1 00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:08,160 Speaker 1: Mitt Romney, the twenty twelve Republican nominee for President of 2 00:00:08,200 --> 00:00:12,280 Speaker 1: the United States, a man who secured more than fifty 3 00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:16,759 Speaker 1: nine million votes from his fellow citizens to be commander 4 00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:21,520 Speaker 1: in chief, is retiring from politics. He is a man 5 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:27,720 Speaker 1: of integrity, character and decency. These are values that are 6 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:33,479 Speaker 1: necessary in a free society. Without them, we lurch towards 7 00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:38,520 Speaker 1: an abyss. With them, we have the ability to step 8 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:43,320 Speaker 1: back from it. Mitt Romney has had a long career 9 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:48,640 Speaker 1: in public service. He has kept the faith. There's something 10 00:00:48,680 --> 00:00:54,320 Speaker 1: important to understand. If you can't look at somebody who 11 00:00:54,360 --> 00:01:00,120 Speaker 1: you have a political disagreement with and see they're innate decency, 12 00:01:00,760 --> 00:01:05,400 Speaker 1: understand that they're an honorable person, that they are committed 13 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:10,319 Speaker 1: to the country, their family, and their duty, then you 14 00:01:11,080 --> 00:01:14,200 Speaker 1: are part of the problem and part of the reason 15 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:18,800 Speaker 1: we have arrived at this fetid moment, in this moment 16 00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:24,960 Speaker 1: of crisis in our national life. Mitt Romney has fought 17 00:01:25,240 --> 00:01:29,759 Speaker 1: the good fight, and Mitt Romney is not going quietly 18 00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:35,480 Speaker 1: into that good night. There's a book coming out. Mitt 19 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:40,440 Speaker 1: Romney has apparently given astonishing levels of access to one 20 00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:45,759 Speaker 1: of the very best writers and chroniclers of politics in Washington, 21 00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:51,920 Speaker 1: d C. The Atlantic Magazine's McKay coppins, Mitt Romney has 22 00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:56,360 Speaker 1: nothing to hide. Mitt Romney's telling the truth about what 23 00:01:56,440 --> 00:02:02,720 Speaker 1: he saw inside and up close, and it's disgraceful. What 24 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:10,200 Speaker 1: he depicts is a cauldron of cowardice and faithlessness and 25 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:15,239 Speaker 1: an absence of duty. This is one of the most 26 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:20,240 Speaker 1: remarkable political stories I have ever read, and I'm going 27 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:24,120 Speaker 1: to read from it extensively as we talk about it. 28 00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:30,320 Speaker 1: Mitt Romney saw what was building, what was coming. In 29 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:35,800 Speaker 1: early January of twenty twenty one, A very large portion 30 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:41,760 Speaker 1: of my party, he told me one day, really doesn't 31 00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:46,919 Speaker 1: believe in the Constitution. He'd realized this only recently, he said. 32 00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:50,399 Speaker 1: We were a few months removed from an attempted cop 33 00:02:50,480 --> 00:02:54,400 Speaker 1: instigated by Republican leaders, and he was wrestling with some 34 00:02:54,560 --> 00:03:00,160 Speaker 1: difficult questions. Was the authoritarian element of the GOP a 35 00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:04,600 Speaker 1: product of Trump or had it always been there, just 36 00:03:04,639 --> 00:03:09,600 Speaker 1: waiting to be activated by a sufficiently shameless demagogue. And 37 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:13,960 Speaker 1: what role had the members of the mainstream establishment, people 38 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:18,160 Speaker 1: like him the reasonable Republicans played in allowing the rot 39 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:27,920 Speaker 1: on the right defester. Perhaps Romney's most surprising discovery upon 40 00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:32,960 Speaker 1: entering the Senate was that his disgust with Trump was 41 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:39,760 Speaker 1: not unique among his Republican colleagues, all most without exception, 42 00:03:39,960 --> 00:03:43,200 Speaker 1: he told me, they shared my view of the president. 