Trump Moves To Block Mitt Romney From Running For The Senate

No wonder Señor Trumpanzee prefers Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, first elected to the Senate in 1976, to Mitt Romney. Despite his family having lost their home and forced to live in a shack without plumbing, now that Orrin has somehow managed to making himself over as a miltimillionaire he has long advocated pulling up the ladder behind him and regularly castigates poor people as lazy and undeserving drunks. This past weekend: "I have a rough time wanting to spend billions and billions and trillions of dollars to help people who won’t help themselves, won’t lift a finger and expect the federal government to do everything." Trump's kind of guy-- and at 84, he practically makes the 71 year old senile Trump seen like a younger. If God suddenly rid us of Trump, Pence and Ryan in one fell swoop, Hatch, as president pro-tempore of the Senate, would become president of the United States.

Hatch was with Trumpanzee in Utah yesterday, doing a little anti-environment work and he told the media that he wants Hatch to run again. Previously Hatch had said he would consider not running for a 55th term or whatever it is if Mitt Romney would run. Romney has indicated that he'd like to. Trumpanzee at the State Capitol: "You are a true fighter, Orrin, I have to say. I've gotten to know him very well. I've gotten to know a lot of people very well. You meet fighters and you meet people who were thought they were fighters, but they're not so good at fighting. He's a fighter. We hope you will continue to serve your state and the country and the senate for a very long time to come."

[Senor Trumpanzee] has privately expressed concern about the prospect of Romney, perhaps his most prominent Republican critic during the 2016 election, joining the Senate, Politico reported. Trump has enjoyed strong support from Hatch, the longest-serving member of the Senate, and would likely face a more contentious relationship with Romney, who was once among the candidates under consideration to be Trump’s secretary of state.

Romney has expressed frustration that Hatch, 83, has not ruled out a run for an eighth term, according to three Republicans who have spoken to him, in part because it was Hatch who urged him to consider running to replace him in the Senate.

On Monday afternoon, Romney took the opposite stance of the president's on Roy Moore, the Alabama candidate for Senate who has been accused of misconduct with women when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. Trump called Moore to endorse him on Monday.

"Roy Moore in the US Senate would be a stain on the GOP and on the nation. Leigh Corfman and other victims are courageous heroes. No vote, no majority is worth losing our honor, our integrity," Romney tweeted.

The former Massachusetts governor, who was invited to Monday's event at the state capitol but was out of town and could not attend, has told people in Utah that if he were elected to the Senate, he would not be reflexively opposed to Trump's agenda but would speak out with criticism when merited.

Things like this piss off Trump:

Meanwhile, Mara Liasson reported for NPR that "Utah polls show that big majorities of voters want Hatch to retire and that Romney would easily win the seat. If that happened, Romney would immediately become the most prominent elder statesman of the GOP. Dignified and disciplined, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee would become the center of gravity for those in the party who are uncomfortable with Trump's behavior."

75% of Utah voters say Hatch should retire; and a huge plurality want Romney to replace him in the Senate. Trump probably sees him as a vote for guilty when the House impeaches Trump in 2019.