Sen. Mitt Romney (R., Utah) on Tuesday criticized former President Donald Trump for spreading lies about immigrants and the federal response to devastating Hurricane Helen.
“Trump said people in Springfield are eating their dogs and cats. He also said that instead of helping people affected by the hurricanes, our emergency funds, FEMA funds, are being used to help illegals. I mean, he’s just making it up.” Romney said during a debate at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
“He can spew out enough disinformation to make the Chinese people laugh,” the Republican 2012 presidential candidate added.
Trump spent the last week lying about the devastation in the Southeast and how the White House is handling it. He said President Joe Biden dodged a call from Georgia’s Republican governor, that the White House is neglecting to help conservative-leaning areas hit by the storm, and that Harris said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is failing to accommodate undocumented immigrants. It falsely claimed that ‘all’ of the relief funds had been spent. .
“He’s lying,” Biden said of Georgia’s Republican governor Brian Kemp at the White House last week, adding, “The governor told him he’s lying.”
Last month, Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), smeared Haitian immigrants living legally in Ohio by falsely claiming they were preying on Americans’ pets, a lie that was reported to police. It has been repeatedly revealed by And civil servants.
“When it comes to taking a vacation from the truth, he’s taken the longest vacation,” Romney said of President Trump on Tuesday.
But despite being one of Trump’s biggest Republican critics, Romney paused on Tuesday in an offer to support Vice President Kamala Harris’ Democratic presidential bid, joining former Republican lawmakers such as Liz Cheney (D-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (D-Wyo.) refused to join. Illinois).
“I’ve made it clear that I don’t want Trump to be the next president of the United States,” Romney told the student who asked him. “We’re going to have to make some very difficult calculations about what that will mean.” What stopped him from supporting Harris.
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He went on to explain that he believed Trump would have more influence to “rebuild” the Republican Party after this election, either if he were defeated or in power for another four years.
“So I’m not planning a change, but it won’t be that difficult. Considering they voted twice to convict him in his impeachment trial, that would have prevented him from running again. Here’s my stance on the Donald: “Trump is pretty clear,” he added.