43 00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:47,640 Speaker 1: In public, of course, they played their parts as Trump loyalists, 44 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:54,880 Speaker 1: often contorting themselves rhetorically to defend the president's most indefensible behavior. 45 00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:59,920 Speaker 1: But in private, they ridiculed his ignorance, rolled their eyes 46 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:04,800 Speaker 1: at his antics, and made incisive observations about his warped 47 00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:11,080 Speaker 1: toddlerla like psyche. Romney recalled one senior Republican senator, frankly admitting, 48 00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:15,880 Speaker 1: he has none of the qualities you would want in 49 00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:20,920 Speaker 1: a president and all of the qualities you would not. 50 00:04:22,279 --> 00:04:29,440 Speaker 1: Among the very greatest failures of America's political journalist establishment 51 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:36,919 Speaker 1: is the failure to react and to take seriously, to 52 00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:42,040 Speaker 1: take literally what Donald Trump said he would do, going 53 00:04:42,120 --> 00:04:46,839 Speaker 1: back all the way to twenty fifteen. And this is 54 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:55,960 Speaker 1: very important to understand America's society. Our entire civilization is 55 00:04:56,040 --> 00:05:02,359 Speaker 1: built on the idea of elections. There's no workaround on this, 56 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:08,440 Speaker 1: there's no place to compromise about it. The way of 57 00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:14,480 Speaker 1: life in America is sustained by a very simple concept. 58 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:18,760 Speaker 2: Political power is assigned. 59 00:05:18,880 --> 00:05:29,440 Speaker 1: Lawfully, temporarily with profound limitations through a majoritarian election process. 60 00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:32,279 Speaker 2: That's how it works. 61 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:36,640 Speaker 1: That's how the country was designed and how it was built. 62 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:42,280 Speaker 1: Mitt Romney had an experience in life. He had lost 63 00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:49,080 Speaker 1: a presidential election. Mitt Romney picked up the phone in 64 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:52,599 Speaker 1: an election that he very much thought he would win 65 00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:57,240 Speaker 1: and conceded it to the person who had won it, 66 00:05:58,440 --> 00:06:06,320 Speaker 1: President Baraco. Mitt Romney did not put his ego, did 67 00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:13,320 Speaker 1: not put his ambitions ahead of the country. Mitt Romney 68 00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:19,480 Speaker 1: did the right thing, and it became the last presidential 69 00:06:19,520 --> 00:06:24,279 Speaker 1: election where the right thing would be done. So it's 70 00:06:24,440 --> 00:06:30,440 Speaker 1: very important to understand what mitt Romney did, where he was, 71 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:35,520 Speaker 1: and what happened to him on January sixth of twenty 72 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:39,599 Speaker 1: twenty one. And it's also important to understand, and I've 73 00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:44,320 Speaker 1: pointed this out before, how close Mitt Romney came to 74 00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:50,640 Speaker 1: being killed on January sixth. His life was indisputably saved 75 00:06:51,320 --> 00:06:56,880 Speaker 1: by Officer Eugene Goodman, who turned Mitt Romney around, who 76 00:06:57,040 --> 00:07:00,080 Speaker 1: ran at full speed back into the Senate chain m 77 00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:06,440 Speaker 1: as the insurrectionist surged forward looking to kill the Vice 78 00:07:06,520 --> 00:07:12,520 Speaker 1: President of the United States. Something about the volatility of 79 00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:19,160 Speaker 1: the moment caused Romney a walking amalgam of prep school 80 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:24,920 Speaker 1: manners and Mormon niceness and the practice cool of the 81 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:32,560 Speaker 1: private equity set to lose his grip, and he finally 82 00:07:32,760 --> 00:07:37,040 Speaker 1: vented the raw anger he had been trying to contain. 