Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) downplayed concerns about Donald Trump targeting his political rivals in his second term.
Trump spent the 2024 election cycle promising retribution against his perceived political enemies. He has nominated staunch loyalists Pam Bondi as attorney general and Kash Patel to lead FBI.
Last week, Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker that every member on the House January 6 committee that investigated the attack on the Capitol should be jailed.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of The Union” Sunday, host Jake Tapper asked Romney if he is worried about himself or members of his family being “targets for retribution” in Trump’s second term.
“No, actually, I’ve been pretty clean throughout my life,” Romney responded. I’m not particularly worried about criminal investigations, and I don’t know how much, by the way, of what the president says is hyperbole, because there was a lot of this person not to be jailed and that person ought to be jailed. That was said during the last two campaign.”
I think President Trump is likely to try and focus on the future,” he continued. “People who’ve committed crimes, I’m sure, will be prosecuted, but I think that’s few and far between.”
Romney has been critical of Trump in the past. In fact, Romney voted to convict Trump in both impeachment trials in his first term which makes him the only senator in US history to vote to convict a president from his own political party.
Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee for president, has served in the Senate since 2019. He announced last year that he would retire from the chamber at the end of his term in January.
“MAGA is the Republican Party and Donald Trump is the Republican Party today,” he said Sunday.
