State Rep. Phil Lyman’s long-awaited resolution to censure U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney for voting to convict GOP President Donald Trump on one count of impeachment was made public Wednesday.
The long resolution is a point-by-point attack on House Democrats’ impeachment of Trump, followed by a condemnation of Romney, a Republican, and warning the senator not to support any further Democratic attempts to harm the president.
It falls just short of saying Romney is a traitor — but won’t go anywhere anyway, GOP Utah legislative leaders have already announced.
HJR19, being a joint resolution, to pass would have to get a majority of votes in the Utah House and Senate.
But Republican leaders say it won’t come out of House Rules. A closed GOP House caucus earlier this session voted to hold Lyman’s then-unwritten resolution and an already-introduced bill by Rep. Tim Quinn, R-Heber, which would have set up rules whereby a U.S. senator could be recalled by voters.
It is anticipated that the leadership-approved “citation” thanking Trump for all that he’s done for Utah will be read on the House and Senate floor in the coming days.
And that may be the reason for Lyman’s formal introduction of the “slam Romney” resolution Wednesday afternoon.
The leaders’ citation won’t mention Romney’s vote, UtahPolicy.com has been told.
A citation doesn’t call for a vote by members, and unlike a resolution won’t go to a formal committee hearing, where those in favor of Romney’s guilty vote could be heard.
A citation is just read aloud on the floor of each body and then sent to the person for whom it is meant — in this case, Trump.
The president is actually flying around the West at the moment and has been in Nevada which has a Saturday presidential caucus. Trump is expected to easily win the GOP national delegates for Nevada — the interest coming in the Democratic presidential race there.
There has been no announcement that Trump will visit Utah — he will be on the state’s Super Tuesday (March 3) presidential primary ballot, as are other presidential candidates, as well.
