- Republican Sen. Mitt Romney invited the wrath of his own party on Wednesday when he made the shocking announcement that he will vote to convict President Donald Trump for abuse of power following an impeachment trial.
- Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said Romney is now "officially a member of the resistance" and should be "expelled" from the Republican Party.
- Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the party and Romney's niece, also voiced her disapproval, saying, "This is not the first time I've disagreed with Mitt, and I imagine it will not be the last."
- "Wrong, wrong, wrong move," GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, one of Trump's biggest attack dogs in Congress, said after Romney's announcement.
- Speaking on the Senate floor ahead of a final vote on whether to convict or acquit Trump, Romney said he expected to face backlash from his fellow colleagues.
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This post will continue to be updated.
On Wednesday, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah made history by becoming the first US Senator to vote to convict the president of his own party in an impeachment trial, blindsiding and angering Republicans.
Romney announced his shocking decision in a speech on the Senate floor shortly before the Senate is expected to vote to acquit Trump on two articles of impeachment for abusing his office and obstructing Congress.
Romney's vote was especially notable given his stature in Republican politics. The former governor of Massachusetts, Romney ran for president twice and was the Republican presidential nominee in 2012.
His niece, Ronna McDaniel, is also the Chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, which is firmly behind Trump and helping fund his re-election campaign.
"This is not the first time I've disagreed with Mitt, and I imagine it will not be the last. The bottom line is President Trump did nothing wrong, and the Republican Party is more united than ever behind him," McDaniel said a statement following Romney's announcement. "I, along with the GOP, stand with President Trump."
The Republican Party also blasted out a press release following Romney's decision, titled, "Mitt Romney turns his back on Utah."
Here's how key Republican figures reacted:
Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., suggested Romney should be expelled by the Republican caucus
Rep, Jim Jordan, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee and a crucial Trump ally, called it "wrong."
Former congressman Newt Gingrich skewered Romney and pointed to comments he made in 1994 criticizing former President Ronald Reagan.
In a speech on the Senate floor, Romney said he expected harsh blowback from his fellow colleagues.
"Does anyone seriously believe that I would consent to these consequences, other than from an inescapable conviction that my oath before God demanded it of me?" he said in his floor speech.
The Senate will hold a final vote on whether to convict or acquit Trump beginning at 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
Trump was impeached in December and charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Both articles of impeachment relate to his efforts to strong-arm Ukraine into interfering in the 2020 election while withholding $391 million in vital military aid and dangling a White House meeting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky desperately sought and still hasn't gotten.
At the center of the impeachment inquiry was a July 25 phone call during which Trump repeatedly pressured Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, over the latter's employment on the board of the Ukrainian natural-gas company Burisma Holdings.
Trump also asked Zelensky to help discredit the Russia probe by investigating a bogus conspiracy theory suggesting Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election to help Democrats and Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Documents and testimony from more than a dozen witnesses eventually revealed that the July phone conversation was just one data point in a months-long effort by Trump and his allies, including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, to leverage the weight of the US government and foreign policy to force Ukraine into acceding to his political demands.
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