’s op-ed for the NYT was titled “In Private, Republicans Admit They Acquitted Trump Out of Fear.”

He said GOP lawmakers “are afraid that Mr. Trump might give them a nickname like ‘Low Energy Jeb’ and ‘Lyin’ Ted,’ or that he might tweet about their disloyalty. Or — worst of all — that he might come to their state to campaign against them in the Republican primary. They worry: ‘Will the hosts on Fox attack me?’ ‘Will the mouthpieces on talk radio go after me?’ ‘Will the Twitter trolls turn their followers against me?'”

In Romney’s case, the answer to all three of those questions is yes. Victory in the Senate evidently wasn’t enough for the pro-Trump media machine. They’re now on a destroy mission…

“Trump will never forgive you”

Fox interviewer Chris Wallace said Romney’s office called on Tuesday to set up the sit-down. “You realize this is war,” Wallace said during the interview. “Donald Trump will never forgive you for this.”

“There is a hymn that is sung in my church,” Romney responded, “it’s an old Protestant hymn which is, ‘Do what is right and let the consequence follow.’ I know in my heart that I’m doing what’s right. I understand there’s going to be enormous consequence. And I don’t have a choice in that regard. That’s why I haven’t been anxious to be in the position I’m in…”

>> Romney said “there’s not been a morning since this process began that I slept beyond 4.” Will he get a good night’s sleep tonight?

>> It occurs to me that many right-wing media figures have faced the same pressures Romney felt, albeit to a lesser degree…

Utah paper defends Romney

One of Utah’s main newspapers, The Salt Lake Tribune, is out with a pro-Romney editorial. And it’s the most-read item on the Tribune’s website right now. “All Utahns, all Americans, regardless of politics, ideology or religion should be duly impressed with Romney’s decision to follow his heart and his conscience — and his God — in doing the right thing when doing the right thing was difficult,” the editorial states.

“He deserves credit…”

Pete Buttigieg, who’s currently leading in the never-ending Iowa caucus count, taped with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday… The interview will air on Thursday, but in this newly released bite, Buttigieg said “I do think he deserves credit — I think he’s been on the wrong side of a lot of issues, but I think he deserves credit for having followed his conscience on this… And the fact that he’s the only Senate Republican to do it, I think more than anything that says a lot about what’s happening in the Senate GOP today.”

>> In Colbert’s Wednesday night monologue, he says a better title for Senator Susan Collins would be “former Senator…”