Washington • As House Democrats push forward with an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, Republicans have largely rushed to Trump’s defense, or at least tempered their criticism to avoid his furious reprisals.
Among the handful of exceptions, though, there has been none louder or more prominent than Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, a figure who once embodied the essence of the Republican Party before Trump commandeered it, and is now in a lonely category of his own.
Since the first reports a week ago that Trump urged President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden set off a still-unfolding furor in the capital, Romney has repeatedly been the first Republican lawmaker to raise concerns about the president’s conduct.