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Mitt Romney won’t say he’s for Harris because he wants ‘to have a voice’ in a post-Trump GOP

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Mitt Romney won’t say he’s for Harris because he wants ‘to have a voice’ in a post-Trump GOP

Sen. Mitt Romney once again declined to say whether he’s voting for Kamala Harris in the election, suggesting that his reticence now will enable him to have some influence over the direction of the Republican Party in a hypothetical post-Trump future.

“I’ve made it very clear that I don’t want Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States,” he said Tuesday when asked about the election at a forum at the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics. “I want to continue to have a voice in the Republican Party following this election. I think there’s a good chance that the Republican Party is going to need to be rebuilt or reoriented.”

Despite being a fierce critic of TrumpRomney has refused to endorse the Democratic nominee publicly in the previous two elections. The Utah senator said he wrote in his wife, Ann Romney, in the 2016 election, and he revealed that he did not vote for Trump in 2020 but declined to say whether he voted for Joe Biden. This year, Romney has said again that he won’t vote for Trump, but he has remained tight-lipped about whether Harris has his vote.

“I believe I will have more influence in the party by virtue of saying it as I’ve said it,” he said on Tuesday. “I’m not planning on changing the way I’ve described it.”

Romney’s outspoken opposition to Trump has left him at odds with most of his partyin which even former rivals and critics have come around to support the Republican presidential nominee. Yet Romney’s refusal to back Harris publicly has also set him apart from prominent anti-Trump Republicans who have done so, like former Rep. Liz Cheneywho was even campaigning with Harris in Wisconsin over the weekend.

Romney, meanwhile, has downplayed the significance of his choice in the election. “My particular vote doesn’t have a big impact because I’m from Utah,” he told MSNBC in May. And he has said before that he wants to hold on to influence within his party down the line, which he evidently believes cannot happen if he endorses a Democrat.

But the former GOP presidential nominee, who has bemoaned what he sees as waning centrism in American politics, conceded to CBS News that he does not really belong to the GOP anymore — and that was a year ago. He lamented the direction of the party under Trump’s influence and said he no longer sees in most of his party the traditional Republican values he believes in.

There is also the question of what a post-Trump GOP would even look like. But considering the right’s growing extremismthe Republican Party that Romney hopes to influence in the future may be even more alien to him than it is now.

Clarissa-Jan Lim

Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking/trending news blogger for BLN Digital. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.

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Politics

Hageman launches bid for Wyoming Senate seat

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Wyoming GOP Rep. Harriet Hageman on Tuesday announced her campaign for Senate, hoping to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis in next year’s election.

The Wyoming Republican is a strong supporter of President Donald Trump, and with his backing she helped oust Republican then-Rep. Liz Cheney, a vocal critic of Trump’s, in the 2022 primary.

“This fight is about making sure the next century sees the advancements of the last, while protecting our culture and our way of life,” Hageman said in her launch video. “We must dedicate ourselves to ensuring that the next 100 years is the next great American century.”

Lummis announced she would not seek reelection last week, saying she felt like a “sprinter in a marathon” despite being a “devout legislator.” Hageman, who had been debating a gubernatorial bid, was expected to enter the Senate race.

Hageman touted her ties to the president in her announcement video, highlighting her record of support for Trump’s policies during her time in the House and vowing to keep Wyoming a “leader in energy and food production.”

“I worked with President Trump to pass 46 billion in additional funding for border security, while ensuring that Wyomingites do not pay the cost of new immigration. We work together to secure the border and fund efforts to remove and deport those in the country illegally,” she said.

Trump won the deep-red state by nearly 46 points in last year’s election, and Hageman herself was reelected by nearly 48 points, according to exit polling.

Still, Hageman bore the brunt of voters’ displeasure earlier this year during a town hall. As she spoke of the Department of Government Efficiency, federal cuts and Social Security, the crowd booed her.

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Ben Sasse says he has stage 4 pancreatic cancer

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Former Sen. Ben Sasse announced on Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic pancreatic cancer.

The Nebraska Republican shared the news on X, writing in a lengthy social media post that he had received the diagnosis last week.

“Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence,” Sasse said. “But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.”

The two term senator retired in 2023 and then went on to serve as president of the University of Florida. He eventually left the school to spend more time with his wife, Melissa, after she was diagnosed with epilepsy.

Sasse continued to teach classes at University of Florida’s Hamilton Center after he stepped down as president. He previously served as a professor at the University of Texas, as an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services and as president of Midland University.

Sasse on Tuesday shared that he and his wife have only grown closer since and opened up about his children’s recent successes and milestones.

“There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst,” Sasse said. “As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.”

Sasse said he’ll have more to share in the future, adding that he is “not going down without a fight” and will be undergoing treatment.

“Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape,” Sasse said.

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Cannon keeps Jack Smith’s classified records report under wraps for now

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Cannon keeps Jack Smith’s classified records report under wraps for now

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday lifted restrictions on the release of former special counsel Jack Smith’s findings from his investigation into President Trump’s handling of classified records — but she gave the president a 60-day window to challenge her order. Cannon did not immediately lift her order barring the Justice Department from sharing…
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