The Establishment continues to stick together.
A new book notes that Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) secretly urged Joe Biden to run for President against Donald Trump. During the night of the 2018 midterm elections, Romney spoke to Biden over the phone and told him, “you have to run.”Romney won his U.S. Senate race that same night. An upcoming book obtained by The Guardian is titled “The Long Alliance: The Imperfect Union of Joe Biden and Barack Obama” by Gabriel Debenedetti, which details the exchange between Romeny and Biden.
The Guardian‘s extract stated:
“At one point [Biden] connected with Mitt Romney, who’d been easily elected to the Senate that night as a rare Trump-opposing Republican. They were warm as Biden cheered Romney’s win. Then Obama’s old rival got to the point: You have to run, Romney said.”
The book cites interviews with “colleagues, aides, rivals, confidants, allies, and eyewitnesses” of Obama and Biden.
Romney has criticized Trump multiple times. He reportedly called Trump a “fraud” and highlighted his “bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny, the absurd third-grade theatrics.” Although it seems surprising that a GOP Senator would encourage a Democrat to run for President, it’s not shocking because the establishment sticks together.
Romney was the only GOP member who voted to convict Trump twice. Although Romney did not vote for Trump, he did not say he voted for Biden. But it seems odd that he urged Biden to run for President but did not vote for him. He has criticized Biden and said in January that Biden was only elected to “stop the crazy” of Trump.
Romney said:
“He’s got to recognize that when he was elected, people were not looking for him to transform America. They were looking to get back to normal, to stop the crazy.”
“It seems like we’re continuing to see the kinds of policy and promotions that are not accepted by the American people.”
“I mean, people are 7 percent poorer now because of Biden inflation. Gasoline prices are, what, 50 percent higher than they were when he took office. The border is a mess. COVID was resurgent, but he didn’t have in place the tests people needed to keep themselves safe. And then, of course, there was the disaster in Afghanistan. Russia’s now threatening Ukraine. Things are not going well, and the president needs to stop and reset and say what is it he’s trying to accomplish.”
It remains to be seen if Romney will support another GOP candidate for 2024 if Trump decides to run again for President.