Trump Slams Romney for Criticism as Third GOP Senator Chimes In
Trump Tweets #ImpeachMittRomney After GOP Senator’s Criticism
(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump spent part of Saturday tweeting about Senator Mitt Romney after the Republican lawmaker criticized the president’s calls for China and Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden, even as a third GOP senator broke ranks.
People in Utah view their vote for Romney as “a big mistake,” Trump said, adding the hashtag #ImpeachMittRomney. Earlier he called Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, a “pompous ‘ass.’”
The president was returning to the White House after several hours at his golf club in Virginia.
“By all appearances, the president’s brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling,” Romney wrote on Twitter Friday.
Romney and Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska have been almost alone among Republican members of Congress in pushing back, even mildly, against Trump’s actions and comments, which have sparked an impeachment inquiry led by House Democrats.
Sasse this week responded after Trump suggested China should investigate the Bidens.
“Americans don’t look to Chinese commies for the truth. If the Biden kid broke laws by selling his name to Beijing, that’s a matter for American courts,” Sasse told the Omaha World-Herald newspaper.
On Saturday, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a centrist Republican who faces a tough re-election battle in 2020, chimed in, according to the Bangor Daily News.
“I thought the president made a big mistake by asking China to get involved in investigating a political opponent,” Collins said after a memorial service for firefighters in Augusta on Saturday. “It’s completely inappropriate.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Ros Krasny in Washington at rkrasny1@bloomberg.net;Hailey Waller in New York at hwaller@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Ian Fisher, Virginia Van Natta
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