The new McCain: Romney carves out role as GOP thorn in Trump's side
Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee, is setting himself up as the Republican in the Senate who is most willing to criticize President Trump and block his agenda. With the death of Sen. John McCain, the 2008 GOP nominee, last year, Romney has assumed the Arizonan's mantle in the Senate as the self-styled "conscience" of the Republican Party, with Romney buoying Democrats on occasion and building an alternative power center in the party — and perhaps even positioning himself for a 2024 presidential bid, though by then he would be 77.
Last Tuesday, Romney was the only Senate Republican to vote against Trump judicial nominee Michael Truncale, citing Truncale’s disparaging comments about former President Barack Obama. Romney was one of four GOP senators in April poised to block the appointment of Trump pick Herman Cain to the Federal Reserve Board, until Cain dropped out.
Since arriving in the Senate in January - after a campaign in which he had been supportive of the president - Romney has turned himself into one of Trump’s most outspoken Republican critics, penning a New Year’s Day op-ed attacking Trump’s character and arguing that the president had “not risen to the mantle of the office.” Following the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report in April, Romney said he was “sickened” by Trump’s actions. On Sunday, Romney was back at it, attacking the president's character."I think he could substantially improve his game when it comes to helping shape the character of the country," Romney said on CNN. "I think young people, as well as people around the world, look at the president of the United States and say, 'Does he exhibit the kind of qualities that we would want to emulate?' And those are qualities of humility, of honesty, integrity, and those are things where I think there’s been some call, where the president has distanced himself from some of the best qualities of the human character.”
While Romney has not called for Trump's impeachment, as Michigan Republican Rep. Justin Amash did on Saturday, the senator labeled Trump activities, as described in Mueller's report, as "troubling," "unfortunate," and "distressing," and added that "those were things that, really, you would not want to see from the highest office in the land." Amash, he said, was "courageous." Critics of Romney - whose reputation as a "flip flopper" and opportunist helped cost him the 2012 general election - accuse him of shifting with the political winds on Trump. In 2012, he sought Trump's endorsement, though he looked visibly uncomfortable doing so. During the 2016 campaign, he denounced Trump as "lacking the temperament to be president," stating: "Dishonesty is Donald Trump’s hallmark."
Once Trump was elected, however, Romney tried to become his Secretary of State, before turning into a Trump critic once again in advance of becoming largely pro-Trump when he needed to win election to the Senate in 2018. Romney’s inclination to go on the offensive against Trump has inspired comparisons to McCain, who exulted in his media label of "maverick." McCain withdrew his support for Trump in 2016 on moral grounds after a tape revealed Trump boasted about sexual assault. McCain also killed Republicans’ 2017 attempt to repeal Obamacare. "I don't think he sees himself as the opposition to Donald Trump," said Jason Perry, director of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics. "I think he sees himself as his own brand, so he’s shown a clear tendency to go after President Trump when he disagrees with him. I think Mitt Romney is trying to carve a path where he is not in a position where he has to explain or defend what happens in the White House."
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/the-new-mccain-romney-carves-out-role-as-gop-thorn-in-trumps-side