Senator Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, downplayed concerns about President-elect Donald Trump‘s “retribution” against his political rivals in an interview with CNN‘s Jake Tapper Sunday morning.
“Trump has made it clear that he wants to go after his political opponents. He’s talking about members of the January 6 committee should go to jail. Are you worried at all about being a target for retribution, you or members of your family?” Tapper asked the senator on State of the Union.
Romney responded to Tapper: “No, actually I’ve been pretty clean throughout my life. I’m not particularly worried about criminal investigations. I don’t know how much, by the way, of what the president says is hyperbole because there was a lot of ‘this person oughta be jailed and that person oughta be jailed’ that said during the last two campaigns. But I think President Trump is likely to try and focus on the future. People who committed crimes I’m sure will be prosecuted but I think that’s few and far between.”
During an interview with Kristen Welker on NBC News’ Meet the Press last Sunday, Trump slammed the House select committee tasked with investigating the events surrounding the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, which led to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) criminally charging Trump in connection to the riot. The riot broke out after Trump repeatedly claimed that now-President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win was stolen via widespread voter fraud, despite there being no evidence of such claims. Trump has maintained his innocence, saying the case was politically motivated. The case was dismissed without prejudice after Trump won this year’s election.
Trump told Welker that the January 6 committee lied and destroyed evidence, however, there is no evidence to back up his claims. “I think those people committed a major crime,” Trump said, adding, “They should go to jail.”
When asked if he was going to direct his FBI director and his attorney general to “send them to jail,” Trump said, “No, not at all. I think that they’ll have to look at that, but I’m not going to—I’m going to focus on drill, baby, drill,” referring to his energy policy.
Meanwhile, Karoline Leavitt, the spokeswoman for the Trump-Vance transition, said in a statement emailed to Newsweek late Sunday morning, “President Trump will serve ALL Americans, even those who did not vote for him in the election. He will unify the country through success.”
What Has Romney and Trump Said About Each Other?
Romney has been critical of Trump in the past, and even during Sunday’s interview with Tapper, said, “I’m, as you know, not a supporter of President Trump’s.”
The senator, who will be retiring in January, voted to convict Trump both times after he was impeached during his first presidency. Romney became the first Republican senator ever to vote to convict a president of their own party during Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2020. Romney was one of only seven Republicans to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial in 2021.
Meanwhile, Trump called Romney’s retirement “fantastic news for America, the great state of Utah, and for the Republican Party” when the senator announced in September 2023 that he would not seek reelection.
In October 2023, Trump called Romney “a total loser that only a mother could love” and said, “I am very proud to be the one who forced this Left Leaning RINO [Republican in name only] out of politics.”
Romney, who was the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, told Tapper about Trump, “I didn’t support him in this election. I didn’t the last time he ran either, largely for matters of character.”
However, he did acknowledge the rise in popularity of Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) political movement among the Republican Party.
“MAGA is the Republican Party and Donald Trump is the Republican Party today,” he said. “The Republican Party has become the party of the working class, middle class voter. And you gotta give Donald Trump credit for having done that…one of the challenges in my party is that our policies do not necessarily line up with the interests of our voters. And so, there’ll be some reorientation that’s going to be necessary in my party.”
Senator Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, is seen on February 08 in Washington, D.C. Inset, President-Elect Donald Trump is seen on December 7 in Paris. Romney downplayed concerns about Trump’s “retribution” against his political rivals in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper Sunday morning.
Kevin Dietsch/Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images
What Has Trump Said About His Political Rivals?
During this year’s election cycle, there were fears that Trump would seek retribution against his political enemies.
In a phone interview with Newsmax in June, Trump floated the possibility of imprisoning his political opponents in the event he returned to the White House. During the interview, Trump added to the claims he was making at the time that he had never called for former U.S. Secretary of State HillaryClinton to be jailed.
“I said, ‘Wouldn’t it really be bad?…Wouldn’t it be terrible to throw the president’s wife and the former secretary of state—think of it, the former secretary of state—but the president’s wife into jail? Wouldn’t that be a terrible thing?” Trump said.
“But they want to do it,” he added, in an apparent reference to his political opponents. “It’s a terrible, terrible path that they’re leading us to, and it’s very possible that it’s going to have to happen to them.”
During his 2016 presidential race against Clinton, Trump repeatedly used the phrase “lock her up,” calling for her imprisonment after the FBI investigated her use of a personal email system to conduct business as secretary of state. The FBI decided not to recommend criminal charges against Clinton. Despite Trump’s efforts to get the DOJ to prosecute Clinton during his first presidency, she was never criminally charged.
In June, Trump’s then-campaign communications director Steven Cheung told Newsweek, “As President Trump has said, the best revenge is the success and prosperity of all Americans.”
Trump’s comments in the June Newsmax interview came after he was found guilty in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money paid to adult-film star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election. Daniels alleges she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, which he denies. Trump has maintained his innocence and said the case was politically motivated against him. His sentencing in the case has been postponed indefinitely while the judge overseeing the case decides how to move forward now that Trump won the election.
Trump has repeatedly said the New York case was rigged and incorrectly linked President Joe Biden to the state’s prosecution.
Update 12/15/24, 12:01 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.