Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney is receiving backlash after saying that he would vote Democrat over former President Donald Trump or businessman Vivek Ramaswamy in the 2024 presidential election.
During an interview with CBS’ Norah O’Donnell, Romney said that nearly any candidate in the 2024 election would be an “upgrade” over another term under Trump.
“I’d be happy to support virtually any one of the Republicans — maybe not Vivek [Ramaswamy] — but the others that are running would be acceptable to me, and I’d be happy to vote for them,” he said.
“I’d be happy to vote for a number of the Democrats too,” he continued. “It would be an upgrade, in my opinion, from Donald Trump and perhaps also from Joe Biden.”
Ramaswamy, meanwhile, clapped back at the senator as well as Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel.
Ramaswamy, Trump campaigns punch back after Mitt Romney says he’d vote Democrat before themhttps://t.co/KKaOMGWnFAhttps://t.co/KKaOMGWnFA
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) November 30, 2023
“Turns out he’s opposed to America-First itself, not just one man. Newsflash, Mitt: I didn’t vote for you either, and I still call on your niece Ronna to resign,” Ramaswamy told Fox News in a statement.
This comes after Romney recently announced his retirement at the end of his term next year, saying that it was time for the younger generation to take the political stage.
“I have spent my last 25 years in public service of one kind or another. At the end of another term, I’d be in my mid-eighties. Frankly, it’s time for a new generation of leaders. They’re the ones that need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in,” he said.
Romney is one of the most prominent figures in the Republican Party, serving as a moderate Massachusetts governor, winning the party’s presidential nomination in 2012, and then serving in the Senate since 2019. He is also one of the most vocal conservative critics of former President Donald Trump.
The 76-year-old lawmaker was an important member of the Senate’s bipartisan groups throughout the first two years of President Joe Biden’s presidency and was instrumental in the passage of the infrastructure law.
In spite of Romney’s conservative votes during his time in the Senate, he also backed bipartisan compromises on issues like marriage equality, gun safety, and microchip manufacturing.
