Romney to Retire, Calling For a ‘New Generation’ Beyond Biden and Trump
Romney to Retire, Calling For a ‘New Generation’ Beyond Biden and Trump
The Utah Republican and 2012 G.O.P. presidential nominee, 76, said he would step aside to make way for younger leaders and strongly suggested the president and former president should, too.
Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, the 2012 Republican nominee for president who made a historic break with his party when he voted to remove former President Donald J. Trump from office, announced on Wednesday that he would not seek re-election in 2024, saying he wanted to make way for a “new generation of leaders.”
He strongly suggested that Mr. Trump, 77, and President Biden, 80, should follow his lead and bow out to pave the way for younger candidates, arguing that neither was effectively leading his party to confront the “critical challenges” the nation faces.
“At the end of another term, I’d be in my mid-80s. Frankly, it’s time for a new generation of leaders,” Mr. Romney, 76, said in a video statement. “They’re the ones that need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in.”
The announcement was in some ways the culmination of a long divergence between Mr. Romney, a genteel and wealthy former governor and traditional conservative, and the Republican Party, which has veered sharply to the right and embraced a coarser brand of partisanship in recent years.
Elected to the Senate in 2018, Mr. Romney has occupied a lonely space in a Capitol where a majority of Republicans remain loyal to Mr. Trump — or at least refuse to break with him. Mr. Romney has joined an array of bipartisan “gangs” seeking to take on major policy issues — including infrastructure, gun safety and overhauling the Electoral Count Act — but rarely sought to lead those efforts.
In the video, Mr. Romney said that neither Mr. Biden nor Mr. Trump, the current front-runner for the Republican nomination, was addressing the nation’s most critical challenges, including climate change, authoritarian threats from Russia and China and mounting debt.
“Both men refuse to address entitlements even though they represent two-thirds of federal spending,” he said. “Donald Trump calls global warming a hoax, and President Biden offers feel-good solutions that will make no difference to the global climate. On China, President Biden underinvests in the military, and President Trump underinvests in our alliances.”
“The next generation of leaders must take America to the next stage of global leadership,” he added.
The statement came amid renewed scrutiny of the age of Mr. Biden and other prominent elected officials including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, 81, the longtime Republican leader whose recent health issues have raised questions about whether he is fit to continue in his post. Editors’ Picks MTV Video Music Awards: 5 Memorable Moments Why Are So Many Millennials Going to Mongolia? My Disabled Colleague Is Struggling at Work. Am I Responsible for Her Care? SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Mr. Romney, who describes his career in politics as a moral mission driven by his Mormon faith, has in recent years been marginalized in a party that has shifted to the right under the sway of Mr. Trump. In the Senate, he never emerged as a leader of any faction or committee, even as he was regarded as a reliable, common-sense vote.
He hinted that he might still have some role to play in the nation’s political discourse, saying, “I’m not retiring from the fight.” He said he planned to finish out his term, which ends in January 2025.
Utah is a solidly Republican state, so Mr. Romney’s departure is highly unlikely to affect the balance of power on Capitol Hill. He had recently told people that he planned to make a decision about seeking re-election by the end of the year and that he was weighing whether he could still play any productive role in Congress. Mr. Romney was also cognizant that he would face a tough primary fight if he decided to run again.
His decision to abandon a career in the Senate followed similar decisions from many moderate House Republicans last year. In the 2022 midterm elections, four House Republicans who voted to impeach Mr. Trump declined to run for re-election.
Mr. Romney had also begun to stir speculation that he was ready to move on from the Senate when he agreed to participate in a biography set to be published next month by Scribner, titled “Romney: A Reckoning,” by McKay Coppins, a staff writer at The Atlantic. In the book, Mr. Romney is said to quote his colleagues by name in discussing how Republican lawmakers really view and talk about Mr. Trump in private when the former president is not present.
Mr. Coppins is said to have conducted hours of interviews with Mr. Romney for the book, and was given access to the senator’s emails and his diary. The book’s impending release already has his colleagues concerned about their private thoughts and conversations regarding the party’s vengeful presidential front-runner being aired publicly.
Mr. Romney has also appeared increasingly concerned about the likelihood that Mr. Trump would emerge as his party’s nominee.
In a recent opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Romney implored donors and Republican candidates to unite around an alternative to Mr. Trump, for fear of delivering him the party’s nomination, writing that “donors who are backing someone with a slim chance of winning should seek a commitment from the candidate to drop out and endorse the person with the best chance of defeating Mr. Trump by Feb. 26.”
We are entering dark fucking times when Mitt Fucking Romney is becoming the voice of reason in the American political landscape.
This is the problem. The moderate Republicans that didn't support Trump are looking at retirement. They are marginalized in their party. The replacements likely will be further right.
The country did far better when you have moderate and capable leadership on both sides.
What we've had for over 40 years is a moderately right wing party (the Democratic Party) and then the Republican Party, which even under the guise of "moderates" like Romney want some pretty extreme things.
It's a false equivalence. Trump isn't unfit just because he's old.
Edit: reading comprehension, folks
Jesus Christ. When Mitt Romney starts looking progressive you fucked up.
