Sen. Collins says she was ‘appalled’ by GOP delegates booing Romney

By Mark Moore
New York Post

Sen. Susan Collins was among many people “appalled” by Mitt Romney being booed recently.  AP

Sen. Susan Collins said she was “appalled” by a crowd of Republican delegates at a convention in Utah booing Sen. Mitt Romney, warning that the GOP should be more accepting of opposing viewpoints — or it will become like the Democratic Party.

“I was appalled, Mitt Romney is an outstanding senator who serves his state and our country well,” Collins (R-Maine) said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

She also defended Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) who has come under attack by some Republicans after she voted to impeach former President Donald Trump over the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol.

“Liz Cheney is a woman of strength and conscience, and she did what she felt was right, and I salute her for that. We need to be accepting of differences in our party,” Collins said.

“We don’t want to become like too much of the Democratic Party, which has been taken over by the progressive left. We need to have rooms for a variety of views,” Collins continued.

She said the Republican Party’s foundational beliefs in personal responsibility, individual freedom, free markets and a strong national defense are the glue that holds the GOP together.

“Those are the principles that unite us. We are not a party that is led by just one person,” Collins said.

“There are many prominent upcoming younger men and women in our party who hold great promise for leading us. And I think that all of us who abide by those principles should remember [former President] Ronald Reagan’s admonition to Republicans that a person who agrees with you 70 or 80 percent of the time is your friend, not your enemy,” she added.

Romney, the Republican nominee for president in 2012, on Saturday night was booed and called a “traitor” and a “communist” as he addressed the party’s 2021 state convention in Utah, because of voting twice to impeach Trump.

“Aren’t you embarrassed?” Romney responded to the heckling when he took the stage.

“I’m a man who says what he means, and you know I was not a fan of our last president’s character issues,” said Romney.

He was the sole Republican senator to vote to convict Trump in his first impeachment and one of seven GOP senators who voted to convict him following the Capitol riot.

“You can boo all you like,” Romney, 74, said. “I’ve been a Republican all of my life. My dad was the governor of Michigan and I was the Republican nominee for president in 2012.”

A vote to censure Romney on the two impeachment votes fell 798 to 711.

___
https://nypost.com/2021/05/02/sen-collins-was-appalled-by-gop-delegates-booing-romney/