President Trump on Saturday skewered Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah for siding with the Ukraine phone-call whistleblower, calling him a “pompous ’ass’” and a loser.
“Somebody please wake up Mitt Romney and tell him that my conversation with the Ukrainian President was a congenial and very appropriate one, and my statement on China pertained to corruption, not politics. If Mitt worked this hard on Obama, he could have won. Sadly, he choked!” tweeted Mr. Trump.
He blasted Mr. Romney, the 2014 Republican presidential nominee, for being one of his most frequent critics since arriving in the Senate last year.
“Mitt Romney never knew how to win. He is a pompous “ass” who has been fighting me from the beginning, except when he begged me for my endorsement for his Senate run (I gave it to him), and when he begged me to be Secretary of State (I didn’t give it to him). He is so bad for R’s!” tweeted Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump’s support among Republicans has remained relatively strong despite a whistleblower accusation that he abused his Oval Office power and subsequent impeachment inquiry by House Democrats.
Mr. Romney is one of the most outspoken exceptions.
Mr. Romney has doubted Mr. Trump’s explanation that he asked Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden, a frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, as part of an anti-corruption push in that country.
“When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China’s investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated,” Mr. Romney tweeted Friday.
Mr. Romney also called it “wrong and appalling” for Mr. Trump to publicly call on Ukraine and China to investigate Mr. Biden and his son Hunter.
Hunter Biden’s business dealings in those countries while his father was in the White House have raised eyebrows. It’s at the heart of Mr. Trump’s push for a corruption probe that spurred an intelligence community whistleblower complaint and a new impeachment effort.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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