‘Freakishly rare’: Mitt Romney takes no prisoners as he announces he won’t seek re-election

I have spent my last 25 years in public service of one kind or another at the end of another term I would be about 80 years old, frankly it is time for a new generation of leaders, they are the ones who need to make the decisions. that will shape the world that man will live in today Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney announced that he would not run for re-

election

and would resign when his term expires in January 2025. thus ending the political career of a man who has to In my opinion, it is unlikely that he has become one of the most fascinating political figures of our times.

Romney is in the twilight, as you said of his political career, and took a non-Mage Republican position after being elected in 2018, spending his term in the Senate basically as a relatively normal and conscientious non-Trump conservative, which in turn underestimates how strangely

rare

such a stance was; He was basically the only one and now he's taking no

prisoners

in coming out of him through a forthcoming tell-all biography by McKay Coppins, who was given extraordinary access to the senator and his archives, including magazines. Newspaper excerpts from that book were published today in the Atlantic and in them Romney recounts several stories, including during the investigation that led to Donald Trump's first impeachment trial, when then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell allegedly told him to Trump to stop attacking Romney on Twitter quote Romney thanked McConnell for defending him against Trump you're lucky McConnell continued you can say the things we all think you're in a position to say things about him that we all agree with but can't say That Tim Miller is a former RNC spokesman and former communications director for Jeb Bush's 2016 campaign.

He is now the general writer of the paper where he wrote today about Romney's announcement. You're shaking your head because it's just like what I found, by the way. the excerpts are incredible, I think the book is going to be phenomenal, what I found fascinating again was a bit like when Jack Smith accused Trump, although like he's not crazy, obviously people close to Donald Trump look at the guy and I think this guy shouldn't be president, of course, he shouldn't be president, and Mitt Romney just said yes behind closed doors, that's what everyone says, it wasn't surprising, but there was something like water is wet, two more Two is four, to me, uh.

Sure at first I just have to say that he took me by surprise when I heard him say that he would be around 80 again. I mean milk. There's something about the milk diet, you know, because Romney looks great, he sure does. has a photo of himself, there was Mitch McConnell saying: you're saying the things that we can't say, but that's wrong, of course, that's saying the things that they won't say, that they're not willing to say and actually not very many people. He tried to say them and survive, you know? I always told the Republican politicians who were still calling me, that's a dwindling number, but the ones who did I said, "You don't have to be me, you don't have to continue, Chris." Hayes and just total Trump and every possible opportunity, but you just have to do the right things at the right times.

You have to condemn him when he attempts a hit. You have to speak up when you know he's saying we should send black Americans. women where they came from, you know that's all you are, that was the minimum bar we were asking for and for some reason Mitt Romney was the only one who surpassed it and that's why I think it's sad that he's going to That's the Which is why these are similar things in the parameters of normal politics almost not always, but I often say, "No, you're wrong, buddy. I wouldn't like the things you said about the deficit, but I'd like the child tax cut." about abortion." I don't agree with that, but it was like you were recognizable in the small-D sense, a Democrat, that is, com

mitt

ed to the project of American democracy, like you were on the same team, like we wanted this to continue. and without feeling that you have done it. that faith in other party members is what scares me so much about these times, yeah, and the turnover is like the more these people leave, you know they're going to be replaced by uglier and uglier people that you know in Utah. there was actually a House primary that didn't get a lot of attention, where there was a Romney guy who got shot, maybe even a little more moderate, frankly, a candidate, um, and it was a three-way race and she almost Fortunately, he survived. because of the nature of the primaries, but she did it and you end up with this, a super Maga, that's what's going to happen again, so you know Romney and I think even the viewers who are very progressive, very liberal, They like the other thing Romney did. when he walked in there, I think he was serious about governing, are you serious about little D democracy?

It's just about governing, he worked with Joe Biden and with the Democrats, you know, maybe not the child tax credit, eh, I'm with you, he probably should have, but on infrastructure on chips in the gun Reform project on the electoral count act correctly this is how, again, what should be the minimum of what we want from our legislators, but there are very few left, he is also a In contrast to another person, I think, who presents himself in a similar way, I think that Mitt Romney, in some ways, is a man of integrity, a man of devout beliefs, that he is Mike Pence, a Romney, uh, he says this about Pence in the book and in the excerpt he had long been put off by the guy Pence's pious adulation of Trump, no one I was told had been more loyal, more willing to smile when he saw absurdities, more willing to attribute God's will to things that were ungodly than Mike Pence, which is a pretty good phrase and this is what Mike Pence got, take a look at Mike Pence on the campaign trail today, uh, I think this is in Iowa, in Decorah, take a look at our country, uh, Mike Pence, who is a little bit despised. across the political spectrum and has the lowest preferences, that's a pretty good line, um, but and Romney are a really fascinating contrast because they're sort of rooted in something that we used to see is a kind of religiously imbued conservatism, yeah, and I think that the contrast is in two correct ways, I thought I laid it out better than I could of all the reasons why Magpence doesn't deserve the credit he deserves despite doing the right thing one day, um just because of the level of circumstance, but the other interesting thing is that Think about Nick's comments in the Atlantic and in that video he still says that Mitt Romney believes in these more traditional conservative values, these old small, classic liberal values, but he also says that he believes that a large part of the Republican Party is actively hostile. to them an anti-constitution, while Mike Pence is out there saying we can still fight for this and I think that's another reality check difference that Matt is on the right side.

Yes, Tim Miller, thank you very much, I appreciate it, thanks for coming. We always like the Chris Hayes show, thank you.