Supporters of President Trump interrupted Senator Mitt Romney of Utah as he traveled to Washington forward of a joint session of Congress on Wednesday to certify the electoral victory of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., in response to the video shared on-line.
Romney is amongst a majority of Republican senators who’ve rejected efforts to revoke the election, a push that lately went to the joint session of Congress to certify Electoral Faculty outcomes, a usually ceremonial matter.
Trump supporters traveled to Washington to attend protests on his behalf Wednesday, though the president’s unfounded claims of fraud have been rejected by judges throughout the ideological spectrum, Republican and Democratic state election officers, and even by Trump’s personal legal professional. basic.
In a single video That went viral Tuesday, an individual filming with a telephone approached Romney, sitting on the Salt Lake Metropolis airport, and requested him why he had not supported Trump within the election or on his allegations of voter fraud.
“You have been voted Conservative to signify Conservative voters,” the particular person stated.
Mr. Romney responded: “We’ve a Structure, the constitutional course of is evident and I’ll comply with the Structure. And I will clarify all of that after we meet in Congress this week. “
When the senator left his seat, the particular person and a person, additionally filming with a telephone, adopted him.
“Trump was a monster, his legacy is nothing,” one man might be heard saying.
“I would not be stunned in the event that they did not even vote for you legally,” stated the primary particular person. “You are a joke, an absolute joke, it is a disgusting disgrace.”
In another video, passengers on a crowded aircraft might be heard yelling “traitor, traitor, traitor.” One particular person known as for Mr. Romney’s resignation and added: “Mitt Romney, you do not take heed to your constituents.”
Romney didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Solely a dozen Republican senators indicated this week that they deliberate to oppose the certification of the election outcomes.
Romney has been outspoken in condemning these efforts, saying the president had exhausted his authorized challenges in warring states and had resorted to attempting to defy the need of voters.
“Having didn’t deliver even a believable case of widespread fraud or conspiracy in any court docket of regulation, the president has now resorted to open stress on state and native officers to subvert the need of the folks and annul the elections.” Mr. Romney tweeted in November. “It’s tough to think about a worse and extra undemocratic motion by a sitting US president.”
In a press release Sunday, he known as the efforts of the Republican faction in Congress an “egregious ploy” that “dangerously threatens our democratic republic.”
He continued: “Added to this ill-conceived effort by some in Congress is the president’s name for his supporters to return to Capitol Hill on the day this subject is debated and determined. This has the predictable potential to trigger disruptions and worse. “
Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, was considered one of a number of distinguished Republicans who stated they didn’t vote for Trump within the November election.
In February, Romney was the one Republican within the Senate who voted to convict the president on an article of impeachment in February in an in any other case partisan vote. The vote made him the primary senator in American historical past to vote to take away a president from his personal get together.
