Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is claiming Republicans senators privately concede President Donald Trump lies and only acquitted him out fear.
Brown’s op-ed in The New York Times comes just a day after Trump was acquitted by the Senate on both articles of impeachment on nearly party-line votes.
“In private, many of my colleagues agree that the president is reckless and unfit,” Brown wrote. “They admit his lies. And they acknowledge what he did was wrong.”
Brown added that “fear has no rival” when it comes to the instincts that motivate people, and described Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as seeking “a quick impeachment trial for President Trump with as little attention to it as possible.”
Not a single Republican senator defected from the party to vote on Article II of impeachment, which was obstruction of justice. But Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) did vote to convict Trump on abuse of power, which has quickly drawn the ire of Trump and his allies.
Mitt should be expelled from the @SenateGOP conference. #expelMitt https://t.co/reP14ZKvcB
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 5, 2020
Brown didn’t just make the claims in his op-ed, either. He also made similar remarks on the Senate floor before the impeachment trial came to an end.
Sherrod Brown on the Senate floor just now: "Privately (Republicans) tell me: 'Yes, we are concerned about what the president's going to do if he's exonerated.'"
— Grace Segers (@Grace_Segers) February 5, 2020
“They are afraid that Mr. Trump might give them a nickname like ‘Low Energy Jeb’ and ‘Lyin’ Ted,’ or that he might tweet about their disloyalty,” Brown wrote. “Or — worst of all — that he might come to their state to campaign against them in the Republican primary.”
If Romney is any indication, those fears may be well-founded. Since he cast a vote to convict Trump, the president has relentlessly gone after him. On Thursday morning he released an attack ad and shortly after tweeted about Romney.
Had failed presidential candidate @MittRomney devoted the same energy and anger to defeating a faltering Barack Obama as he sanctimoniously does to me, he could have won the election. Read the Transcripts!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 6, 2020
Brown finished his op-ed by saying that Republicans won’t admit they are acting out of fear, but will nonetheless be judged accordingly.
“They stop short of explicitly saying that they are afraid,” Brown wrote. “We all want to think that we always stand up for right and fight against wrong. But history does not look kindly on politicians who cannot fathom a fate worse than losing an upcoming election.”