Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said Sunday that “it just makes me ill” to see people inside of the Republican Party praise Russian President Vladimir Putin as he wages war against Ukraine. Romney even went as far as to describe it as “almost treasonous” to side with Putin.
Romney, a Republican from Utah, made the comments during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Saturday after moderator Dana Bash asked about Romney’s 2012 comments warning that Russia was a “geopolitical foe.”
“China’s the greatest threat to us long term, economically, militarily,” Romney said on Sunday.”And Russia, in a lot of respects, is circling the drain, given its shrinking population, its weak economy. John McCain used to joke that Russia is a gas station parading as a nation.”
Asked by Bash if sanctions were the right move against Putin, and what additionally could be done, Romney, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Washington should “keep cranking that up.”
“As (Senate Minority Leader) Mitch McConnell said, you can’t get the sanctions too high. At the same time, recognize that for the sanctions to be most effective, you want them to be shared with our allies around the world. We want to all be together on this..”
“So, we can only go as fast as everybody wants to move together. So that’s critical. But those sanctions will have an impact,” he said. “Let’s keep on cranking up the sanctions against what is an evil regime.”
More specifically, Romney also noted that while he and other GOP lawmakers have called for more sanctions against Russia and President Putin, he denounced those GOP members who showered Putin with praise.
He did not name any individuals, but the Utah senator is a prominent critic of former President Donald Trump, who has praised Putin’s Ukraine strategy as “genius” and repeatedly showered the autocratic Russian with praise throughout his presidency.
Business Insider reports that Romney recalled another time Senator McCain talked about Putin during his 2007 campaign for president. “McCain said he saw “three letters: a K, a G, and a B” in Putin,” referring to the former Soviet Union’s security and intelligence agency, said Romney.