This is the Republican game for the last 3 decades. Field shitter and shitter candidates so people can reminisce how inclusive W was... How upstanding Romney was... Meanwhile if you actually lived through these people's tenure you'd know how vile and disgusting all of them are/were.
I'm waiting for people to reminisce about how smart Trump was compared to insert next nutjob Republican
The ACA was an adaptation of Romney's healthcare plan for Massachusetts.
The Overton window is so fucked it should start an OnlyFans.
The Overton window is so fucked it should start an OnlyFan
And then run for Virginia House of Delegates!
What in the fuck, I would have never guessed Mitt was 76 years old. He looks a generation younger than Trump/Biden/McConnell, not their peer.
Overall I disagreed with Mitt a ton but he was someone with a bit of backbone compared to other Republicans.
Damn, yeah he looks 60 at most. I guess magical underpants or whatever will do that for you.
And hot dogs… apparently.
I mean, except for the grey hair, Romney looks similar enough to Biden. I don't know if Mormons forbid hair dye in the same way they forbid hot drinks, but the hair color is the only difference I see.
In any case, I'm not yet 40 and my cohort are dealing with grey hair. Romney's would be unusual but not impossible. I also have very few greys, but it gets comments since I'm not the type of person who would dye his hair.
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Arguably one of the least disliked of Republicans, John McCain not withstanding, for me personally.
At least tried to maintain some sort of civility. Too bad that doesn't mean much when he goes along with the rest of colleagues and their craziness.
Not sad he's gone, but not particularly happy either. Might open up Utah for the Dems in the future.
Same way I feel. In the grand scheme of things he's a piece of shit and votes as such. But as far as Republicans go he's semi-palatable.
It’s not opening anything up to the dems. As a Utahn myself, I’m 99% certain Romney is retiring because he can’t win reelection here, as the majority of the state thinks he’s a RINO. I mean, he replaced Orrin Hatch, who could have won another term if he wanted, despite being in the senate since before microwave popcorn was a thing.
Utah had 1 dem representative and he only won because people came out to vote for medical marijuana. The state house then butchered that law until it was almost unrecognizable disenfranchising everyone who was finally getting involved. The state is run by car dealerships and residential developers. The money won’t let a non-republican take that seat.
It's amazing how far the R has fallen.
Small government? Privacy? Staying out of people's life? Individual rights and responsibility? Freedom?
Yeah.
Im not registered with a party. I'm not sure about how that would benefit anything, but I'm not sure I'll be able to vote R until that's fixed.
Same.
Although it's becoming close I register for Democrats cause of how bad things have gotten with Republicans.
They only got culture wars and conspiracy theories and downright malice now.Helps me? NO. Tax cuts for the rich, taxes for me, and forcing their religion down my throat.
Helps others? NO. Targeting social security, restricted voting, and a whole lot of pulling up bootstraps
Helps kids? NO. Child labor laws weakened, free school lunched targeted, and don't say gay.
Helps nature? NO. Climate change "isn't real!!!", drill baby drill no matter what, and hostility to any "alternative/clean" solutions.
What future is there in that? Just a regressive and bastardization of the past. For what?!?! Just to try to bring back the "Good old days?"
With Dems there is at least a future, as troubled and imperfect as it might be. With Reps there isn't
Romney's almost worse. At least with the current crop of republicans there's no doubting they're batshit and evil because they don't even bother hiding it.
Mittens gives a veneer of civility to a party that has lost its way and isn't fit for purpose.
There are 54 senators over 65. Only 16.8% of Americans are over 65. So how the fuck is this proper representation?
Because that's who people showed up to vote for as their representatives, that's how.
That is democracy. You vote them in. Of course leadership positions will always be above the mean age. Same as senior positions in companies will also be older than the new hires. It takes years to become proficient in your trade and new people to politics usually start at the local level first before entering upper offices.
To be fair, infants aren't allowed to (and probably shouldn't be allowed to) run for senate, even if they don't cry about things as much as some of the representatives do. The number probably shouldn't be perfectly 1-to-1. It's still way too high though.
It's not and we don't live in a real democracy.
Wow, imagine a Senator retiring before you're so old that you can hardly walk or remember your own name. Good for him.
He strongly suggested that Mr. Trump, 77, and President Biden, 80, should follow his lead and bow out to pave the way for younger candidates
Hey, what do you know, I agree with Mitt Romney on something. Maybe people who would be roundly considered unemployable in any other profession shouldn’t be leading the country. This goes for Fenstien and McConnell too. Let’s just make sure the “younger people” aren’t all Boeberts.
Let's avoid political dynasties too, please and thanks
You can say whatever you want about him, but one thing I'm fairly certain is that at the end of the day Mitt Romney cared about the average American. I'm not saying I agree with even half of his beliefs. But I believe his beliefs were focused on what he thought was best for the country and it's people. I'm also not saying he didn't attempt to make himself and those around him stupid rich, but that he wasn't going to do so by throwing everyone and everything out the window to obtain it. It's really a stark contrast to Trump. And you might think that's sad, but what's really sad is that it's not just Trump but nearly the entirety of that party now.
