U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) says that he is "angry" at former President Donald Trump regarding the whole classified documents situation.
Romney said as much to reporters on Friday.
"I’m angry. The country is going to go through tumult as a result of one thing, President Trump didn’t turn over military documents when he was asked to do so. All he had to do was hand them in," Romney said.
He continued, "I’m sure his counsel told him, 'hand the documents in,' particularly when the subpoena came. But, for some reason, he decided not to. He held onto them. Why? That’s the question. Why is the country going to have to go through all this angst and tumult? Why didn’t he just turn the documents in?"
Romney's comments come after President Joe Biden's Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted Trump over Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who was tasked by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland with investigating Trump, has indicted Trump on 37 crimes including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, a scheme to conceal, and false statements.
Trump is facing four hundred years in prison and millions of dollars in fines should he be found guilty of these crimes and given the maximum penalty.
At his arraignment, Trump has pled not guilty. And, he has been arguing that the DOJ ought to just drop the case.
Trump maintains that he has done nothing illegal and that Smith and Biden's DOJ has political motivations - that Biden, through Smith, is simply trying to stop Trump from being reelected president in 2024. Trump is Biden's chief 2024 rival, after all.
Anyone familiar with Romney will know that he is no supporter of Trump. Romney, the reader may remember, was one of those Republican congress members who voted to convict Trump with regard to the Democrats' second impeachment of Trump.
For this reason, it is no surprise that Romney is opposing Trump in this classified documents situation.
The reader will notice how Romney squarely places the blame on Trump without considering whether blame ought to be placed on Biden and Biden's DOJ. Romney, for example, did not address Trump and many Republicans' claim that Biden has "weaponized" the DOJ against Trump in order to stop Trump's 2024 bid.
In placing the blame solely on Trump, Romney has, once again, aligned more with the Democrats than with the Republicans. It is no coincidence that left-wing outlets, such as MSNBC, played Romney's "I'm angry" soundbite on Friday, and used it to exemplify a so-called growing lack of Republican support for Trump.
At this point, one would expect nothing different from Romney.
