The atlantic what mitt romney saw in the senate

He is the author of The Wildernessa book about the battle over the future of the Republican Party, and Romney: A Reckoninga biography of Mitt Romney that will be published in October For many Americans, the former president has become an abstraction.

This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic , Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here. F or most of his life , Mitt Romney has nursed a morbid fascination with his own death, suspecting that it might assert itself one day suddenly and violently. He controls what he can, of course. He wears his seat belt, and diligently applies sunscreen, and stays away from secondhand smoke.

The atlantic what mitt romney saw in the senate

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic :. The End of Pretenses. My colleague McKay Coppins has spent two years talking with Mitt Romney, the Utah senator, former Massachusetts governor, and Republican presidential nominee. I am pleased to know that Senator Romney holds as low an opinion of J. But I want to move away from the discussion about Romney himself and focus on something he said that too many people have overlooked. We were a few months removed from an attempted coup instigated by Republican leaders, and he was wrestling with some difficult questions. Was the authoritarian element of the GOP a product of President Trump, or had it always been there, just waiting to be activated by a sufficiently shameless demagogue? I think every decent Republican has wondered the same thing. The indecent ones have also wondered about it, but as Romney now accepts, people like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz have figured out that playing to the rot in the GOP base is a core skill set that helps them stay in Washington and far away from their constituents back home. But enough about the hollow men of the GOP. Think about what Romney is saying:. This is not some pedestrian political observation, some throwaway line about partisan division. Leave aside for the moment that Romney is talking about Republicans and the hangers-on in the Trump movement; they are also your fellow Americans, citizens of a nation that was, until recently, one of the most durable democracies on Earth.

Sign in My Account Subscribe. F or a blessed moment after January 6, it looked to Romney as if the fever in his party might finally be breaking.

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As Utah Sen. The excerpt, published by The Atlantic , includes an exchange Romney had with Sen. Angus King, I-Maine. King told Romney that he had been briefed by a Pentagon official, who said that extremist groups were holding a rally in Washington, D. I hope that sufficient security plans are in place, but I am concerned that the instigator — the President — is the one who commands the reinforcements the DC and Capitol police might require. But McConnell never responded, leaving senators, like Romney, to scramble to safety as the rioters stormed in. Although McConnell often aligned with former President Donald Trump, he defended Romney when Trump posted a series of attacks directed at the Utah senator on social media.

The atlantic what mitt romney saw in the senate

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic :. The End of Pretenses. My colleague McKay Coppins has spent two years talking with Mitt Romney, the Utah senator, former Massachusetts governor, and Republican presidential nominee. I am pleased to know that Senator Romney holds as low an opinion of J.

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He spent his mornings in the Senate gym studying his colleagues like he was an anthropologist, jotting down his observations in his journal. I n some ways , Romney settled most fully into his role as a senator once Trump was gone. Every time he publicly criticized Trump, it seemed, some Republican senator would smarmily sidle up to him in private and express solidarity. You sell yourself so cheap? Think about what Romney is saying:. More From The Atlantic. Candid introspection and crises of conscience are much less expensive in retirement. Crumbs littered the kitchen counter; soda and seltzer occupied the otherwise-empty fridge. How were they not ready for this? But there was also something unsettling about the episode. His time in the Senate had left Romney worried—not just about the decomposition of his own political party, but about the fate of the American project itself. Explore the November Issue Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.

He is the author of The Wilderness , a book about the battle over the future of the Republican Party, and Romney: A Reckoning , a biography of Mitt Romney that will be published in October For many Americans, the former president has become an abstraction.

The End of Pretenses. Think of your children. Search The Atlantic. He paused his speech. E arly on the morning of January 6, , Romney slid into the back of an SUV and began the short ride to his Senate office, with a Capitol Police car in tow. Adrenaline surging, Romney stood and made his way to the back of the chamber, where he pushed open the heavy bronze doors. Legislators gave speeches to empty chambers and spent hours debating bills they all knew would never pass. But most weeks, I drove to a stately brick townhouse with perpetually drawn blinds on a quiet street a mile from the Capitol. But enough about the hollow men of the GOP. Romney had come to dread these meetings.