MAGA Furious Over Mitt Romney Saying He'd Vote for Democrats

Senator Mitt Romney faced backlash online Saturday from supporters of Donald Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement after a resurfaced interview showed him saying he'd vote for Democrats in the 2024 presidential election.

Romney, a Utah Republican who has served in the Senate since 2019, announced in September he won't seek reelection in 2024, citing age as a contributing factor. The 76-year-old senator has also had an adversarial relationship with Trump for most of the former president's political career. In late October, Trump denounced Romney as "a total loser" who allegedly "begged" to be appointed secretary of state in 2016.

Trump, who is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, backed Romney's 2012 presidential bid and endorsed his 2018 Senate bid. However, Romney has since continued to become a prominent Trump critic and was the lone Republican senator who voted in 2020 to convict the former president after he was impeached for pressuring Ukraine to open an investigation into the Biden family.

On Saturday, Romney's resurfaced October interview on CBS News' Person to Person with Norah O'Donnell made its way onto X, formerly Twitter.

Senator Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, is seen on September 13 in Washington, D.C. Romney faced backlash online Saturday from supporters of Donald Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement after a resurfaced interview showed him saying he'd vote for Democrats in the 2024 presidential election. Win McNamee/Getty Images

In the interview, Romney was asked by O'Donnell who he liked in the Republican field, in which he responded that he would support any one of the Republicans amid the 2024 election, adding that he would also vote for Democratic candidates as it would be an "upgrade" from Trump.

"Anybody. I would be happy to support virtually any one of the Republicans, maybe not Vivek [Ramaswamy], but the others that are running would be acceptable to me. I would be happy to vote for them. I would be happy to vote for any of the Democrats too. I mean it would be an upgrade from, in my opinion, Donald Trump and perhaps also from Joe Biden," Romney said.

The senator added: "I like President Biden. I find him a very charming and engaging person, there's some places I agree with and most places I disagree with him. I think he made all sorts of terrible mistakes, but I would like to see someone else run."

Newsweek has reached out to Romney and Trump via email for comment.

However, Romney's response has since sparked backlash from MAGA supporters as some criticized his stance that veered away from his own party.

Monica Crowley, podcast host and former assistant secretary of the treasury from 2019 to 2021, took to X to share her thoughts on Romney's interview and wrote, "Uniparty loser Mitt Romney - uncle of RNC Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel - says he'd vote for a Democrat over Trump or Vivek."

X user, The Trump Train, commented, "WOW - In a new interview, Mitt Romney says that he would vote for anyone besides Donald Trump and Vivek Ramaswamy. He then goes on to say he thinks Joe Biden is charming and engaging despite him destroying our country. What's your response to Mitt??"

Journalist Lara Logan also took to X to question Romney's stance by asking, "Mitt Romney has been voting with the Democrats for years. What was his role in orchestrating the Jan 6 cover-up?"

Meanwhile, X user Johnny Maga, wrote, "Mitt Romney is the enemy of the people."

The criticism comes after last month's publication of Romney's biography, Romney: A Reckoning, which was written by journalist McKay Coppins. The book features several moments of harsh Trump criticism from the Utah senator, including his description of the former president as "really not smart."

In addition, during an interview released in an episode of The Press Box podcast in October, Coppins speculated that Romney's disdain for Trump could lead to him endorsing Biden "late" in the 2024 election cycle, while making it clear that Romney had not told him that he is planning to do so.

"I mean, there's no way he'll support, endorse [or] vote for Donald Trump," he said. "Will he somehow lend his support to Joe Biden? I don't know the answer to that. Romney is still a conservative. That's the tricky thing about all this. He feels completely alienated from his party."

In previous response to a request for comment, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told Newsweek that Romney is "a certified loser who announced his retirement after everyone learned he was serving himself instead of his constituents. He has a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome and should get the proper help he requires."