Politico reports:

Mitt Romney brought a stunning twist to the end of President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial: A bipartisan vote to convict the president on charges of abuse of power.

The Wednesday announcement by the Utah Republican made him the only member of the GOP to break with the president and his party on the crucial question of whether Trump deserved to be removed from office. The 2012 Republican nominee said he was left with no other options, regardless of the volcanic reaction instantly delivered by some of the president’s supporters.

“The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a ‘high crime and misdemeanor,’ Romney said in a dramatic floor speech, in which Romney choked up while discussing how he is guided by his faith.

“Yes, he did,” Romney said.

The move denies Trump the unanimous Republican support he had sought and invited an avalanche of attacks from the president and his allies.

Donald Trump Jr. immediately lit into Romney on Twitter: “He’s now officially a member of the resistance & should be expelled from” the party. His niece, GOP chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, said “this is not the first time I have disagreed with Mitt, and I imagine it will not be the last.”

“Wrong, wrong, wrong move,” said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a diehard defender of the president.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters Wednesday that he was “surprised and disappointed” by Romney’s vote but that he saw good GOP teamwork on impeachment. Asked about expelling Romney from the Republican conference, McConnell responded: “Sen. Romney has been largely supportive of everything we’ve been trying to accomplish.”

Romney was already somewhat isolated, having voted with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to hear from former national security adviser John Bolton in the trial about Trump’s solicitations of foreign interference in the 2020 election and withholding of Ukraine aid. But now, “it’s going to get very lonely” for him in the Republican Party, he acknowledged in a Fox News interview.

Still, the first-term senator explained that going with the party line would simply not be the right thing to do and quoted a hymn to explain his decision-making: “Do what is right, let the consequence follow.” [Continue reading…]