83 00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:41,800 Speaker 1: He turned to Josh Holly, who was huddled with some 84 00:07:41,960 --> 00:07:47,600 Speaker 1: of his right wing colleagues, and started to yell. Later, 85 00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:52,160 Speaker 1: Romney would struggle to recall the exact wording of his rebuke. 86 00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:58,560 Speaker 1: Sometimes he'd remember shouting, You're the reason this is happening. 87 00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:04,800 Speaker 1: Other times it would be something more terse, you did this. 88 00:08:05,960 --> 00:08:11,680 Speaker 1: What bothered Romney most about Holly and his cohort was 89 00:08:11,760 --> 00:08:20,480 Speaker 1: the oily disingenuousness quote they know better end quote. He 90 00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:25,560 Speaker 1: told me, Josh Holly is one of the smartest people 91 00:08:26,080 --> 00:08:32,000 Speaker 1: in the Senate, if not the smartest, and Ted Cruz 92 00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:37,400 Speaker 1: could give him a run for his money. They were 93 00:08:37,960 --> 00:08:42,760 Speaker 1: too smart. Romney believed to actually think that Trump had 94 00:08:42,800 --> 00:08:49,200 Speaker 1: won the twenty twenty election. Holly and Cruse quote were 95 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:50,960 Speaker 1: making a calculation. 96 00:08:51,559 --> 00:08:52,439 Speaker 2: Romney told me. 97 00:08:53,920 --> 00:09:01,160 Speaker 1: That put politics above the interests of liberal democracy and 98 00:09:01,200 --> 00:09:06,800 Speaker 1: the constitution. The crisis at hand in America that is 99 00:09:06,880 --> 00:09:10,960 Speaker 1: threatening the American way of life. 100 00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:13,240 Speaker 2: Is born out of cowardice. 101 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:18,880 Speaker 1: And cynicism, and it has caused chaos, and there is 102 00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:21,240 Speaker 1: more mayhem ahead. 103 00:09:23,040 --> 00:09:25,240 Speaker 2: We stand at an hour in. 104 00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:33,400 Speaker 1: American life where the last honorable figure of great stature 105 00:09:34,080 --> 00:09:38,959 Speaker 1: within the Republican Party, a man who received almost sixty 106 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:45,880 Speaker 1: million votes for president, believes it has degenerated into an illiberal, 107 00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:48,840 Speaker 1: anti democratic cabal. 108 00:09:50,040 --> 00:09:50,960 Speaker 2: And he's moving on. 109 00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:58,000 Speaker 1: Mitt Romney has stood against the tide. He has honored 110 00:09:58,360 --> 00:10:04,360 Speaker 1: the legacy of his father, another courageous political leader, George Romney. 111 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:11,920 Speaker 1: Mitt Romney did not become president, but mitt Romney did 112 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:17,120 Speaker 1: not submit to the madness. He stood tall all the 113 00:10:17,160 --> 00:10:21,840 Speaker 1: way through, and he did his duty. He stood up 114 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:27,320 Speaker 1: for America, and he stood up for the Constitution. What 115 00:10:27,520 --> 00:10:33,200 Speaker 1: is described in the excerpts of this article are profoundly 116 00:10:33,520 --> 00:10:39,920 Speaker 1: important moments of American history. Mitt Romney is saying, what 117 00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:45,439 Speaker 1: if the project is unraveling? What if the American experiment 118 00:10:46,120 --> 00:10:51,199 Speaker 1: is ending? What if it is being undone by the 119 00:10:51,240 --> 00:10:57,679 Speaker 1: weight of vice and the disloyalty and treachery of the 120 00:10:57,760 --> 00:11:01,600 Speaker 1: men and women who are post to raise their hands 121 00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:07,000 Speaker 1: swear an oath not to their ambition but to their 122 00:11:07,040 --> 00:11:14,360 Speaker 1: country's constitution. Mitt Romney seems exhausted by it. All worn 123 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:19,080 Speaker 1: down by it all. And in the end, Mitt Romney, 124 00:11:19,080 --> 00:11:22,640 Speaker 1: who has had a long career in public service, is 