You're falling for the bullshit then. No man who cared about people would have helped found Bain Capital.
Seriosuly. Bain single handedly killed Toy R Us and 35,000 jobs. The chain was actually profitable, but then bain loaded it up with hundreds of millions of debt it used to buy it, parted the profitable bits out, then bankrupted it.
It's a pure vulture capital company, wrecking havoc and destroying lives to make Romney and men like him rich at the expense of millions.
Turbo fuck that guy.
Didn't romney champion the Citizens United bill which was basically like throwing a lit match into a pool of gasoline for enshittifying the political process
Not that the process was great before but no one who considers "corporations are people too" ever had an average american citizens best interests in heart
Corporations are people. They're groups of people working for a common goal. If those people don't have free speech, neither do other groups, like political parties for instance. You do not lose your free speech rights when you are in a group.
The real damage done by citizens united was equating money to speech.
He cared more about Dressage Horses than the common man. He definitely didn't care about his dog.
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Only reason he's leaving is he's not going to get reelected. He did shit that pissed off the trumpies and there's too many of them in his state for him to win the primary; he's probably already got a really credible (for certain definitions of credible) primary opponent who he knows he can't beat.
Also he might have something resembling principles, but those principles are themselves still monstrous and harmful.
President Biden offers feel-good solutions that will make no difference to the global climate.
A lot more could be done but the Inflation Reduction Act is a major policy that is driving a lot of renewable energy investment, and probably the best that could be done under the current political circumstances. Hardly a "feel-good" solution, and I somehow doubt Romney, the lifelong conservative, has anything more substantial on climate in his back pocket.
I guarantee you I wouldn't have solar panels on my house right now with the IRA. This is the truth.
Yeah, because "both sides".
If he's retiring, the time for something more bold than some "both sides" milquetoast is NOW.
Before anyone lionizes him for his "principles" remember he helped promote the rediculous birther / birth certificate bullshit:
Yes, he's a piece of shit. But the fact that he's less of a piece of shit than most of the Republican Party says a lot.
Oh yeah, he sucks ass. Just he was a real one for not trading in his shitty beliefs for even shittier beliefs in the Trump era.
Damn, the last republican with a string of spine left is retiring. Good luck with your party..
Yes, there are binders of younger people to take up the mantle.
I never thought I would unsarcastically say “Oh no! Mitt Romney is retiring!” But here I am, saying just that. Even though he is Mormon and has some shitty politics he is one of the few remaining Republicans left that understands the importance of Bipartisan legislation and voting to help the people instead of voting against everything to “own the libs.” It probably helps that he while he is a Republican, a lot of his policies while he was governor of Ma, and even now are more Center right, and almost Center left, making it seem like he is largely GOP because he’s LDS and would really fit better as an Independent.*
No major disagreement here -- just making a factual adjustment. Romney served as a Republican governor of Massachusetts long before moving to Utah. According to Wikipedia, he was never affiliated with the Democrat party.
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Every once in a while, Romney tips forward, and does the bare minimum
One of the last reasonable men associated with the republican GQP.
Dude looks just like Matthew Fox in about 30 years.
"You either die a villain or live long enough to become a hero" is apparently the Mitt Romney story
Romney got rich by running a chop shop for companies before he ever decided to be a politician. He was never anything but the villain.
I wonder what he means that Biden is under investing on military spending towards China? Is there some defense spending bill that he has vetoed?
Nope. Romney just needed to "both sides" here, so he made something up out of the air.
I don't like this guy, but he's right. Japan still has ex-PM Taro Aso in a ministerial position, and the guy has been a mummy for decades and can barely walk in a straight line.
What he's saying is right, but what he's implying is bullshit. Trump and Biden are not equally bad.
I'd never compare Biden and Trump. One is a career politician, the other a clumsy mob boss.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The announcement was in some ways the culmination of a long divergence between Mr. Romney, a genteel and wealthy former governor and traditional conservative, and the Republican Party, which has veered sharply to the right and embraced a coarser brand of partisanship in recent years.
Mr. Romney has joined an array of bipartisan “gangs” seeking to take on major policy issues — including infrastructure, gun safety and overhauling the Electoral Count Act — but rarely sought to lead those efforts.
In the video, Mr. Romney said that neither Mr. Biden nor Mr. Trump, the current front-runner for the Republican nomination, was addressing the nation’s most critical challenges, including climate change, authoritarian threats from Russia and China and mounting debt.
The statement came amid renewed scrutiny of the age of Mr. Biden and other prominent elected officials including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, 81, the longtime Republican leader whose recent health issues have raised questions about whether he is fit to continue in his post.
Mr. Romney, who describes his career in politics as a moral mission driven by his Mormon faith, has in recent years been marginalized in a party that has shifted to the right under the sway of Mr. Trump.
The book’s impending release already has his colleagues concerned about their private thoughts and conversations regarding the party’s vengeful presidential front-runner being aired publicly.
The original article contains 847 words, the summary contains 226 words. Saved 73%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
We need a new generation of bible bashers