前共和党参议员里克·桑托勒姆(Rick Santorum)表示，米特·罗姆尼(Mitt Romney)参议员决定脱离自己的政党，与民主党人一起投票，将唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)总统定罪，这将使“脆弱的共和党人更加脆弱”
周三，犹他州共和党人罗姆尼，成为第一位参议员在美国历史上投票罢免一位来自立法者自己政党的总统。他是唯一一个在滥用权力指控上投票超越党派界限的共和党人。弹劾的取消并没有成功，因为共和党控制的议院轻易地宣告总统滥用权力和阻挠国会的罪名不成立。
“他的大多数同事不会对他特别满意，”桑托勒姆周四告诉美国有线电视新闻网，他在参议院代表宾夕法尼亚州。“正如[参议院多数党领袖]米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)昨天所说的，这并不是要去争取唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)，而是要控制参议院，并试图击败少数准备连任的共和党人，”这位前议员说。
桑托勒姆继续说道:“我认为米特·罗姆尼与民主党在这一点上的投票确实让这些脆弱的共和党人更加脆弱。”。“我认为这就是核心小组内部对他的反对将会更加激烈的地方。”
罗姆尼的决定很快招致了唐纳德·特朗普总统和他的儿子小唐纳德·特朗普的批评
“米特·罗姆尼永远怀恨在心，他永远不会成为总统。小特朗普在推特上写道:“他当时太虚弱，无法击败民主党，所以现在他加入了他们。“他现在正式成为抵抗组织的一员&应该被驱逐出@共和党。”
总统随后在推特上发布了一段奇怪的阴谋视频，指责2012年共和党总统候选人罗姆尼是“民主党的秘密资产”
特朗普在随后的帖子中补充道:“如果失败的总统候选人@米特罗姆尼(MittRomney)像对我假惺惺地那样，用同样的精力和愤怒击败步履蹒跚的巴拉克奥巴马(Barack Obama)，他本可以赢得选举。”。
在参议院投票前的讲话中，罗姆尼争辩道总统“犯有骇人听闻的滥用公众信任的罪行”
2月4日，参议员米特·罗姆尼在唐纳德·特朗普总统发表国情咨文之前。
“他做的并不完美。不，这是对我们的选举权、国家安全和基本价值观的公然侵犯，”参议员说。“在选举中舞弊以保住自己的职位，可能是我所能想象到的最具侮辱性和破坏性的违背就职誓言的行为。”
特朗普面临弹劾，此前有消息透露，他希望乌克兰宣布调查，据称总统认为这将损害总统候选人乔·拜登和其他民主党人。民主党人认为，这相当于让外国政府干预美国选举，罗姆尼也认为这是滥用权力，应该将特朗普免职。
民主党人曾希望几名面临艰难连任的共和党人会和他们一起投票反对总统。最终，除了罗姆尼，所有的共和党议员都投票宣布无罪，罗姆尼直到2024年才面临连任。
FORMER GOP SENATOR SAYS 'VULNERABLE REPUBLICANS MORE VULNERABLE' AFTER MITT ROMNEY'S VOTE TO CONVICT
Former GOP Senator Rick Santorum said that Senator Mitt Romney's decision to break with his political party and vote with Democrats to convict President Donald Trump would make "vulnerable Republicans more vulnerable."
On Wednesday, Romney, a Utah Republican, became the first senator in U.S. history to vote to remove a president who was from the lawmaker's own party. He was the sole Republican to cross party lines with his vote on the abuse of power charge. The impeachment removal did not succeed, as the GOP-controlled chamber easily acquitted the president on the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
"Most of his colleagues are not going to be particularly happy with him," Santorum, who represented Pennsylvania in the Senate, told CNN on Thursday. "As [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell said yesterday, this was not as much to go out and get Donald Trump but was to get control of the Senate and try to defeat a handful of Republicans who are up for re-election," the former lawmaker said.
"I think Mitt Romney voting with the Democrats on this really makes these vulnerable Republicans more vulnerable," Santorum continued. "I think that's where the pushback inside the caucus is going to be a lot harder on him."
Romney's decision quickly drew criticism from President Donald Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr.
"Mitt Romney is forever bitter that he will never be POTUS. He was too weak to beat the Democrats then so he's joining them now," Trump Jr. tweeted. "He's now officially a member of the resistance & should be expelled from the @GOP."
The president then tweeted out a bizarre conspiratorial video accusing Romney, who was the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, of somehow being a "Democrat secret asset."
"Had failed presidential candidate @MittRomney devoted the same energy and anger to defeating a faltering Barack Obama as he sanctimoniously does to me, he could have won the election," Trump added in a later post.
In his remarks ahead of the Senate vote, Romney argued that the president was "guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust."
Senator Mitt Romney before President Donald Trump's State of the Union address on February 4.
"What he did was not perfect. No, it was a flagrant assault on our electoral rights, our national security and our fundamental values," the senator said. "Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one's oath of office that I can imagine."
Trump faced impeachment after it was revealed that he wanted Ukraine to announce investigations that the president allegedly believed would be damaging to presidential candidate Joe Biden and other Democrats. The Democrats argued that this amounted to having a foreign government interfere in a U.S. election, and Romney agreed that this was an abuse of power and warranted Trump's removal.
Democrats had hoped that several Republicans facing difficult re-elections would join them in voting against the president. In the end, all the GOP lawmakers voted to acquit except for Romney, who does not face re-election until 2024.
