'He is not Mitt Romney and he is not Donald Trump': Romney's Senate successor makes an early mark
It took Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, just a few weeks to make his mark on the Senate — even before he'd actually take the oath of office to replace retiring Sen.
It took Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, just a few weeks to make his mark on the Senate — even before he'd actually take the oath of office to replace retiring Sen. Mitt Romney next year.
As Senate colleagues and those close to President-elect Donald Trump saw it, Curtis, a senator-elect, was among the group of at least five Republicans who were planning to vote against former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s nomination to lead the Justice Department.
The opposition was enough to sink Gaetz, who withdrew from contention Thursday afternoon — an episode demonstrating to Trump and his allies that red lines still remain in a Republican Party that’s largely bent to his will. It also highlighted Curtis’ role to play in coloring in those lines, as an early indicator of how the Utahn is approaching his new office and a glimpse at the kind of influence he could wield once there.
Those who know Curtis caution not to look at his role in Gaetz’s withdrawal too simplistically, through the “pro-Trump” or “anti-Trump” litmus test that’s defined much of Republican politics over the last eight years. Instead, they point to the test Curtis laid out himself during a June primary debate: “When President Trump is doing anything that I consider aligned with Utah values … I’m wind at his back. But I’m not going to give him an unconditional yes to anything that he wants.”
“He is not Mitt Romney and he is not Donald Trump. He’s got his own brand and he was very clear about that in his primary and his general election,” said former GOP Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida, an NBC News contributor who overlapped with Curtis in the House. Romney, notably, was the lone Republican who voted to convict Trump at his first Senate impeachment trial in 2020, and he was a vocal critic of Trump on numerous other occasions during the last eight years, six of which Romney spent in the Senate.
Rating: 5