Once again, Mitt Romney votes against conservative Republican values and interests
Christopher Tremoglie
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Why does Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) still consider himself a Republican? It’s a poignant but very valid question that many Republican voters are asking after Romney once again voted against conservative Republican values.
Romney’s latest betrayal happened this week when he was the only Republican senator to vote against the Free Speech Protection Act (as an amendment to the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2023) during Wednesday’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee markup.
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The amendment was introduced by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. It was legislation designed to exclude all federal employees and contractors from using their authority to censor and restrict speech protected by the First Amendment. Paul’s proposal would also levy mandatory strict penalties for anyone who violated this rule. This is something every Republican should be in favor of, yet, inexplicably, Romney voted against it.
Repeatedly, Romney has been given the opportunity to stand up and defend the cultural issues that the nearly 61 million Americans who voted for him for president in 2012 strongly support. But almost every time, Romney failed to do so. It’s happened so frequently that even some Democrats have pondered if Romney will desert the GOP and join their party.
Consider some of Romney’s actions that counter the ideas and principles supported by most of those who elected him.
Separate from this week’s duplicity, Romney has made head-scratching choices at every turn, even regarding fiscal issues. Late last year, Romney voted to support President Joe Biden’s $1.7 trillion infrastructure bill, which contained many reckless government spending programs advocated by Democrats — particularly amid soaring inflation rates, rising gas and food prices, unemployment, and homelessness. It was a bill that Romney’s fellow Republican Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) voted against.
Additionally, Romney has been a strong supporter of sending billions of dollars of taxpayer money to fund a war in Ukraine that, while a humanitarian crisis, has nothing to do with the country’s national security. Romney has called this the “right thing to do.” Many, though admittedly far from all, Republicans were against this kind of spending. However, Romney went rogue and aligned with the (predominantly) Democratic position on this bill.
Next, Romney supported the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that repealed the Defense of Marriage Act. Sen. Lee claimed the bill was “severely anemic” regarding religious protections and voted against it. Most Republican voters were against the bill. However, Romney voted for it, one of the many times he went against his constituents’ consent.
But perhaps the preeminent example of why conservatives question Romney is his difference in attitude regarding presidential impeachments. Romney, who was the first senator in the country’s history to vote to convict a president of his political party in an impeachment trial, said former President Donald Trump was guilty “of an appalling abuse of public trust” back in 2020.
Yet, Romney’s outrage and standards don’t seem to apply in 2023. The senator called recent efforts by Republicans to impeach Biden over mishandling the southern border “an absurd political process.” It’s typical Romney behavior and indicative of why so few Republican voters around the country support him. Because regardless of one’s opinions on Biden, there’s no legitimate way to say that his handling of the border is anything less than “an appalling abuse of public trust.”
Sen. Romney went from being the poster boy of the Republican Party and winning the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 to being one of the most polarizing and contentious figures among contemporary Republican politicians. His willingness to praise President Biden, support left-wing interests, and vote with Senate Democrats has rightfully earned him the moniker of Republican in Name Only.
One would think every Republican would support protecting free speech. This is especially true given the disturbing emails and other revelations that exposed the Biden administration’s aggressive tactics to suppress dissenting viewpoints. This was the case during the pandemic when they censored conservatives who spoke against mask mandates and vaccine requirements, and questioned the origin of COVID-19.
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However, Romney, the beacon of morality, the politician who was previously distraught over “an appalling abuse of public trust,” voted against doing that very thing. He voted against protecting people from the Biden administration’s abuse of free speech. He voted against doing what was necessary to protect the border. Mitt Romney can pretend he is many things, but being someone who cares about abuses of public trust is not one of them. That’s only an issue when it comes to a political rival. Romney is a far cry from the honest conservative Republican he claims he is — especially after voting against Paul’s amendment to the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2023.