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Reports: Mitt Romney Trying to Undermine Mike Lee Re-Election Effort

Reports: Mitt Romney Trying to Undermine Mike Lee Re-Election Effort

“If you’re not going to have the back of your colleague in your state who is a fellow Republican, how will I know you’ll have my back?”

In Utah, Senator Mike Lee is running against the #NeverTrump candidate Evan McMullin, and the race is a little closer than most Republicans would like.

Senator Mitt Romney, who is not up for reelection this year, is doing next to nothing to help Lee’s campaign. Some GOP senators are getting annoyed by his lack of support.

Mollie Hemingway writes at The Federalist:

GOP Senators Baffled By Mitt Romney’s Ploy To Oust Mike Lee — And Maybe Thwart A Majority

Republican senators are growing concerned by colleague Mitt Romney’s refusal to help fellow Utah Republican Mike Lee decisively win his re-election campaign — a posture that could potentially keep their party from gaining a majority in the November elections. Unlike every other Republican senator, the 2012 failed Republican presidential candidate is declining to express a preference in Republican Lee’s re-election effort against Democrat-endorsed Evan McMullin.

“I respect [Romney], and I understand that each state has its own dynamics, but I do not understand why he is remaining neutral,” said one Republican senator who asked not to be identified. “Whatever our differences, we all try to support each other around election time.”

Both moderate and conservative senators confirmed the grumbling in the conference. “We should not have to be worried about Utah in any way. I don’t know what he thinks he’s doing, but it’s not going over well, particularly with the [senators] who are up for chairmanships,” said another Republican senator. Neither Lee nor Romney responded to inquiries by press time…

Romney’s refusal to support Lee, and support his party’s message that they have better solutions to what ails the country than their Democrat counterparts, is making other Republican senators doubt his loyalty to them, observers say.

“If you’re not going to have the back of your colleague in your state who is a fellow Republican, how will I know you’ll have my back?” said one senior Republican staffer, describing the thinking of the conference. “It creates a certain amount of awkwardness in the conference as a whole.”

Deseret News is out with a new poll that shows this to be a close race, but Hemingway notes that this pollster has a history of overstating support for McMullin:

How tight is the Mike Lee-Evan McMullin race for Senate? New Utah poll has answers

Engaged in a fierce battle in the U.S. Senate race in Utah, a new poll shows Republican Sen. Mike Lee and independent challenger Evan McMullin neck and neck with a little over six weeks to Election Day.

The latest Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics survey found 36% of Utahns would vote for Lee and 34% for McMullin if the election were held today. Another 16% don’t know who they would vote for, while 13% would mark the ballot, which includes two third-party candidates, for someone else.

Dan Jones & Associates conducted the poll of 815 registered Utah voters for the Deseret News and the Hinckley Institute from Sept. 3-21. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.43 percentage points.

Last week, Breitbart News reported that internal Lee polling showed the senator has an 18-point advantage.

Conservatives are already distrustful of Mitt Romney. He is doing himself no favors by sitting on the sidelines in this race.

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Comments

Trump bruised a lot of massive, humongous GOPe egos. Their first priority is revenge. To hurt Trump in any way they can. The interests of people who voted for them are somewhere further down on their priority list. As per usual with the GOPe.

McConnell is deliberately trying to undermine the election of MAGA senate candidates he doesn’t like. He’s just more subtle about it than Romney.

I can’t believe I voted for Romney for POTUS. And for McCain.

Never again GOPe. Never again will you get my vote for a RINO candidate.

    Milhouse in reply to JHogan. | September 29, 2022 at 8:34 pm

    The alternative was 0bama. If you’re not in a swing state, then I understand. Had Palin not been on the ticket in 2008 I would not have voted for McCain, since there is no conceivable circumstance in which my vote could have made a difference to the result.

    But if you’re in a swing state, would you really withhold your vote from McCain or Romney, knowing that that meant effectively giving 0bama and Biden half a vote?

      JOBBOSS in reply to Milhouse. | September 30, 2022 at 12:26 am

      Yes. Romney would have twice as bad as Obama as would have McCain, and they would have been a Republican. I, personally, did NOT vote in the 2012 election for that reason.

