Trump used acquittal speech to deliver swift retribution on Mitt Romney

This was a newly emboldened president, one who challenges the religion and godliness of people purely because of their disloyalty to his administration, writes Holly Baxter

Thursday 06 February 2020 23:49 GMT
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When Mitt Romney, the Republican Senator for Utah, announced that he would be voting “guilty” to the first article in the impeachment trial, we knew – and he knew – there would be consequences.

It seemed, in the few hours before casting his vote, that Mr Romney held out some hope he might be joined by a couple of other rebelling senators from his own party, but it wasn’t to be. He went down in history on Wednesday night as the only member of the Senate to ever have voted against a president from his own party. It’s a lonely place to be, but even more so under this White House administration.

Retribution was swift and ruthless. It was only minutes after his father had been acquitted that Donald Trump Jr started tweeting about kicking Mr Romney out of the party, referring to him as “forever bitter”. His father, who spent the earlier part of Thursday morning holding up newspapers for the camera with front-page headlines reading “TRUMP ACQUITTED”, had already used the social media site to joke about being president for ever after the judgment was announced. His post-acquittal speech at midday on Thursday was expected to be as vitriolic as it was celebratory.

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