OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney apparently wears a disguise in public to keep from being recognized by supporters of former President Donald Trump.
According to a new book, “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future,” New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns wrote that Romney uses the disguise when dining out with his wife in Palm Beach, Florida, to avoid harassment from Trump supporters.
“If he were recognized by Trump supporters there, there was a good chance he would be harassed,” Martin and Burns wrote.
“Romney’s wife, Ann, told the authors Trump’s grip on the party and the hatred toward Mitt from his supporters gave her severe doubts about whether any of their five sons could ever run for elected office as Republicans,” the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Mitt Romney wears a disguise in public to hide from MAGAS?😳 https://t.co/k0S99Eb29H
— candacemariecooper (@candies2639) May 1, 2022
Ironically enough, it’s been Romney who has made a slew of anti-Trump statements and moves.
He recently wrote an op-ed and warned Democrats that they need to stop trying to ax the Senate filibuster because he says it will help Republicans take total power in 2022.
Romney suggested that Donald Trump may run and win the presidency again in 2024 and that Democrats would be wise not to end the Senate filibuster, which requires 60 votes to pass legislation instead of 51 votes.
Romney said there is a “reasonable chance Republicans will win both houses in Congress and that Donald Trump himself could once again be elected president in 2024.”
Prior to that, Romney went out of his way again to separate himself from his party by voting with Democrats to leave in place a mask mandate for two-year-old kids participating in the federally-subsidized Head Start program.
A federal judge has since struck down this mandate.
Former Democrat Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is taking legal action against Romney after he accused her of being a traitor.
“Tulsi Gabbard is parroting false Russian propaganda. Her treasonous lies may well cost lives,” Romney tweeted on March 13.
Tulsi Gabbard is parroting false Russian propaganda. Her treasonous lies may well cost lives.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) March 13, 2022
Gabbard defended herself when she spoke to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
“I still serve in the U.S. Army reserves today. I’m a lieutenant colonel, and 19 years ago when I enlisted in the military, I took an oath to support and defend our Constitution,” she said.
“When powerful and influential people basically threaten and intimidate people into silence as Mitt Romney … [is] doing, they’re hoping to achieve that effect that if anybody dares speak out against the government … [or] criticize whatever the washed, permanent Washington establishment narrative is, then you will be smeared … as a treasonous traitor,” the former representative said.
The cease and desist letter from her attorneys accused Romney of “false and defamatory statements” and asked Romney to settle with gabbard before litigation, Newsweek reported.
“While your tweet lacked any context, we surmise that your tweet was made in reference to a video Representative Gabbard published on Twitter that same day,” the letter said.
“In her video, Representative Gabbard called for a ceasefire in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine so that any biological laboratories in Ukraine could be secured,” it said.
Tulsi Gabbard says she sent cease and desist letters to Mitt Romney and Keith Olbermann after she was called a traitor. pic.twitter.com/mcrapG1PnB
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 21, 2022
Newsweek explained:
Ukrainian Biolabs has been at the center of an unfounded conspiracy theory that claimed the Biden administration was funding biological weapons labs in the country.
The U.S. has funded Biolabs in Ukraine but not the development of biological weapons. Claims about U.S. funding for bioweapons in Ukraine have been promoted by Russian state media amid the country’s ongoing invasion of its neighbor.
Gabbard, who represented Hawaii’s 2nd district from 2013 to 2021, did not claim that the U.S. was funding bioweapons labs in Ukraine in her March 13 video.
She also said that Biolabs, biological weapons labs, and bioweapons were “very different things” in a subsequent tweet on March 14 and wrote that “there is sometimes miscommunication and misunderstanding when discussing them.”
“Representative Gabbard’s loyalty to the United States is beyond reproach. You knew your claims of treason were false, or, at a minimum, you made your claims of treason with reckless disregard for the truth,” the letter from the attorneys said.
The attorneys requested a settlement that includes “retraction and apology, and other terms to be mutually negotiated.” They have given Sen. Romney until April 27 to respond.
She also said that she sent a cease and desist letter to former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann.
“Truth is the first casualty of war,” Gabbard said in a press release. “When powerful, influential people make baseless accusations of treason, a crime punishable by death, in order to intimidate, silence, and censor those who speak the truth, it has a chilling effect on our democracy. This cannot go unchecked.”