        Wrong. Neither Mittens nor McStain would have taken over the healthcare industry. Neither would have weaponized federal agencies like DOJ and IRS. Neither would have led us down the path of racial division again. Obama was a stain on this country, it may never wash off.

          henrybowman in reply to Paul. | September 30, 2022 at 2:00 am

          No, they would have been Son of W. More Patriot Acts, compassionate conservatism, and giving the Democrats almost but not quite everything they wanted. Frankly, I think the accelerationism was more advantageous to us than drawing out the torture.

          henrybowman in reply to Paul. | September 30, 2022 at 2:01 am

          Plus, you’re forgetting that Romney implemented an “Obamacare” in MA even before Obama did it, which really spoils one of your arguments.

          JohnSmith100 in reply to Paul. | September 30, 2022 at 11:57 am

          Hindsight is always better, and Romney is and always will be a turd.

          Milhouse in reply to Paul. | October 1, 2022 at 8:25 pm

          McCain’s health insurance policy was actually almost perfect. It was probably the best policy he had.

          Romney did implement Romneycare in Mass., but that was in a state, where it was clearly constitutional. He was clear that he didn’t believe Congress had the constitutional authority to do the same on a national level.

    Morning Sunshine in reply to JHogan. | September 29, 2022 at 9:01 pm

    I did not vote for Mccain or Romney. Being in Utah, I knew both of those would get our electoral votes, so I voted for the L candidate (no idea who it was that year) as a protest against weak spineless cowards.

    Mike Lee promised only 2 terms when he ran against Bob Bennett 12 years ago. If I were still in Utah, I would vote for Lee, but with great reluctance.

    Romney is a sleeze bag and I wish I had had a better answer for him when he rejected (highly offended) my accusation of him as a carpetbagger.

    dunce1239 in reply to JHogan. | September 30, 2022 at 12:00 am

    As a whole Romney is an a–hole.

    JOBBOSS in reply to JHogan. | September 30, 2022 at 12:24 am

    Don’t know why everyone is so surprised; Romney’s been a RINO since his days as Senator Teddy Kennedy’s lap dog in Massachusetts. On top of that, he hates Trump. For that matter, so does McConnell.
    We’ve got a lot of deadwood to get rid of in the party.
    My bet is McConnell’s planning on trying to get Romney nominated for the 2024 Presidential race.

    taurus the judge in reply to JHogan. | September 30, 2022 at 7:24 am

    @ Hogan

    At those points in history, you voted on the only choice possible ( as bad as it was)

    We all did

Even worse, the Senate today passed the insane Stop Gap Spending bill which has absolutely nothing in it for Republicans.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/09/29/senate-passes-stop-gap-spending-bill-with-12-billion-in-ukraine-aid/

The vote? 72-25. Yep. Not even close.

Now the House has to approve it and I expect there will again be another “play fight” to make it look like the lame ducks put up a fight but…

This is why we need Trump really bad and this time, his coat tails are being strengthened by DeSantis (who has coat tails of his own lately). and a couple of others. A barn storm election where the MAGA crowd rout the Uniparty is just what we need and seem to be on the way to getting. Then we can see how the lameducks behave for a couple of months and whether McCarthy will show up in the fight. The Senate will still be a joke.

Traitors gonna traitor.

If we retake the senate you will see Mitt Romney loses 100% of his relevance. It will also make it that much easier to primary him with stories like this one.

    Paddy M in reply to Danny. | September 29, 2022 at 10:09 pm

    You act like Romney isn’t supported by the losers you support, Danny.

      Lets see Mike Lee is backed by 48 of the 49 other senators.

      Why don’t you stop trying to destroy this party and start trying to build something for once?

      If you succeeded at destroying the Republican Part you would look back at the abuses of the 2022 era and wish we could return to that because we truly would be in a one party state.

        Paddy M in reply to Danny. | September 30, 2022 at 12:23 pm

        That’s nice, Danny, but I was addressing Romney, not Lee.

        Say, Danny. How did we get to the point where these abuses are occurring with such regularity? Why didn’t the supposed opposition party actually, you know, oppose?

        Reminder, the quislings you shill for just gave the FBI a boatload of more money in the gun “control” bill. The same FBI that sent its thugs to shove guns in the face of a guy who was guilty of protecting his son. He’s facing 11 years in prison. You know how may Senate Rs even mustered the courage to speak about that abuse? 12.

          Danny in reply to Paddy M. | September 30, 2022 at 1:02 pm

          Tell me how a Republican Minority in the house and senate could stop the FBI? If you could come up with something that passes the laugh in your face test I will chop my hands off and tongue out.

          A better question would be; what did we do wrong when we held the house and senate and presidency and what could we do to avoid a repeat of that clown show?