125 00:11:22,679 --> 00:11:27,800 Speaker 1: not the prisoner of the MAGA movement. It is not 126 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:33,880 Speaker 1: his responsibility to end it. That falls on the responsibility 127 00:11:34,360 --> 00:11:39,840 Speaker 1: of the American people. There's another important thing to understand 128 00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:45,600 Speaker 1: that Senator Romney talked about, and it was the fact 129 00:11:45,840 --> 00:11:52,840 Speaker 1: that on the TV set, the Republican politicians they loved Trump, 130 00:11:54,760 --> 00:11:58,640 Speaker 1: but when those TV cameras went off, they laughed and 131 00:11:58,720 --> 00:12:02,880 Speaker 1: they mocked him. And then when they went back on, 132 00:12:04,400 --> 00:12:09,320 Speaker 1: they became sick of fans again, and so on and 133 00:12:09,400 --> 00:12:15,120 Speaker 1: on the vicious cycle went, and with it evaporated trust 134 00:12:16,160 --> 00:12:25,240 Speaker 1: and belief. With it, the media became complicit in show business. 135 00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:32,040 Speaker 1: The accumulation of the sum of all of that cowardice 136 00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:37,720 Speaker 1: and all of that cynicism has led us to this moment, 137 00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:45,040 Speaker 1: to this precipice. And Senator Romney says something that's very 138 00:12:45,080 --> 00:12:49,280 Speaker 1: true when he's asked a question about who will win 139 00:12:49,360 --> 00:12:53,720 Speaker 1: the presidential election between eighty two year old Joe Biden 140 00:12:54,200 --> 00:12:57,800 Speaker 1: and seventy eight year old Donald Trump, he calls it 141 00:12:57,840 --> 00:13:03,360 Speaker 1: a fifty to fifty proposition, which it is. It's a 142 00:13:03,400 --> 00:13:11,160 Speaker 1: tie race. Seven years on ninety two criminal counts. Notwithstanding 143 00:13:12,480 --> 00:13:19,600 Speaker 1: thirty five thousand public lives documented, Donald Trump is still 144 00:13:19,640 --> 00:13:25,239 Speaker 1: the choice for president for many tens of millions of Americans, 145 00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:31,280 Speaker 1: and he is supported and embedded in that attempt by 146 00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:38,240 Speaker 1: a profound and deep current of cynicism coursing through American society. 147 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:44,720 Speaker 1: Mitt Romney's going to talk about it. His public service 148 00:13:44,800 --> 00:13:50,200 Speaker 1: career has modeled a different type of behavior. That's why 149 00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:56,000 Speaker 1: it's so sad that he's ending it. But his responsibility 150 00:13:56,080 --> 00:14:03,120 Speaker 1: to oppose this is not a lifetime burden on his family, who, 151 00:14:03,160 --> 00:14:09,840 Speaker 1: because of his principal stands, are threatened by his fellow citizens. 152 00:14:12,840 --> 00:14:16,160 Speaker 1: When we reach a point, and this has pointed out 153 00:14:16,160 --> 00:14:19,880 Speaker 1: in the McKay coppin story, and it's something I've often 154 00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:27,600 Speaker 1: talked about that our politicians at a local level, at 155 00:14:27,640 --> 00:14:31,800 Speaker 1: a county level, at a state level, and all the 156 00:14:31,840 --> 00:14:38,680 Speaker 1: way up to Mitt Romney's level, feel fear, wonder if 157 00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:45,440 Speaker 1: they're about to be killed. Then we are hanging over 158 00:14:45,520 --> 00:14:52,720 Speaker 1: an edge where freedom, while not yet completely lost, is 159 00:14:52,800 --> 00:15:03,320 Speaker 1: slipping away and discernibly. So what McKay coppins has done 160 00:15:03,640 --> 00:15:10,880 Speaker 1: with Mitt Romney and his transparency and honesty is layout 161 00:15:11,200 --> 00:15:18,520 Speaker 1: a document about this moment, grounded in principle and truth, 162 00:15:19,800 --> 00:15:25,960 Speaker 1: in decency of a human being in a high office 163 00:15:27,080 --> 00:15:32,280 Speaker 1: trying to do his duty, struggling with the best way 164 00:15:33,400 --> 00:15:34,680 Speaker 1: to live up to his oath. 165 00:15:36,120 --> 00:15:37,320 Speaker 2: This is one of the. 166 00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:43,040 Speaker 1: Greatest political stories I have ever read, and I encourage 167 00:15:43,080 --> 00:15:47,160 Speaker 1: you to read it, to think about it. If it 168 00:15:47,320 --> 00:15:53,760 Speaker 1: does not trigger in you thoughts and worries about renewal 169 00:15:54,400 --> 00:15:58,680 Speaker 1: and reform and what we are going to do about 170 00:15:58,720 --> 00:16:01,880 Speaker 1: the country, then shame on you.