Republican Sen. Mitt Romney’s decision to side with the Dems and vote for witnesses in Trump’s impeachment trial earned him much criticism and now a dis-invitation.
The Utah lawmaker was “formally not invited” to attend this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, referred to as CPAC, after his stunt in a Senate vote Friday when he voted in favor of hearing from witnesses in Trump’s impeachment trial.
“The ‘extreme conservative’ and Junior Senator from the great state of Utah, @SenatorRomney is formally NOT invited to #CPAC2020,” American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp said in a mocking tweet on Friday.
The conservative conference scheduled for the end of the month will feature President Donald Trump as the keynote speaker.
Romney and Susan Collins were the only Republicans who voted with the Dems on Friday in the failed attempt to allow additional witnesses to be heard in the trial. The final vote of 51-49 shot down a weeks-long Democratic effort to hear witnesses, such as former national security adviser John Bolton and others, and set the stage for a final vote to acquit the president next week.
Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were ultimately the swing GOP votes, sticking with the party and voting against the effort while the Dems began to discredit the process as a “sham.” Sen. Romney, who is not up for reelection until 2024, was roundly condemned for bucking the party though some, like Utah’s Republican senior Senator Mike Lee did come to his defense.
Lee is a frequent CPAC attendee as is Mitt Romney who has spoken at the annual conservative gathering in the past, including in 2013, following his 2012 failed presidential bid. It was not clear if the former Massachusetts governor was even planning to attend this year’s event which will include Diamond and Silk, Candace Owens and Devin Nunes as speakers as well as conservative commentator Mark Levin, and Brexit leader Nigel Farage.
Many conservatives on Twitter were happy to see the Utah senator get called out.