          Unlike you I have actually honestly looked into what we did wrong; and that was “MUH GOVERNMENT BAAAAADDDD!!!!!” and want to avoid a repeat.

          Unlike you I also looked into who made that mistake and have found it was everyone. Trump wasn’t just not trying to bring Republicans back into executive agencies like the DOJ Obama purged but he didn’t even fill all of the confirmations he could have, and when Tucker Carlson told him he would lose if he didn’t tackle censorship and his reaction was as arrogant as it was stupid.

          While we are in minority and have no ability to stop things guess what? The temptation to sell your vote for money for a project in your state you feel you need goes up exponentially.

          Perhaps instead of “MUH PORK BARRELL BAAADDD!!!!!!!” we should stop disarming ourselves and actually learn from how Democrats get things done because I don’t know about you but I don’t give a dam what Jeff Bezos’ taxes are and would like to win something next time we win.

          I’m not a fan of pretending we have power we don’t have in order to lose.

          2014-2020 the Republican senate literally did 100% of what was possible to obstruct Obama. You could pretend that won’t happen again if we retake the senate as a way to pursue some phantom traitors; you could pretend everyone is Mitt Romney or you could try to have some wins.

          Paddy M in reply to Paddy M. | September 30, 2022 at 3:05 pm

          The Republican minority can’t do anything to stop the FBI which you knew when typed the stupid question. Sick burn, Danny.

          At minimum, they could’ve not joined their palz across the aisle in giving another 100,000,000 to the FBI, but they couldn’t even do that.

          What did the Republican majority do in 2017 and 2018? They joined the Russian collusion nonsense with the Ds! Ryan literally sidelined Nunes who was pushing back on the fiction. I’m sure the GOPe will totally reel in the FBI when they’re in control next time though.

      It says will as in in the future, as of right now it hasn’t lifted a finger. That also really shouldn’t be news super pacs are explicitly for electing the right people if they aren’t spending money then promise to spend millions of what they hauled in later something is dramatically wrong at said super pac.

      Mike Lee is backed by everyone except for Romney, and as far as backing losers I want someone capable of winning the 2024 election even if the third parties don’t carry a significant margin.

Subotai Bahadur | September 29, 2022 at 8:02 pm

McConnell [and Romney’s] goal is a Democrat controlled Senate with as many RINO’s as possible in the Republican caucus so as to guarantee that the Democrats get what they want with no difficulty. It will prepare them to act as the Vichy wing of the Republican Party if a Patriot ever becomes president.

Subotai Bahadur

Romney, who fancies himself “Delightful Peter,” again shows himself to be nothing more than a garden variety dick.
In flagrante Delecto, to boot.

Someone needs to take over for Liz Cheney. Or maybe he thinks he can beat out Newsom. From squeaky clean to sleazy.

I want to see Romney lose his next primary. He is always fighting against my interests.

It’s simple. Romney’s approval is cratering, he has few actual supporters that aren’t Democrats.

And above all, Romney has ALWAYS been a petty little weasel.

Romney HATES Mike Lee because he has to stand next to him and be shown to be the tiny little leftist that he is. He’s trying to get rid of Lee because he thinks he’s going to look good next to that idiot Egg McMuffin.

I hope this finally ends any of this crap about how Romney has so-called ‘principles’ and was just standing up to that Evil Orange Man.

If MIKE LEE is a bridge too far then you should just admit you’re a Democrat.

What an utter disgrace Pierre Delecto has revealed himself to be. Greasy, self-serving, unprincipled and totally blind/indifferent to the obnoxiously totalitarian and lawless machinations of the spite-filled Dumb-o-crats.

Comparing his wrangling the Olympics in Utah, vs. his behavior on larger stages afterwards, Pierre Delecto has shown himself to be staff vs. leadership.

Mittens loves him some Egg McMuffin.

“”Conservatives are already distrustful of Mitt Romney.””

My candidate for “Understatement of the Month”.

I am not a fan of both Lee and Romney. I wish Utah would develop better candidates.

Hard to understand why anyone, even Democrats, would vote for McMuffin

    CommoChief in reply to geronl. | September 30, 2022 at 9:03 am

    Easy. It allows them to feel like they are demonstrating their moral superiority by voting against a candidate they have declared full of ists and isms.

Be assured – whatever Trump decides to do in two years from now, he will be diverting some of his attention to getting romney deposed.

Mitt has always been a backstabber!