By The Independent (World News) | Created at 2024-09-25 18:05:18 | Updated at 2024-09-30 11:34:00
4 days ago
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Senator Mitt Romney is “seriously” concerned Donald Trump will target him and his family if he is re-elected in November, his biographer has revealed.
The Republican became the first senator to vote to convict a president of his own party during Trump’s first impeachment trial. Romney was asked by McKay Coppings, his biographer, whether he fears his family would be targeted by Trump if he beats Kamala Harris in the election given their history.
He initially said: “It’s hard for me to imagine that President Trump would take the time to go out and see if [he] can find something on members of my family.”
When pressed again about how his family could be affected, the senator responded: “I’ve got 25 grandkids! How am I going to protect 25 grandkids, two great-grandkids? I’ve got five sons, five daughters-in-law—it’s like, we’re a big group,” The Atlantic reports.
Trump has often threatened to “go after” his enemies. In a speech last year he said: “In 2016, I declared, ‘I am your voice. Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution.”
In a Truth Social post from August 2023, he also wrote: “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”
And he has vowed to use the Justice Department to target his enemies. “I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, the entire Biden crime family, and all others involved with the destruction of our elections, borders and our country itself,” Trump also said last year.
The 77-year-old senator, who is about to retire, said he does not believe Trump is “all bluster.”
“I think he has shown by his prior actions that you can take him at his word,” he told Coppings. “So I would take him at his word.”
Coppings says Romney is preparing for what a Trump win means for him and his family.
“He is thinking seriously about what it will mean to be on a president’s enemies list,” he told KSL TV this week. “Donald Trump has said repeatedly that he will seek retribution against his political enemies when he comes back to the White House if he wins, and I think Trump means that, and Romney is kind of preparing for that reality.”
Romney’s fears have been echoed by Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen, who has revealed he is working on getting a foreign passport and a totally new name as a back-up in case Trump wins in November.
Cohen, who in 2018 pleaded guilty to lying to Congress, testified against the former president during his hush money criminal trial back in May.
Now, Cohen believes that he would be at the top of Trump’s retribution list if he defeats Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election.
As a result, the former fixer revealed on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House on Tuesday that he will likely flee the country if a second Trump term does materialize, saying he is already “working on a foreign passport” under an assumed name.
